MOVIE REVIEW: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

For the impressionable young woman and clearly smitten guy, played by Freaky’s outstanding Kathryn Newton and future West Side Story cast member Kyle Allen, all hope is far from lost after this first unified encounter. They get to do this all over again. Playing in the self-aware Groundhog Day and Palm Springs pond, their Mark and Margaret are stuck in a temporal loop, repeating the same sunny Alabama spring day that ends with the hints of a cleansing thunderstorm at midnight that never comes before the alarm clock awakens the restarted day.

2021, 4 STARS, Home Media, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanFebruary 12, 2021The Map of Tiny Perfect ThingsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Judas and the Black Messiah

Director Shaka King and his co-writer Will Berson, both prior specialists of television, have penned and lensed an appropriately audacious feature film debut that deserves reverence and reaction. Through it all, there is tangible grizzled inspirational force to watching the agitators humanize and refine their plight. To hell with any “product of its era talk” because this is a crusade that many will cite as ongoing today with much of the same potency. Taking much deserved latitude, Judas and the Black Messiah does not beat around a single bush with where the antagonistic blame belongs.

2021, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanFebruary 12, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Mauritanian

The Mauritanian presents a compelling case in the opposite direction to all those oorah roars. Shedding cinematic light on a staunch case of injustice tangential to those fateful 2001 events, this film has the unenviable task of proving its story’s importance in spite of the egregious systemic flaws it chronicles and exposes. You don’t have to go as far back as slavery or colonization in national history to know how most triumphantly-inflated Americans don’t want their noses rubbed in their heinous mistakes. The treatment of Mohamedou Ould Salahi is one of them.

2021, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanFebruary 10, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Malcolm & Marie

Malcolm & Marie is nothing short of emotional pugilism. Not a hair is harmed on any head, mind you, yet hearts, feelings, and psyches are pummelled and destroyed over the tumultuous course of its 106 hard minutes on Netflix. It is a wringer of an experience that remarkably takes its loud and large volume of delicately vicious battery and orchestrates mesmerizing renewal that is downright captivating.

2020, 2021, 5 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanFebruary 5, 2021Malcolm & MarieComment

GUEST CRITIC #57: One Night in Miami

by Lafronda Stumn

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social Media, Foreign Film, 2021Don ShanahanFebruary 5, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Supernova

Harry Macqueen’s sophomore feature film takes its name from the celestial phenomenon of “the explosion of a star in which the star may reach a maximum intrinsic luminosity one billion times that of the sun.” We even watch the far off flicker of one occurring pre-credits. “Maximum intrinsic luminosity” meaning peak essential brightness, eh? Yes, that can aptly describe the very earthly power of Supernova’s loving relationship and the brimming personalities united in that bond.

2020, 2021, 4 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanFebruary 4, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Palmer

A different movie would emphasize a caddish villain and layer the drama on far too thick for some kind of extra emphasis meant to help a big star try and prove they can shun glamour and act next to a heavy. Justin Timberlake accounts himself with precisely the admirable effort matching his character. Dark places bring out a true strength in the actor instead of a bad-boy edge. Such credibility and candor build honesty rather than showy magic.

2021, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanFebruary 2, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Little Things

The very accomplished Denzel Washington is and has been many superlative things throughout his illustrious career. His signature intensity and ardent commitment to character have filled trophy cases and made him a magnetic draw across five decades now. One thing you could never call him was boring. Sure, the same can’t be said about all of his movies, but he was never (and I mean never) part of the dullness. Well, after nearly 50 films, there’s a first time for everything and John Lee Hancock’s The Little Things, debuting on HBO Max, is the culprit.

2 STARS, 2021, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanJanuary 29, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Dig

It’s rare, as rare as the ancient treasure trove shown in the movie at hand, but sometimes you encounter a “based on a true story” movie that may have been more compelling and richly told as a documentary than a theatrical drama. The Netflix new release, The Dig, is one of those. Why? Call it subject matter versus character and the pendulum of revealed truths against manufactured melodrama. Sometimes, the dramatic licence amplifies the impact of the embedded facts, but in other instances the injected theatrics water down the truism. While bolstered by a fine cast, Simon Stone’s The Dig is too much of the latter.

2021, 2 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanJanuary 28, 2021Comment

SHORT FILM REVIEW: The Shout Out

Shout-outs are cute tributes that are morsel-sized by design, which is what makes the short film medium an ideal spot to play with them as a storytelling engine. Husband and wife filmmakers Charlotte Barrett and Sean Fallon (A Bad Feeling/The Phantom Menace) use The Shout Out to spin the impact, boundaries of length, and that desired purpose of positivity that comes with those quick tributes.

2020, 2021, 3 STARS, Independent Film, SHORT FILMS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJanuary 24, 2021Comment

GUEST CRITIC #56: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

by Lafronda Stumn

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social Media, Foreign Film, 2021Don ShanahanJanuary 21, 2021Comment

GUEST CRITIC #55: Mank

by Lafronda Stumn

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social Media, Foreign Film, 2021Don ShanahanJanuary 21, 2021Comment