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, 2021Don ShanahanJune 7, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: A Quiet Place Part II

The counterpoint would be to ask why ruin what stands as a distinctive strength. While A Quiet Place Part II ventures outside of its original single setting into the open world of its neighboring countryside, any omniscient truth is still rightfully guarded and methodically uncloaked at its own speed. Simply put, to know any more than our invested characters in harm’s way would take away the whole fascinating mystique that draws us with its purposeful and rapt silence.

2021, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMay 31, 2021Comment

GUEST CRITIC #65: Judas and the Black Messiah

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 ShanahanMay 29, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Cruella

Cruella tosses that “psycho” term and label around flippantly, even with its successful motivation to be interesting and darker than the usual live-action works from the Mouse House. It offers a villainess to believe in, but what does that say to audiences? Swinging for sympathy towards the amoral could have amounted to the same mistake as Maleficent seven years ago. Luckily, the conniptions and confrontations of “Emma vs. Emma” are damn fun. There’s a welcome place to relish in their wickedness.

2021, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMay 27, 2021Cruella, Emma Thompson, Emma StoneComment

MOVIE REVIEW: In the Heights

As if there was any doubt, it doesn’t take any wider eyes than those capturing the plebian pageantry on display to recognize the meaningful platforms symbolized by In the Heights. Characters that assert their dignity in small ways amplify messages with larger substance. The settings and themes of Chu’s film are made all the more important and prescient by our country’s current socio-political times. A 14-year-old musical has not lost an ounce of power in telling the world of an undoubtedly eminent cross-section of American culture that is here and not invisible any longer.

2021, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, 5 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMay 21, 2021AMC River EastIn the HeightsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Water Man

That’s a sample of the welcome, sympathetic depth of The Water Man. So few fantasy films nowadays handle difficult questions like that one. Escapism for this demographic sells, no doubt, but internal odysseys will always have their place and merit. The Water Man, while destroying far fewer warehouses of Kleenex to reach its pinnacle, joins A Monster Calls and I Kill Giants as a trilogy of valuable discourses for bridging teens and adults together to engage with current and impending despair they may feel in their lives.

2021, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, 4 STARSDon ShanahanMay 8, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Here Today

Within the movie, the themes all surround help that comes from lifted spirits found in many walks of life, both personal and professional. On the performance side, the material is solid enough to matter more than mere bits, yet light enough to spread its wealth of charm. No one is scene-stealing because no one has to, and that’s quite a tall order with the presence of Tiffany Haddish sharing the billing. Everyone is making the same music, so to speak, with Billy conducting every measure.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Outside Story

The sliding scale severity of the answers to those questions creates the embarrassing memory and the “have I got a story for you” yarn we tell your friends and family later of the past predicament. This simple premise can have any number of interesting connective circumstances, from nightmarish to adventurous. With a sunny glow of lifted spirits and healed flaws, the batch of life’s little inconveniences dealt to Brian Tyree Henry’s Charles Young enchant a bevy of wry smiles in The Outside Story.

2021, 3 STARS, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMay 1, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Without Remorse

That gamer friend of yours won’t be wrong. They will be steering you in the right direction with the arrival of the red-blooded Michael B. Jordan’s John Kelly, the man who would become the notorious John Clark. Frankly, we’ve had enough nerds, professors, and analysts, even if Jack Ryan was a former Marine. Talk first and postulate a strategy? Hell no. Without Remorse calls in the asskicker with more shades of gray than all the paint samples at The Home Depot.

2021, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanApril 30, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Mitchells vs. The Machines

At first glance, be it the poster of car-riding mayhem or a closer look at the textured exaggerations of the animation style amid the slick futuristic adversaries, a title like The Mitchells vs. The Machines from Netflix likely evokes shades of Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World stirred with a scoop of Clark Griswold-like shenanigans. That’s a fair read, yet there’s, of course, more to it than that. Believe it or not, there’s some finger-wagging and heart-affirming family truthfulness within the zany scribbles.

2021, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanApril 27, 2021Comment

GUEST CRITIC #64: Miss Juneteenth

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 ShanahanApril 24, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Mortal Kombat

2021’s new Mortal Kombat, debuting simultaneously in reemerging theaters and on HBO Max April 23rd, is a catechism of created clout. It passes tonal tests and achieves feats of action strength to renew and amplify the original zest powered by that inescapable theme song that evaporated from a bad sequel nearly 25 years ago. Bolstered by a commitment to build a mythology beyond the button-smashing combos, Mortal Kombat should ensnare new and old fans alike.

2021, 4 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanApril 23, 2021Mortal KombatComment