MOVIE REVIEW: Surge

The answers to those measured questions are what makes Surge starring the award-winning Ben Whishaw so alarming and downright terrifying. Set over the course of just under two days in London and shot guerilla-style with handheld cameras that weave through the crowds and shifting locations, Surge careens through one man’s unpredictable downward spiral and the isolated damage it causes. These kinds of movies are certainly not for everyone, but this one is a fascinating test of stamina and understanding.

2021, 4 STARS, Film Festival, Home Media, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanSeptember 24, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Dear Evan Hansen

With full support and participation of the original book author and playwright Steven Levenson, Dear Evan Hansen is Stephen Chbosky’s movie and I, for one, refuse to argue with that. Could the film version have been a star-making chance to pass the proverbial torch to another, younger performer? Sure, but when the original is so good and capable, why take away that opportunity? What did you want Chbosky to do? Digitally de-age Ben Platt digitally like Martin Scorsese? Come on.

2021, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 23, 2021Dear Evan HansenComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Eyes of Tammy Faye

WebMD will tell you that selective listening involves “consciously or unconsciously choosing to listen to what is relevant to you and ignore what isn’t.” Marinate on that for a moment, especially the second part, and then apply that notion to the talking heads and one-track minds of the spiritually devout you see leading cameras and congregations of people with loose wallets and even looser gullibility. That’s the misplaced morality at the center of Michael Showalters’ The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

2021, 3 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 19, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Even if the advice is only spoken for a moment amid flurries of exposition and martial arts melee, neither versions of those breaths feel wasted in this new Marvel Studios entry. And does this movie ever breathe! In this sensational origin story, we gulp and we gasp with every kinetic huff and puff of our heroes and villains embroiled in turmoil and combat. I, for one, dig that simplistic focus on the voluntary and involuntary ways Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings draws in its oxygenated energy.

2021, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 2, 2021AMC River EastShang-ChiComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Candyman

Call this a crude cinematic question as well as a question of evolved sensibilities, but how do you make shiny things and places scary? Horror stories typically thrive on the dirty, dingy, and grotesque as instinctual triggers. It’s harder to get that same effect in a setting of clean poshness. The long-distance sequel Candyman has an answer to that and it parallels putting truth to the societal cleansing castigated by the movie itself.

2021, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 26, 2021CandymanComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Free Guy

Once again, what’s winsome and bodacious in Free Guy begins with Ryan Reynolds. From Van Wilder and Deadpool and everything hit-and-miss in-between, he combines naivety, enthusiasm, and dorkiness to a vitality level that is nearly second to none among his comedian peers. Ryan’s verbal gift-of-gab has long been legendary, and his go-for-broke physical comedy skills on top of that mouth are the true, full commitment to the bit.

2021, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 13, 2021AMC River EastComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Nine Days

The possible branched and multiplied interpretations, unanchored to any specific religion or philosophy, are innumerable. So few films hit true existentialism this strongly. Nine Days is an intellectual treasure that moves your heart and mind greater than some many other things you can watch and absorb from a couch or theater seat. With brevity and profundity wholly rooted in the preciousness of life, Nine Days leaves its mark as one of the best films of 2021. Discover this unique and crushingly beautiful gem immediately.

2021, 5 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanAugust 8, 2021Nine DaysComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Suicide Squad

Who’s going to make it or not? Who or what else is going to show up? What actors will make the most of their arbitrary characters? What improves from the grossly reviled 2016 movie? Most of all, as the action piles on, keep losing chips on trying to guess WTF is going to happen next. The pitch is clear. Come to The Suicide Squad and place your bets for the roller coaster experience that awaits. All of that warped glee equals the energy brought forth by James Gunn’s resuscitated and hyper-juiced sequel.

2021, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 4, 2021The Suicide SquadComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Green Knight

The Green Knight states all good myths are brave and bold. At some point, that profundity has to go beyond aesthetics. The screen titles also announce that what is presented is not that kind of legend. Yeah, and that’s the problem when considering the source material built with magical bedrock. Never has chivalric romance and so-called adventure been treated so pensively.

2021, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 29, 2021The Green Knight, A24 Films, A24, David LoweryComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Jungle Cruise

Look, Jungle Cruise knows exactly what it is, much like the brand of comedy coming from Dwayne’s skipper that’s called out by Blunt’s pragmatic presence. The jokes are corny, the hijinks aim for hilarity, and the spectacle is large. Like its theme park inspiration and Pirates of the Caribbean walking so this movie could run, Jungle Cruise is meant to be a ride that puts a smile on your face, and it sure is a zippy one. That’s right where it’s supposed to be.

2021, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanJuly 27, 2021Jungle CruiseComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Old

This is Shyamalan’s second ever adaptation, following the disastrous The Last Airbender, and he has smeared another one. The predicament of the setting and the possibility of unseen puppeteer strings are given more mysterious investment than the people at the core. That has very limited appeal. At some point, someone, more than something, has to matter.

2 STARS, 2021, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 23, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Joe Bell

Much of Joe Bell has the pungent trace of an unglamourous “glamour project” for Mark Wahlberg and likely a few of the film’s manly executive producer backers including Jake Gyllenhaal, NFL Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks, and former NBA All-Star Michael Finley to name a few. Projecting for sure, this movie feels like a place where the A-lister is trying to put forth marketed atonement for his own past bigotry. When all of this movie adds up to be about him, the genuineness aligns to the wrong place.