Saturday Night Inside Out follows a 26-year-old Chicagoan as he navigates an emotionally arduous 24-hour span that may or may not become a turning point for the next five or ten years of his life. Step back from that one-sentence summary and ask yourself what kind of events, especially for an individual at that age, could possibly construct a defining moment on that level. If you’re thinking about friends, family, career and a love life, you would be right because all four of those–and then some– come into play in Saturday Night Inside Out.

2023, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 4, 2023Saturday Night Inside Out, Connor McBride, Zach PapalasComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Fair Play

True to the sharp storytelling adage of “show, don’t tell,” Fair Play from writer-director Chloe Domont heightens its drama with these featured stares because you imagine the thoughts or predicted words before they are performed. Oftentimes, a viewer’s imagination can get riled up even worse than what is shown on-screen. The wallop of that effect is the characters will get their releases, retorts, and replies, but the audience members– short of shouting at the screen or clutching their armchair partner– do not. With sly effectiveness in hanging on every stare between the words, that’s how a movie like Fair Play gets you.

2023, 4 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanOctober 3, 2023Fair Play, Phoebe Dynevor, Alden Ehrenreich, Chloe Domont, NetflixComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Creator

With The Creator, Gareth Edwards becomes one of those peerless fuels. His film may have informal traits from other sci-fi places that folks will criticize, but it has an emphatic beating heart all its own that cannot be contained and is wondrous to behold. Combining the genre’s penchant for implausible creativity and a powerful emphasis on existential connection, The Creator explores and reaches a special place within science fiction films.

2023, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 29, 2023The Creator, John David Washington, Gareth Edwards, Science FictionComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Dumb Money

With a title like Dumb Money, which references a Wall Street slang term for a group of individual and non-institutional investors and their money, one has to ask if “insane” is talking about a dollar amount or a measurement of wisdom or choices. Well, you’re going to need that shiny quarter to flip. A thoroughly entertained viewer will be finger-pointing insanity occurring, in some shape or form, at nearly every turn of this off-the-cuff, firebrand movie.

2023, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 25, 2023Dumb Money, Craig Gillespie, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Shailene Woodley, Pete Davidson, Nick Offerman, Anthony RamosComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Outlaw Johnny Black

Outlaw Johnny Black is a unique genre experiment that knows damn well what cookie cutter it’s using. Led by star Michael Jai White stepping into the director’s chair, these are the people that made the hilarious blaxploitation cult classic Black Dynamite 14 years ago. Yes! Go ahead and drop a Jules Winfield reply to that news. With a clenched fist and a tongue in its cheek, White and company are here to emulate and embellish the best and worst qualities of westerns by making a cool one of their own.

2023, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanSeptember 20, 2023Outlaw Johnny Black, Michael Jai WhiteComment

MOVIE REVIEW: A Million Miles Away

On this remarkable journey, the core always remained on the people more than the spectacle. Call this kind of movie sweet, simple, and old-fashioned, but there’s a dearth of entertaining movies like A Million Miles Away fit for families and classrooms. There’s not a second where this film’s heart is not in the right place, and this school teacher will take these submissions every chance he gets.

MOVIE REVIEW: A Haunting in Venice

Any murder, at its garden variety face value, should be frightening enough, but A Haunting in Venice twists the knife further. Narrative and cinematic infusions of supernatural elements and implications not found in Hallowe’en Party are the film’s largest dramatic improvement from the source text. They turn what would merely be posh and intriguing in an ordeal far scarier in design and risk. Starting with that munched bird cold open and developing later with hallucinations of ghostly imagery, there is an unmistakable level of extra bite and edge.

3 STARS, 2023, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 12, 2023A Haunting in Venice, Kenneth BranaghComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Dreamin' Wild

Dreamin’ Wild comports itself unlike many other musical biopics. This one is not trying to strap a rocket to the back of its subjects and launch them to superstar heavens in front of massive crowds shining a barrage of spotlights and flashbulbs. That’s not the Emersons’ story whatsoever. As hinted at before, these songs, characterized, again, as a “dream-like symphony to teenhood,” came from an emotional place beyond what was captured on vinyl. Fragile care was needed.

2023, 2022, 4 STARS, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 2, 2023Dreamin' Wild, Casey Affleck, Noah Jupe, Walton GogginsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Pod Generation

Instead of tail-spinning into potential wickedness and thornier debates, The Pod Generation remains focused on the fluid drama held by its two extremely solid actors. In lesser talented hands, the idea of watching a pair of performers like Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor trying to lug around a strapped prop, emote parental feelings to a big egg-shaped device, or explain themselves to narrating AI would be ludicrous and even laughable. Instead, these two are up to the task.

2023, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 17, 2023Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Shortcomings

Many romantic comedies skew heavily to presenting the female perspective. Most of those movies are built to follow a woman’s plight to get away from the wrong partner and find the right one. We side with her, cheer on her actions, and sneer at the suitors. In a unique way, Shortcomings is different. This one stays on the bad partner and, for that, it has a little extra engrossment going for it.

2023, 3 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 9, 2023Randall Park, Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki, ShortcomingsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Suzie Searches

One of the best tricks a caper movie can pull is getting its viewers to root for the criminal. Typically, we’re pining for the righteous downfall, not a lucky escape, from the long arm of the law. Thanks to a very clever and uncommon twist that drops early on, Susie Searches has you, for a good while anyway, shaking your pom-poms and crossing your fingers for the guilty party. Riding that scandalous plot wave makes for an entertaining yarn of dark comedy.

2023, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Independent FilmDon ShanahanJuly 27, 2023Suzie Searches, Kiersey ClemonsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Oppenheimer

Even with all of its impressive pomp and noise, nothing dramatically radioactive is going to ping your internal Geiger counter higher than a nominal level. And that, like Dunkirk and Tenet before this, is another missed opportunity from one of the best filmmakers in the industry. There’s a pair of lines offered to our main character in Oppenheimer that mirror some of the pushback analysis to Nolan’s good standing. They read, “Don’t alienate the only people in the world who understand what you do. You may need them.” The Brit has his hardcore devotees, but he might be losing more of the rest with each exhausting effort.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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