Granted, messy people and their messy lives make for messy stories, especially here in the medium of narrative film. Not everyone can hold their noses to other peoples’ messes on display. Their pity or empathy levels have limits. Tolerance comes from the talent and the trueness coming together for the given story. Filmmaker Drake Doremus presents another striking, bare, and brave movie in the form of Endings, Beginnings. If you have the capacity to wallow along, you will be impressed. Plenty won’t and that’s too bad.

2020, 2019, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, Independent Film, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanApril 16, 2020Comment

COLUMN: Top Engaging Netflix Movies and Educational Shows for Students

Netflix movies are now an important past-time activity for people who are now on a stay-at-home quarantine amidst the global pandemic. Most residents around the world are now enjoying the luxury of using online media as a way to entertain and help student write their dissertations at services like Custom Essay Order. Netflix is now taking advantage of offering movies for all residents who want to maximize the comfort of their homes. One interesting part of staying at home is to watch your favorite movie via Netflix to include when writing their dissertation. Here are some top engaging Netflix movies and educational shows for students at home.

2020, Column, Editorial, Home Media, Social Media, SPECIAL, StreamingDon ShanahanApril 14, 2020 Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Trolls World Tour

Adding more weight from the original movie’s message of finding internal happiness and not changing for others wouldn’t take much. With equal simplicity and symbolism, the felt of this dreamy universe for the sequel Trolls World Tour is upped to include heavy quilts, denim, leather, satin, velour, vinyl, and more. The multiplication of said textiles matches an appreciated boost in weightier themes. What is ready and primed to delight can also move body parts other than your hips and toes.

2020, 4 STARS, Animated Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on Demand, StreamingDon ShanahanApril 11, 2020Trolls World TourComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Love Wedding Repeat

I am starting to become convinced that there will never be a movie wedding that goes off without a hitch, as they say. It’s cinematically impossible not to have something, anything, or everything go wrong. But, that’s the fun of all those movies, including the new Netflix film Love Wedding Repeat. There is always comedy to be had when a springboard event of enduring love can survive in every cringe, surprise, fumble, flub, and fail executed by the doting newlyweds on down to the drunk ne'er-do-wells.

COLUMN: Amazon Prime UK: The Best Upcoming Movies & Shows To Watch

There’s no better time for you to binge movies than the summer of 2020. With many people stuck at home due to the recent lockdowns and self-quarantine methods because of the COVID-19 pandemic, movies are what will save us from being bored out of our minds, which is probably why there’s been an increased interest in streaming as of late. Because of this, I find now the perfect time to go over the best upcoming movies this summer coming to Amazon Prime.

MOVIE REVIEW: Coffee & Kareem

Those posters clearly catch the eye, but once Coffee & Kareem attempts to evoke the promotional notion that it is worthy of standing next to classic giants like those three films as a homage or even as an lesser riff, it’s asking to bomb. When you fail, even intentionally, you become one more shitty cop movie from a generation ago. Does someone get an award somewhere from some lofty agency of aficionados when you make a shitty cop movie precisely as shitty as the old shitty cop movies this shitty cop movie emulates and remembers? Is that a Razzie or something else?

REWIND REVIEW: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Big as a billboard in some places and as small as a mobile ad in others, the marketing imagery of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker touts the tagline “The Saga Will End.” There’s something to be said for finality, especially with a 42-year-old franchise as venerated and cherished as this one. The virtues of remembrance, culmination, gratification, and other such lofty notions loom so much larger when an entity is billed to be the last of something important. The movie in disc form hits store shelves everywhere today.

2019, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on Demand, VIDEO REVIEW, DISC REVIEW, 2 STARS, 2020, 3 STARS, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 31, 2020Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Vivarium

Vivarium earns very positive credit for its premise and aim. Bending relationship dynamics of survival and gender roles around the middle class dreams of homeownership and building a family is, no question, both absorbing and ambitious. The social commentary is as frank as it is smartly bleak. The graying realities are well-masked by the colorful production dwellings. Their dreamscape trap of the Yonder development is rightly simplistic yet imposing.

2019, 2020, 2 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanMarch 28, 2020Comment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Guest on the "You'll Probably Agree" podcast talking feel-good movies in the time quarantine

During this COVID-19 quarantine, a portion of our easy-going lifestyle of going to communal theaters to catch a big screen spectacle has been dealt a body blow. For many, this isolation is not a very fun time. Turning to our favorite movies at home or discovering some motivating and engaging new ones can be great medicine for happiness against the cabin fever blues. I joined Mike Crowley’s You’ll Probably Agree podcast this week to talk comforting cinema in a group conversation with Ian Simmons of Kicking the Seat and the esteemed Pat McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com. Give Mike’s YouTube channel a new subscriber, his Facebook page a like, and his Twitter a follow!

Social Media, SPECIAL, Podcast, Media Appearance, 2020, Home Media, Independent Film, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 28, 2020Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Stargirl

When you take a gander at Grace VanderWaal’s title character in Stargirl, you probably don’t think “unassuming.” The loud outfit seems goudy. The ukulele on her back reeks of ostentatiousness. And, by golly, that rat on her shoulder screams straight-up weird. Miraculously and sweetly, director Julia Hart makes all of this boldness as unassuming as possible, free of arrogance or pretension. The modesty of Jerry Spinelli’s hit source novel is intact and invigorating on this Disney+ original.

MOVIE REVIEW: Troop Zero

To rightly thumb its nose at the historically warped expectations of young ladies, Troop Zero may not be high-minded cinema. What it is, however, is high-hearted entertainment. That calls for trite covered in treat. Put this movie in front of any girl, hell, any kid period, that’s been demeaned about their differences or forced to conform to supposed societal standards. Let them watch this movie, smile, and stitch their own sash or freak flag to be proud of.

2020, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, Independent Film, StreamingDon ShanahanJanuary 22, 2020Comment

GUEST COLUMN: Warm Comedies for a Winter Evening

by Justin Osborne

When the temperatures start going down outside, the only fun thing left to do is snuggling up on your couch with some of the best winter comedies. It will be extremely cold out there. But so long as you have a blanket, snacks, candles and some holiday comedies, you’ll not only feel warm but also laugh all night long. There will always be something for everyone here. It doesn’t matter whether you are alone, with your family or your better half. You’ll have a variety of options to choose from to ensure you don’t leave your house until things get better outside. When it’s too cold to go outside, here are some of the best winter movies for you. Keep reading!