MOVIE REVIEW: Mr. Turner

As beautifully presented as Mike Leigh's "Mr. Turner" is at telling the story of English Romanticist painter J.M.W. Turner, too much of it is uninteresting, familiar in tone, and predictably in execution. What normally can save a film about an artist is the subject's life beyond his or her work. An interesting person can make up for the uninteresting content. Though led by a invested performance from character actor Timothy Spall, "Mr. Turner" can't muster enough of that to separate itself as something special.

EDITORIAL: New Year's Resolutions for the Movie Industry in 2015

As I say every year, plenty of regular everyday people make New Year's Resolutions, but I think bigger entities, namely movie makers and movie moguls, need to make them too. Over the life of this website, this is my absolute favorite editorial to write every year. I have fun taking the movie industry to task for things they need to change.

Don ShanahanJanuary 6, 2015Comment

COLUMN: The 10 Best Films of 2014

Getting into the numbers, I reviewed twenty four-star films and twelve five-star gems. That means my final "10 Best" list are all champs with two that had to be bumped to lead the next ten. From there, my four-star reviews were ranked from 12-20 and then honorable mention. In keeping with the hook of my website, each of my "10 Best" are presented with their best life lesson and linked full reviews. Enjoy!

MOVIE REVIEW: Selma

"Selma," whose name echoes the history being told, is one of those films that gets history right, honors it, entertains you without sacrificing the real thing, and moves you to no end. Anchored by an amazing lead performance from David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Selma" has the ability to break and shatter the hardest of souls, thicken your pulse, and devour your tissue box. The experience is entirely worth all of that trouble. Best of all, it earn that emotion from you. Dare I say, "Selma" might be even better than last year's Best Picture winner "12 Years a Slave." That's the level of impact we're talking about.

COLUMN: 2015 Winter Movie Preview

It has to be said every year, but the slowest season of the box office year are the months of January and February. It's a dumping grounds for studios in slow months of cold weather and foot traffic at the multiplexes. These are movies that aren't good enough for awards qualification and the holiday audiences of December or for the chipper personality of spring. It's cold, slow, and drop off from awards frenzy.

EDITORIAL: My 15 most anticipated films of 2015

During the shift from December to January, I enjoy retracing what I reviewed and enjoyed from the previous year, but the trailers and previews for next year's films are starting to make an impact. I can't help but look ahead. Every year, I wrote an "Most Anticipated List." 2015 looks wildly loaded with must-see films. Let's make a new list for a new year. Here are my 15 most anticipated films of this new year. Enjoy!

COLUMN: My Worst Films of 2014

Here are three lists of the worst movies of the 2014, as ranked by Every Movie Has a Lesson and fans of the website. Enjoy and Happy New Year! Let's turn the page to a new year.

CHECKLIST: 2015 Winter Movie Calendar

Here is your lineup of films coming your way in the slow months of January and February. Add these to your calendar or print and slip this list on the fridge. As always, release dates shift all of the time, so be aware. Enjoy!

MOVIE REVIEW: Unbroken

The scope of this year's slate of biographical films culminates with "Unbroken," the story of Olympian and World War II veteran Louis "Louie" Zamperini. Of all of this year's biopics, this is the one with the highest profile that you've been hearing about for the better part of two years. This is the one getting the widest release, right here on Christmas Day. This is the one with the most continuous Oscar hope since the end of last year's Academy Awards. Even on this very website, in an editorial of long-range Oscar picks for 2015, on the day after the 2014 Oscars, I handicapped and predicted "Unbroken" as the most likely eventual Best Picture frontrunner. Was all of the hype and all of the anticipation rewarded? Would it rank a success or a failure as a biographical film?

MOVIE REVIEW: The Theory of Everything

"The Theory of Everything" elected for the safe side of risk as a biographical film. Adapted from "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen," the memoirs of Jane Wilde Hawking, the first wife of renowned theoretical physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking, by New Zealand playwright Anthony McCarten, the film is the second feature effort from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker James Marsh ("Man on Wire"). To its credit, "The Theory of Everything" takes decidedly different route than one would expect from a documentarian telling the life story of a world-famous scientist.

MOVIE REVIEW: Still Alice

If you haven't heard of "Still Alice," I advise you to trust this spoiler-free review and skip the trailer entirely. It's a beautiful preview, but it skews context, tips its hand, and gives away far too much. Based on the 2007 novel of the same name by neuroscientist and writer Lisa Genova, "Still Alice" was first adapted as a stage play at the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago in 2013. The directing and writing team of Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland crafted it into a feature film. "Still Alice" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and has increased facial tissue sales ever since with a full release still to come. Learn the gist from here and let the film unfold before you.

MOVIE REVIEW: Two Days, One Night

With Cotillard commanding the screen and using none of her looks and star power, the Dardennes have created an intentionally minimalistic film that packs a punch without the need for gaudy theatrics. If this was a Hollywood film, this storyline of encounters would be backed by over-acted reactions, flashy star cameos, unrealistic results, a ticking clock like a "24" episode, and a heaping pile "Norma Rae"-level workplace politics and finger-pointing backed by some sweeping musical score that crescendos to a predictable and manufactured happy ending. A Hollywood film would beat those themes of confidence, sympathy, and pity to death with syrup and imposed drama. What started as realistic and approachable would be rendered melodramatic and fake. Because of the focused simplicity and plainness of this story and the artistic intent of the Dardenne brothers, none of those mistakes of over-indulgence occur.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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