COLUMN: Who should win/will win the 2016 Golden Globes?

More and more each year, the Golden Globes have become more an a popularity contest than a true precursor to the Academy Awards. What you're watching on TV is a party thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and hosted by Ricky Gervais in an effort to be loved and share some love. To its credit, the awards show still garners legitimate attention and ratings. The winners do get a pretty positive rub and the marketers gain a few more "Winner of..." graphics to put in the newspapers next to their films.

2015, 2016, Editorial, Column, SPECIALDon ShanahanJanuary 8, 2016Best Original Score, Carter Burwell, Carol, Daniel Pemberton, Steve Jobs, Alexandre Desplat, The Danish Girl, Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto, The Revenant, John Williams, Johann Johannsson, Creed, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Fifty Shades of Grey, Furious 7, Elle Goulding, Wiz Khalifa, Brian Wilson, Love and Mercy, Writing's on the Wall, Sam Smith, Spectre, Simple Song #3, Sumi Jo, Youth, Mustang, Son of Saul, The Brand New Testament, The Club, The Fencer, Timbuktu, The Assassin, Best Foreign Language Film, Amour, The Artist, Best Animated Feature, Inside Out, Shaun the Sheep, Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Good Dinosaur, The Peanuts Movie, Anomalisa, Charlie Kaufman, Disney/Pixar, Emma Donoghue, Room, Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer, Spotlight, Aaron Sorkin, Adam McKay, Charlie Randolph, The Big Short, Quentin Tarantino, Brooklyn, Michael Shannon, 99 Homes, Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation, Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Dano, Mark Ruffalo, Benecio del Toro, Sicario, Jacob Tremblay, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Helen Mirren, Trumbo, Jane Fonda, Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina, Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria, Lily Tomlin, Grandma, Jennifer Lawrence, Joy, Melissa McCarthy, Spy, Maggie Smith, The Lady in the VAn, The Lady in the Van, Amy Schumer, Trainwreck, Teyonah Parris, Chi-Raq, Al Pacino, Danny Collins, Infinitely Polar Bear, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Matt Damon, The Martian, Kevin Hart, Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, Charlize Theron, Carey Mulligan, Suffragette, Far from the Madding Crowd, Will Smith, Concussion, Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bryan Cranston, Michael Keaton, Michael B. Jordan, Tom Hanks, The Wolf of Wall Street, Todd Hayne, George Miller, Ridley Scott, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globes, 73rd Golden Globes, Golden Globe nominees, Golden Globe winners, who will win/should win, Awards Predictions, Awards Tracker, Awards Talk, 88th Academy Awards, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Anomalisa

Remember that scene in 1988's "Big" where Tom Hanks doesn't "get" the product pitch the so-called expert is feeding to him? That might be you after (or while) watching the animated feature "Anomalisa" from the fertile imagination of Charlie Kaufman. You may feel like Josh Baskin where you have a child's mind trying to wrap your head around an adult idea. You might come out of the film and know a better idea on how to convey human love. Mark this writer down in the Josh Baskin column with a interrupting raised hand.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Amy

Filmmaker Asif Kapadia captures the bracing and startling rise and fall of the late jazz singer Amy Winehouse in "Amy." Accessing an enormous wealth of old videos from friends and family, self-read letters of lyrics and songwriting, archived phone conversations, backstage footage, media appearances, and unreleased performances, "Amy" weaves a masterful and compelling narrative. It is on the 2016 Oscar short-list for Best Documentary Feature and is available now for home viewing.

COLUMN: New review platform for "Every Movie Has a Lesson"

I wanted to formally update my followers and readers of a cool new platform and opportunity for both you and this website. This past fall, I was approached by the one of the co-founders of the young website BAG Movies to add a professional profile to their community site. Founded in February 2015, BAG aims to be "one-stop shopping" for finding, watching, and sharing movies and TV shows. It can become your new place to talk and listen to your friends about what you're loving (and hating) in entertainment.

COLUMN: New daily themes for social media pages

For quite some time, I've been meaning to add more momentum and engagement to my presence on Facebook and Twitter. I'm active with posting my reviews and shared fun stories, but that content is more random than formal or thematic. It lacks a guiding regularity. So, as of this new year and new work week, I'm adding daily themes to my posts and threads shared on my Facebook and Twitter pages. I have a blast talking to all of you casually and I would like to do more. Here's the plan:

EDITORIAL: My 16 most anticipated films for 2016

2016 looks decidedly less spectacular that 2015 on paper. I think there is still plenty to love, but I don't think we'll get another pair of $500 million-plus earners like "Jurassic World" (over $600 million) and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In an annual tradition, here are the sixteen movies I'm most looking forward to for 2016. I'm a ranker kind of guy, so let the first countdown begin. Enjoy!

COLUMN: New Year's Resolutions for the Movie Industry in 2016

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. I'm sarcastic, but I'm not the guy to take it to the false internet courage level of some Twitter troll. This will be as forward as I get all year.

2016, Column, Editorial, SPECIALDon ShanahanJanuary 1, 2016New Year's Resolutions, New Year's Resolutions for the Movie Industry, Movie trends, Movie problems, 2016, Column, Editorial, 2015 films, strong female protagonists, female protagonists, female leads, LGBT, LGBTQ+, Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road, Carol, The Danish Girl, Stonewall, Grandma, racism, xenophobia, jingoism, Chi-Raq, documentary, Netflix, Beasts of No Nation, J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lucasfilm, Walt Disney Pictures, Han Solo, Boba Fett, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Golden Goose, Kevin Feige, Marvel Films, Joss Whedon, Ava DuVernay, Black Panther, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Warner Bros. Pictures, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Spider-Man, Sony Pictures, Adam Sandler, Pixels, The Ridiculous 6, VOD, Video On Demand, Seth McFarlane, Ted 2, Terminator, Terminator: Genisys, Minions, Honest Trailers, Jennifer Lawrence, Alicia Vikander, Brie Larson, Room, Ex Machina, Joy, The Good Dinosaur, Fifty Shades of GreyComment

COLUMN: The 10 Best Films of 2015

I prefer to be strict enough with my mind and my heart to rank the best and not just give some alphabetical list. This was a difficult list to settle on for an order. After 84 films this year, I think I've seen all I need to see to give out a complete and legitimate "10 Best" list. Here are my picks and, in the spirit of this site, each of the "10 Best" are paired with their best life lesson. Enjoy!

COLUMN: 2016 Winter Movie Preview

More often than not, the movies that land in the months of January and February were either not good enough for qualifying for Oscars by the December 31st deadline or not chipper enough for the spring season. Sometimes, there are those two things and worse. See what you can circle and look forward to in this preview of the 2016 Winter Movie season.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Big Short

Closing out 2015, you will find the most argumentative and ballsiest movie of the year hitting wide theatrical release over the Christmas holiday. The real film in question to bear those bold superlatives is "The Big Short." Headlined by a star-studded cast and directed by one of the most unlikely of sources, this legitimate must-see film tip-toes audaciously between biting satire and topical cautionary tale. You won't know whether to be pissed or be entertained and that's a powerful quality to pull off.

2015, 5 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, Best FilmsDon ShanahanDecember 29, 2015Classic Cinemas Lake TheatreThe Big Short, Adam McKay, Charles Randolph, Michael Lewis, Moneyball, Anchorman, Step Brothers, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, Ryan Gosling, Jared Vennett, Greg Lippmann, Michael Burry, Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Mark Baum, Steve Eisman, Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall, Jeremy Strong, FrontPoint LLC, Morgan Stanley, Charlie Gellar, John Magaro, Charlie Ledley, James Mai, Jamie Shipley, Finn Wittrock, Ben Rickert, Ben Hockett, Brad Pitt, Cornwall Capital, Scion Capital, Financial crisis, Housing market bubble, housing market collapse, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, movie review, movie commentary, 2015, 2015 Holiday Movie Preview, 2015 Holiday Movies, film review, film commentary, satires, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Donald Shanahan, Don ShanahanComment

CHECKLIST: 2016 Winter Movie Calendar

Here is your lineup of upcoming films for the slowest annual season of the year, the post-holiday hangover before the arrival of spring. Pick through this list and find a few winners. 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. My full seasonal preview will be coming soon! Enjoy!

MOVIE REVIEW: Joy

The problematic factor for this David O. Russell and his acting muses is the diminishing returns of their final products. Showing a case of beginner's luck, "Silver Linings Playbook" was a crowd-pleasing quirky romance that netted Lawrence an Oscar. Full of promise, "American Hustle" was an overrated and misguided attempt at Scorsese Lite. "Joy" now arrives with a random mix of events that may begin insinuate the 14th century expression of "going to the well once too often" for this group. Like the idiom's definition, Russell and company have taken repeated risks and have now pushed their luck too far.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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