2016 Phoenix Film Festival special presentation

With full disclosure, this very writer is an absolute sucker for a satisfying "coming-of-age" film. Their youthful themes keep us young and sway our sensibilities to reflect on our own lives, no matter our age. Admirable coming-of-age films are always welcome, but the exceptional ones deserve to get shouted from the mountaintops. James Sadwith's "Coming Through the Rye" recently won Best Film and Best Screenplay honors at the 2016 Phoenix Film Festival. This infatuating dramedy earns that special distinction of exceptionality and warrants all of the volume one can muster.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Invitation

Adorned with the weights of divorce, loss, and tested friendship, “The Invitation” wears those issues like a cloak to hide its real menacing intent and implications underneath. Karyn Kusama’s film holds a marvelous poker face that siphons your piqued curiosity and unraveling attention. “The Invitation” might be labeled as a horror film, but it far better fits the prodigious “mindfuck film” subgenre. Enjoy the steady increased heart rate and spinning cerebrum this film has to offer.

MOVIE REVIEW: Born to Be Blue

Any savvy film fan should know that first-rate musical biography films are less about the music and more about the artist. The music becomes extroverted accompaniment to the introverted human elements behind the persona. Presenting a career-best performance from Ethan Hawke, "Born to Be Blue" earns its place as one of the best jazz movies to grace the screen. The film is an impressive creative step forward for Canadian director Robert Budreau in just his second feature-length effort.

MOVIE REVIEW: Midnight Special

In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the adjective form of "special" can be defined as "held in particular esteem" and "readily distinguishable from others in the same category." For a film to earn that distinction it has to do more than have the word in its title, as is the case with the Jeff Nichols film "Midnight Special." It has to possess exemplary qualities to revere that enable it to stand out from its peers. As one of the most striking, imposing, and spell-binding original science fiction films in recent memory, "special" is fitting trademark for "Midnight Special."

MOVIE REVIEW: Everybody Wants Some!!

Through two parallel veins of his filmmaking career, director Richard Linklater freely operates between free-wheeling fun and poignant realism with scant middle ground. His movies are either a party or a deep character study. Kick back and turn off the introspection for "Everybody Wants Some!!" This is a shameless dudes' flick and Party Linklater of the highest order. Those of you with Y chromosomes are going to love every minute.

MOVIE REVIEW: Marguerite

Do we all remember the infamy of William Hung from 2004? You should. Take William Hung, turn back the clock 80 years, and, here's the kicker, give him a judging audience that won't tell him he's bad. If you can do that, you can step into the foreign film "Marguerite" from French director Xavier Giannoli playing now at the Landmark Theater locations in Lincoln Park and Highland Park. Divided into five chapters, "Marguerite" is an immersive character study into a would-be singer's obsession with talent.

MOVIE REVIEW: My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2

To sneak preview a later life lesson in this review, you could trade the Greek demographic of the central Portokalos family in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" with any other American immigrant nationality and get much of the same effect. Nearly all people are being both defined by and embarrassed by their family. Whether you're Greek or not, you will watch both original and the sequel and poke fun at the similarities and differences. Such is an easy draw, but that charm has limits in a been-there-done-that sequel.

MEDIA APPEARANCE: "The Harvey and Bob Show" meet the CIFCC

Film critics El'Ahrai Stanek and John Robinson are two Chicago area podcasters that have been reviewing films and talking shop on their "Harvey and Bob Show" since 2006, longer than most of us have been blogging or writing. As a founding director of the new Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle (CIFCC), I was invited to come and take part in their weekly podcast. Between the 14-minute mark and the 47-minute mark, El'Ahrai and John interview us about how we started the CIFCC, our backgrounds, and our goals going forward.

MOVIE REVIEW: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

"Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" is constantly intense, powerfully suspenseful, and operatically enthralling on an emotional and sensory level. It is a remarkable experience on the big screen. We are in a new era with a new tone. There is room in the cinematic superhero landscape for important and formidable urgency like this. Let Marvel stick to the shiny sparkles and corner their piece of the market. This new franchise has chosen its mature path and they are showing the resolute fortitude to stick with it, haters be damned. What follows is spoiler-free!

MOVIE REVIEW: The Confirmation

If we were to play Word Association and you were given the name Clive Owen, what would you say? The lucky astute of us who have followed Clive since 1998's "Croupier" have seen him play brash and gruff villains, antiheroes, and leading men. As of the new film "The Confirmation," you have very likely never seen him play a domestic father. Now, north of 50 years old, here's Clive Owen in a role that doesn't require, nor utilize, any of the sexy traits that made him a James Bond candidate before Daniel Craig.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Program

Creating entertaining biopics about a universally disgraced figure are a hard sell under that key word of "entertaining." If they attempt to create sympathy, a duel of alienation and bias can arise. A good, thought-provoking movie has to fearlessly dig deeper. As Van der Rohe is attributed to saying, "the devil is in the details." Exposing the sordid and untold details of what led to the subject's defamation is where your film gets interesting. The rise and fall of champion cyclist Lance Armstrong is fertile ground and a fresh wound that has yet to be solved. "The Program," directed "Philomena" and "The Queen" Oscar nominee Stephen Frears, pedals uphill in attempting to shine a light on the dark details.

MOVIE REVIEW: 10 Cloverfield Lane

It sure is nice to see a surprise stay a surprise. In today's day and age of instant and nearly universal access to information, news, and buzz, it's very hard to keep anything the size of a movie a secret. The filmmakers of "10 Cloverfield Lane" and its studio have pulled off a marketing stunt that has now paid off as a entertainment coup. "10 Cloverfield Lane" is capricious blast of horror, drama, and science fiction all rolled into one twisty enigma.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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