Homage was clearly the goal of Danny Turkiewicz with Stealing Pulp Fiction. Matching Tarantino, our two leads of Rudnitsky and Soni are a mismatched pair of buddies with loser exteriors and ambitious interiors with their own acronym-filled lingo and hangout vibe. Jonathan and Steve are a pair classic QT chatty Cathys who incessantly talk and finish each other’s sentence. Choosing some easy traits to match, the movie is edited into several titled chapter sections, includes similar musical cues, and emulates some of the framing and slow-motion camera moves of Quentin’s motifs and techniques.

MOVIE REVIEW: Thirsty

In the central performance of Thirsty, Jamie Neumann lays this character bare. In each scene representing a defining choice—whether it’s a buoyant stump moment impressing the gathered public or a privately tormented decision—the actress shows emotional mettle that is tangible, mature, and impressive. Harsher truths and consequences rightfully burn here.

MOVIE REVIEW: Fountain of Youth

Putting those stars together with that concept surely has to generate some sizzle with the history and mythology crowds, right? Well, with all pun intended, leave it to Apple and professional retreading screenwriter James Vanderbilt (currently stewarding Netflix’s Murder Mystery series and the legacy sequel vapors of the Scream franchise) to go back to a fading Hollywood well, leap in, and find it dry.

MOVIE REVIEW: Thunderbolts*

Even if there are fleeting bits of decent togetherness from the losers, Thunderbolts* is a meta image reclamation project going for no more than light applause, and it shows. By embracing the jokes of being jokes themselves, it all too often still becomes or stays a joke. Thunderbolts* goes to show that when you make something about cheap heroes, you get a cheap return.

2025, 2 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanApril 29, 2025Thunderbolts, Marvel Cinematic UniverseComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Darkest Miriam

Remember, there are no class or social delineations in public libraries. Libraries are shared spaces for a myriad of quirky topics and people. They’ll welcome everyone from a refined consumer of academic privilege to a homeless denizen trying to buy time out of the elements with an available bathroom for unmet basic needs. Manning their posts and maintaining the materials and facilities, imagine the odd stuff librarians see, encounter, circumvent, reconcile, and clean.

2025, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, 2 STARSDon ShanahanApril 14, 2025Darkest Miriam, Britt Lower, Tom MercierComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Assessment

These behaviorial swerves and jolts are meant to be psychologically jarring, and they do more than frazzle the marriage stability of Mia and Aaryan. However, when these antics again are delivered by a grown adult we know can turn this persona on or off, they nullify believability. Every silly ass peril orchestrated by Virginia, even as they get more brazen and unorthodox as the week continues, are ridiculously overblown and, more often than not, completely preventable.

2025, 2 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMarch 22, 2025The Assessment, Hamish Patel, Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia VikanderComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Picture This

The clear goal here in Picture This is to make Simone Ashley look good for the leap from television to movies. Without question, she has every “it” factor necessary and gets to display them radiantly in the film. On the rom-com side, it’s quite the performative wringer between multiple rapid-fire Meet Cutes and face-saving exit strategies through those blind dates, and the actress never breaks a sweat.

2025, 2 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 8, 2025Picture This, Simone Ashley, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Luke FeatherstonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Riff Raff

Many would say, going by that selection of talent thrust together in this predominantly single-setting premise, the stars were aligned for a peppy crime comedy in Riff Raff. The potential combinations offer interesting mixes of presences and styles. It’s too bad because the script and the director cannot align characters and tones with any semblance of congruency. Simply put, everyone is in a different movie from their scene partners.

2 STARS, 2024, 2025, 5 STARS, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanFebruary 27, 2025Riff Raff, Bill Murray, Jennifer Coolidge, Lewis PullmanComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Wish You Were Here

The grand searches for meaning and the combination of their little ventures are not quite expressive or poignant enough to sear hearts and call upon the need to tug on the tissues, despite a promising effort from Julia Stiles taking on a new role in her lifelong medium. While Wish You Were Here may not fully succeed for many, she deserves more chances in the big chair.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Brutalist

The trouble is The Brutalist cannot decide whether to peck at that facade with an awl or swing at it with a sledgehammer. Too often, it hands the wrong figurative tool to the actors for the wrong moments. Appreciably, Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce are formidably locked into their roles and stalwart in their respective characters’ competing visions and varying sins of pride. However, big moments get unsuccessfully needled while small ones get overly demolished, which ultimately betrays more characters than Brody’s and Pearce’s

MOVIE REVIEW: The Instigators

Consequently, The Insitigators comes off like an unbalanced buddy comedy trying to chirp jokes during a grizzled crime thriller. Sure enough, it’s wonderful seeing Casey Affleck shuck the morose persona he’s been leaning on for the last decade across films to play the loquacious rascal. Unfortunately, he’s all by himself. With known charisma and ability in either of those aforementioned subgenres, Matt Damon feels like a waste of talent to play the unlaughing and tame Rory next to Casey’s Cobby.

2 STARS, 2024, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanAugust 1, 2024The Instigators, Apple, Apple TV+, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong ChauComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Before Dawn

In Before Dawn “c’est la guerre” constitutes defeatism because, more often than not, war cannot be helped by the grunts in the dirt holding or pushing a line. These young men who are uttering the phrase halfway around the world from their homes and families have learned the futility of their actions. They say it knowing they are trapped in what they thought would be a heroic quest and a patriotic cause.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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