Unlike other biopics which love to end on jubilant peaks of superstardom, A Complete Unknown rests on the aforementioned anti-victory of a future greatest hit met with fan derision. That contemptuous exclamation point couldn’t be more appropriate for the main subject. At that time, misunderstood fans didn’t know what they had—and still have with the man still writing songs and touring today in his 80s. Thanks to the sensational flair of Chalamet and Barbaro crooning and swooning, A Complete Unknown won’t let old purists and new fans make that previous mistake.

MOVIE REVIEW: Los Frikis

Strong with the aforementioned wisdom and historical truth channeled through Medina, Los Frikis was unafraid to present the squalor the brothers rose from and, unfortunately, how AIDS would sever and silence any cultural growth or lasting personal legacies. The result is a difficult and no-less-impressive film that smashes the spirited human condition against aspects of fulfilling indepdence people should never take for granted.

MOVIE REVIEW: Babygirl

The question for each Babygirl viewer becomes how long that captivation holds between those orgasmic bookends. Even though Halina Reijn’s film boasts a nervewracking electronically-tinged musical score by Cristobal Tapia De Veer amplified by an inserted chorus of huffing-and-puffing human voices and snarling animal sounds, Babygirl is not wall-to-wall copulation. A labyrinth of conflict and kink awaits to push and pull the people of this story.

2024, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 18, 2024Halina Reijn, Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, BabygirlComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Nosferatu

For many, the stark and startling films of Robert Eggers are existential affairs and appointment viewing for those cinephiles who overuse the term “elevated horror.” To others, his level of haunting disquiet triggers them all the wrong ways. No matter where one sits, audiences will marvel at the strong female nucleus of Nosferatu and the vigorous lyrical poetry given to unholy terror. As his own master of the horror genre who set out to achieve a decade-plus passion project, Eggers unleashed his vision in an unshackled and uninhibited way only he could accomplish.

MOVIE REVIEW: Out of My Mind

Just like with Melody, patience is required and cynical stigmas need to be shelved for this family-friendly dramedy. Be patient because brilliance will be revealed and faith will be rewarded by an empathic engine of a film that demands to be required viewing– and maybe even prescribed penance– for several ages and generations of privilege circulating society today. What this girl and this movie want to say demands to be seen and heard.

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Music by John Williams

With every chapter, Music by John Williams defines and stamps the maestro’s brilliance, even if the running time could be doubled or tripled to peel back even more “how does he do it” storytelling and clinical breakdowns from film to film and era to era. Plenty of cinephiles would love to see all that, but only so many nuanced moments fit alongside the big ones in one feature-length documentary. Even comprised as the parade it is, the Disney+ film is a fitting biographical tribute to the artist who could have rested on his laurels a quarter-century ago and still been an all-timer worthy of nonfiction hero worship.

MOVIE REVIEW: Woman of the Hour

Even though a fair share of great liberties were taken to change how the actual Dating Game episode played out, the palpable lift and principled spotlight given to Sheryl’s perspective and struggle raise Woman of the Hour above a plodding true crime story or a period-era costume party. Kendrick hammers the problematic and deadly ordeal home by exploring the evidential threads and dangerous effects of two very different minefields brought together. Stone-cold seriousness hides behind the bright lights and clapping audiences, and any fluff is soaked in effective poison.

MOVIE REVIEW: Bad Genius

Despite so many settings demanding quiet for test-taking, Bad Genius still chooses stumps with plenty of anti-establishment aims to shout about. As Lynn and her classmates come to see it, their attitude is to determine their own futures themselves, especially with the rank socioeconomic and ethnic divisions present between the mix of united people. They don’t want a test to outweigh their own merits and perceived hard work. In their eyes, they deserve the competitive advantages they are bending the rules to seize.

2024, 4 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 11, 2024Bad Genius, Juliah Onah, J.C. LeeComment

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story reinforces that the coda of Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve’s stories deserves to be their tireless charitable efforts. The millions of dollars raised for research and pieces of government legislation written in their names create a legacy that will last as long as any blockbuster one. This impactful work is proudly carried on by Matthew, Alexandra, and Will to this day. For them to bring this poignant and heart-rending story to us is one more measure of their own new heroism for a future made better by their past.

MOVIE REVIEW: His Three Daughters

The centerpiece scene is a climactic living room sitdown where old wounds are aired out and cried over with bracing lucidity. By the end of that scene (and later after the entire movie), an engrossed and impressed viewer could fill a clipboard or two tally-marking the scoring balance between earnest apologies against attempted and failed compromises. These exposed fractures in His Three Daughters are fascinating in their complication and frankness beyond the typical grief management narratives. No one ever said catharsis was easy to acquire, and that is the case here.

MOVIE REVIEW: Wolfs

Reunited for the first time since 2008’s Coen Brothers romp Burn After Reading, George and Brad are the perfect men to play these bristled rogues and turn them into winning studs to root for and follow. Between the two of them, it starts with their matinee idol mugs radiating body language. Both Supporting Actor Academy Award winners can act with their eyes better than most of their peers and contemporaries can with their entire bodies and voices.

2024, 4 STARS, Home Media, Streaming, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 20, 2024Wolfs, Jon Watts, George Clooney, Brad PittComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

When it comes to legacy sequels, as we’ve come to call them, interested audiences often pose the question of whether or not enough was enough the first time around? They ponder if a sequel blowing the dust off of old stories and characters is going to beat a dead horse with embarrassment or uncork a finely aged wine. Matching the same hefty 36 years the Top Gun films savored between installments, time has only added to the legend for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Generations have now stacked together to enjoy the “Ghost with the Most” to the point where unexpected family feels sweeten and soften the pockmarks of the movie’s gnarly surface.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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