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: 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: 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: September 5

This 95-minute voyeuristic thriller morphs into a solemn drama right on cue for a powerful viewing experience, granting moments for the cast to shine and react with the historical swerve occurring before them. By shedding up close and personal light on these secondary, yet distinctive witnesses, Fehlbaum’s film adds a strong, confident, and respectful new cornerstone to the critical legacy of what happened in Munich 52 years ago which still echoes today.

2024, 5 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 11, 2024September 5, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Peter Sarsgaard, MunichComment

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: Nightbitch

Continuing the immense commitment-to-the-bit she has demonstrated her entire career in both comedic and dramatic roles, Amy Adams runs with every one of Nightbitch’s surreal twists and turns in an incredible physical and emotional performance, worthy of another ticket to the Oscar soiree. Through enormous effort, she balances the fierce intensity of Heller’s narrative with the draw of underlying sensitivity that generates tangible empathy. No angle is too outlandish and no risk is too great to try.

2024, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 1, 2024Marielle Heller, Scoot McNary, Amy AdamsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man who wouldn’t see his 40th birthday and played by The Golden Glove’s Jonas Dassler, was many things that the movie’s marketing campaign wants to emphasize by using the extra titling of Pastor. Spy. Assassin. However, the more apt descriptor for him would be a dissident. Resistance starts with disagreement before action. Bonhoeffer chronicles how Deitrich Bonhoeffer came to his dissident positions and how he would put those principles into service to honor of his beliefs and the greater good.

2023, 2024, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 23, 2024Bonhoeffer, Jonas Dassler, August Diehl, Todd KomarnickiComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Gladiator II

At the same time as they contorted historical accuracy, Craig and Scarpa pile on a greater amount of revelations, double crosses, and ancient paternity tests that would make Maury Povich blush on syndicated daytime television. Those overbaked and confounded conveniences were not necessary to dramatically revisit a successful legend such as this one, which already had adrenaline and spectacle on its side on its face value alone.

2024, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 21, 2024Gladiator, Gladiator II, Paul Mescal, Denzel WashingtonComment

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.

MOVIE REVIEW: You & I

Altogether, Summer Shelton has composed a pungent expanse of reflective maturity with You & I that puts honesty on the “what if” sliding doors many viewers may feel when comparing their own histories of love. The entirety of this film’s course exudes thoughtful reflection and a wise restraint borne from the romantic predicament on screen. You & I is passionate without being overtly explicit, yet the reverberating echoes of those instinctual feelings are intense and even morose in their own way.

2023, 2024, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 16, 2024You & I, Summer Shelton, Clayne CrawfordComment

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.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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