MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on December 10, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 12, 2018David EhrlichComment

MOVIE REVIEW: When Jeff Tried to Save the World

Not only has writer-director Kendall Goldberg fleshed out this excellent main character, she guides it through this plot with a matching sense imagination and earnestness. The nuances win in a story where heart and pragmatic approachability outshine any need for shock value and raunch. The smart and spot-on tonal mix of such simplicities deserve to be appreciated.

2018, 4 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDon ShanahanDecember 12, 2018Music Box TheatreComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Favourite

The Favourite has a wider scope and warmer temperature than Lanthimos’ previous two films. His aim for deadpan delivery highly on display last year in The Killing of the Sacred Deer bends to occasionally include pulse-quickening emotions and diaphragm-shaking chuckles. The Favourite says that “love has limits.” The same can be said for Lanthimos. He is the exact definition of an acquired taste. The brilliance is there, with much to love and plenty still to rebuke.

2018, 3 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 11, 2018AMC River East 21Comment

EDITORIAL: Lessons and reactions to the 2019 Golden Globe film nominations

Originally published a special edition of “What We Learned This Week” on the Feelin’ Film podcast website, here are my lessons, reactions, and trends from the film selections and nominees of the 2019 Golden Globe Awards as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Enjoy my editorial rantings and ravings!

2018, 2019, SPECIAL, Editorial, ColumnDon ShanahanDecember 6, 2018Comment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on December 3, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanDecember 5, 2018David EhrlichComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Roma

That unfortunate fate could not be farther away from a film like Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma. For all of those possible extrapolations of commitment and dedication taking place within the craft of filmmaking, you may never, not this year and maybe several more after, see a more intimate artistic expression than this powerful and personal film. To the man making Roma, this film is special. To those viewing it, this film is important. To the art it serves, this film could be a potential masterpiece.

MOVIE REVIEW: Rendezvous in Chicago

Michael Glover Smith’s third feature film channels Éric Rohmer to present three collisions of love occurring in the writer-director’s own beloved Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Smith’s canny talent to pen and juggle a triptych is not what impresses the most. Rather, what is greater, quite simply, is his sense of feel as a storyteller and filmmaker.

Independent Film, 2018, MOVIE REVIEW, 4 STARS, SPECIAL, Chicago Film FestivalDon ShanahanNovember 30, 2018Comment

EDITORIAL: Clarifying "subjective" versus "objective" in film criticism

The duel between objective and subjective is a gray area of thinking that doesn’t have a black-and-white answer of right or wrong. It is more of a sliding scale between prudent and careless presentation of facts and opinions. Too often lately, I hear or read people, both professional and amateur in background mind you, put the -ly ending on either of those two terms to create what they think is an adverb of defense to strengthen some silly descriptive point of “good” or “bad” they are trying to make about a movie.

2018, Column, Editorial, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanNovember 29, 2018Comment

EDITORIAL: Top 5 underrated movies which teach us how to love

People sometimes have questions about their personal lives. They are confused and shy to ask advice from their mothers, psychologists, or loved ones or just don’t want. We offer an alternative: try to turn for help to the world cinema! A famous international dating site made a selection of films that teach us to love.

2018, Column, Editorial, LIST, SPECIAL, Social MediaDon ShanahanNovember 29, 2018Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Guilty

Played in nearly real-time, The Guilty jolts the audience with the fits and spurts of the received and dropped calls. Some are dangled snippets and others linger with impact. Their rising and falling tensions are shrewdly and sharply written by director Gustav Möller and TV writer Emil Nygaard Albertsen. Their unforgiving suspense create an engrossing and choking mood of unknown and mounting dread. The Guilty is as smooth and taut of a 85-minute feature as you’ll see, no matter the language.

2018, 4 STARS, Best Films, Foreign Film, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 27, 2018Music Box TheatreComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on November 19, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanNovember 20, 2018David EhrlichComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Creed II

Sylvester Stallone and debuting co-writer Juel Taylor have fleshed out more layers of storytelling sinew than most Rocky movies deserve. Beyond the ropes of the squared circle is where Creed II softens us up as armchair and popcorn ring partners. The heart may do the talking, but the fists still say plenty and find themselves pumped into the air with cheers just fine.

2018, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 20, 2018AMC River East 21Comment