Humanity rightly becomes the beautiful and ruminative zenith of The Midnight Sky. It occupies a reality that could match the here-and-now as much as it defines its fictional future when addressing the helpful and harmful effects of both minute and broad human actions. Clooney’s combined work on this drama is forthright with its altruism and free of forced villainy. True to the earlier introduction, this experience to be cherished rises to be about character more than crisis, which is where poignant performances take over. Their benevolence is mesmerizing and their endurance beyond is moving.

2020, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanDecember 9, 2020 Comments

MOVIE REVIEW: Sound of Metal

With rock-heavy undertones replaced by the dramatic struggles of silence, Sound of Metal can personify every one of those questions. This labor-of-love and festival darling debuts in limited release and Amazon Prime on December 4th. Led by a sensational, internalized performance from Riz Ahmed, read here, see on the screen, and hear anyway you can how this stands as one of the best films of the year.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Trial of the Chicago 7

Not if, but when, you watch The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix, know that, like all movies based on historical events, what you’re watching is a cherry-picked and tidy two-hour dramatization of legal proceedings that lasted just short of 150 days. Normally when that happens, the dramatic license to make an entertaining product has added any number of embellishments for showmanship’s sake. Folks love the challenge, especially in a courtroom movie, of sniffing out the sugarcoating to wonder “did that really happen?” up and down every narrative peak and valley. The crazy thing is the exact opposite is happening here from Aaron Sorkin.

2020, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanSeptember 24, 2020Netflix, The Trial of the Chicago 7Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Vast of Night

There exists a wide range of adjectives between the pleasurable place of “thrill” and unpleasant extreme of “terrify” that one could apply to stimulating movie experiences. Just like the films themselves from indies to blockbusters, joys or jitters come in all shapes and sizes. For the festival darling The Vast of Night being streamed on Amazon Prime, the proverbial needle of its excitement amplification lands on a very nifty word: TINGLES.

2020, 5 STARS, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanJune 1, 2020The Vast of NightComment

SHORT FILM REVIEW: A Missed Connection

For a moment, think on the last bad day you experienced when the things you juggle in your life continued to collapse. What sort of “wit’s end” did you find yourself arriving at? Jog the memory of how you reacted to that ugly day. Did you lash out harmfully or did a figurative life preserver pull you out of the doldrums or stresses? Chicago filmmaker Matthew Weinstein’s newest short film A Missed Connection thrusts a character to such a breaking point and exquisitely presents a chance scenario likely dreamt of by many, yet afforded by few. This film plays on February 21st and 22nd as a selection of the Beloit International Film Festival.

2020, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, SHORT FILMSDon ShanahanFebruary 19, 2020Bagels and MoreComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Photograph

This is going to sound like a spoiler, but no pining suitor or their smitten match says “I love you” in The Photograph. Canadian filmmaker Stella Meghie weaves two passionate romances connected yet separated across a generation within her film and those magic words don’t come out. Know immediately and imploringly how this is far from a dealbreaker. If anything, the restraint away from such a plain statement becomes more stimulating and resounding than ever thought possible.

2020, 5 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanFebruary 13, 2020AMC River East 21Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Parasite

Zoinks, does this movie have vigor! For those folks who constantly lament that there is nothing original and interesting to watch anymore in this multiplex marketplace of creative bankruptcy, look no further than the minor challenge of following Korean subtitles. The sly guile simmering behind the decadence of Parasite exceeds any trope one thinks that possible assign to this film. This is your jaw-dropper. This is your water-cooler winner. This is the one that will keep people talking for a long time.

2019, 5 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, Foreign Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 31, 2019Parasite, Bong Joon-hoComment

MOVIE REVIEW: 1917

Kinetically engineered to simulate real-time, 1917 moves with a propulsive momentum like no other film of 2019 and no other combat flick of recent memory. Its velocity matches the unyielding pull of war itself. That compelling force defines a soldier’s moral sense of duty and keeps a man watching, trekking, running, fighting, and downright surviving. 1917 is all about that pull and concentrates its adrenaline into a relentless experience that will strafe your senses, from the hairs on the back of your neck to the fidgeting nerves that bounce your toes.

2019, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 10, 2019AMC River East 21Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Marriage Story

There is an old adage used by married people, kind of passive-aggressive burn really, that says “you can’t tie your shoes without me.” In a pithy way, the saying speaks to the symbiotic relationship between the partners for even the smallest things. While it may not always come down to shoelaces, there is a given and even understood level of dependency in marriage. That is until such dependency becomes harmful. In one of the finest films ever on the matter of divorce, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story challenges the breakdowns of resiliency and vulnerability that push this painful process.

2019, 5 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on Demand, StreamingDon ShanahanNovember 29, 2019Music Box TheatreComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Little Women

The endearing brilliance of Little Women is earned in those quaint sways and movements as much as, if not more than, it is by its crests of high drama. With masterful leadership and bold thematic choices applied to well-worn ideals, Greta Gerwig continuously captures an uncanny vibrancy out of a literary setting that otherwise would be frozen in stagnant despair. Every fiber and morsel of this movie swells with this sense of spirit to embed radiance in resiliency.

MOVIE REVIEW: Knives Out

In a film of perplexing puppetry like this, the most engrossing quality of Knives Out is character creation. Half of that strength happens on the scripted page where writer-director Rian Johnson has created a deplorable and decadent cobweb of villainy. The other half of that draw comes from the ingenuity of the assembled ensemble. This cluster of spidery characters could have been stock archetypes played by obvious actors. Instead, there’s nuance dripping like venom from thirsty fangs all over the performance stage of Johnson’s cinematic charade.

MOVIE REVIEW: Jojo Rabbit

Those beautiful and gracious moments, slowed way down in between all the hustling hilarity in Jojo Rabbit, let you know exactly where the heart of this movie truly lies underneath the scathing satire. It is in the benevolence of helping people rather than warring with them. The titular young boy needs every ounce of such affection and the combat boots of Waititi’s movie are the clown shoes. Gusto meets gravitas in one of the most oddly poetic and beautifully brazen movies you may ever see.

EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

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