MOVIE REVIEW: In the Heights

As if there was any doubt, it doesn’t take any wider eyes than those capturing the plebian pageantry on display to recognize the meaningful platforms symbolized by In the Heights. Characters that assert their dignity in small ways amplify messages with larger substance. The settings and themes of Chu’s film are made all the more important and prescient by our country’s current socio-political times. A 14-year-old musical has not lost an ounce of power in telling the world of an undoubtedly eminent cross-section of American culture that is here and not invisible any longer.

2021, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, 5 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMay 21, 2021AMC River EastIn the HeightsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Malcolm & Marie

Malcolm & Marie is nothing short of emotional pugilism. Not a hair is harmed on any head, mind you, yet hearts, feelings, and psyches are pummelled and destroyed over the tumultuous course of its 106 hard minutes on Netflix. It is a wringer of an experience that remarkably takes its loud and large volume of delicately vicious battery and orchestrates mesmerizing renewal that is downright captivating.

2020, 2021, 5 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanFebruary 5, 2021Malcolm & MarieComment

MOVIE REVIEW: One Night in Miami

Now, judging by storied perception of the “Louisville Lip” and his towering ego on the biggest night of his young career, one might expect One Night in Miami to set off a boastful barnburner of boozy partying and liberating frolic. The result is quite the contrary. There are no bars, no girls, no flashbulbs, and no hanger-on fans. It is just these four influential men and the hotel spaces before them as they wrestle with the gravity of the moment and share the ongoing bigotry they have experienced on different levels and from different sources. To celebrate here is the exhale and vent, not dance and prance.

2020, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, Home Media, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, Video on DemandDon ShanahanDecember 24, 2020Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Promising Young Woman

There is a very good chance that “shocking” will be the first and most basic reactionary word to come out a viewer’s dropped jaw after seeing Promising Young Woman, the holy-f—king-shit movie of 2020. If someone isn’t shocked, there’s something wrong with them. If anything, the predicament of self-examination will be which condition of shock they’re carrying as they come down from the buzz of this movie.

2020, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, 5 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanDecember 14, 2020 Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Midnight Sky

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