MOVIE REVIEW: The Killer

Among his peers and contemporaries, David Fincher conveys a commanding control of fluidity that few filmmakers can rival in this day and age. His stringent melding of staging, cinematography, performance outcomes, editing, and music rarely, if ever, stumble or loiter. Fincher’s mise-en-scène is an authority of total precision, arguably second to none. He simply doesn’t miss his marks, which makes The Killer and its propulsive narrative about a rare and fatal mistake so much more fascinating.

2023, 5 STARS, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanNovember 11, 2023The Killer, David Fincher, Tilda Swinton, Netflix, Andrew Kevin WalkerComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Black White and the Greys

How did this all happen? What can tear apart a marriage? Most folks go straight to the tawdry daytime talk show topics of money and infidelity, neither of which are anywhere close to the catalysts in Black White and the Greys and there’s zero crowd to watch it all go down. Rather, the frost seeping into the cracks of the Grey family lies in a growing divergence of intellectual contrasts and moral conflicts.

MOVIE REVIEW: Barbie

Speaking of colors and style, I’ll leave you with this little tidbit of snazzy advice from the movie that mixes with the philosophical slant of Barbie itself. Pink goes with everything. Taking that further into color psychology, pink is said to be a contradictory color associated with innocence, calmness, sensitivity, and optimism as much as it’s the standard bearer for femininity. Those listed qualities are the fluttering feelings of Barbie worn with pride, and that’s a radiantly beautiful thing.

2023, 5 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 18, 2023Barbie, Greta Gerwig, Ryan Gosling, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Noah Baumbach, Kate McKinnonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: RRR

Deep down, all movies are passion projects for the people that make them. Sometimes, it is difficult to see that passion come through fully in the finished film. Uninspired moments, pretentious indulgences, shortcuts of effort, or even the limits of ambition will dilute the fervor of how the given movie came to exist. To that end, the rarer feat is a film that never, even for a second, loses or runs out of its passion. S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR is one of those special movies.

2022, 5 STARS, Foreign Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanDecember 24, 2022RRR, S.S. Rajamouli, NetflixComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Blonde

The controversial new film Blonde swirls surreal cinematic brushstrokes meant to express the hushed nightmares beyond the celebrity dreams of Norma Jean Mortenson and compose a reminiscent and heartbreaking portrait of the legendary star. The audiences’ applause of adoration is replaced by cries of anguish and pain often unseen by anyone. It is those tears that paint this film. For better or worse, those tears are what you now remember more than the smiles when it comes to Marilyn Monroe.

2022, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanSeptember 23, 2022Blonde, Ana de Armas, Andrew Dominik, NetflixComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Relative

If Relative was trite, the plain circumstances or external vices would make everything turn out easily and conveniently. While family and good friends are the real answers for what makes matters of life easier, the effort of all involved to get there is hard. Smith understands that greatly, creating a relatable emotional obstacle course of cobwebs and intact skeletons in closets that promise to linger for future growth behind the credits.

MOVIE REVIEW: Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On is emphatically wholesome to no end. Revealing so much wonderment in plain domesticity, this movie decorates the micro-ordinary in wildly unique ways worth celebrating. It may not be your children’s shiny new favorite movie for endless replay, but, when absorbed with receptiveness and appreciated for its singularity, Marcel the Shell With Shoe On will become a charming and formative right of passage experience held dear and passed down for generations to come.

MOVIE REVIEW: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

Where some viewers will immediately implode with pearl-clutching outrage hellbent on voicing warped decency and unfair determinations, others will be ignited by the possibilities of this premise and the talent involved. Alas, once again, the key of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande remains the rich conversation. More viral potency comes from the shared verbal exchanges than any “afternoon delight.”

MOVIE REVIEW: Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Daniels writing and directing team of Daniel Scheinart and Dan Kim (Swiss Army Man) apply surrealism that zips and zings to an extreme level in creating a very domestic multiverse movie that subverts superhero motifs. All the dazzlement laid before the audience funnels levels of familial love more connective and invincible than any costumed paragon from a bigger movie. To absorb this exhilarating and passionate flurry, you will need far more than 10% of both your brain and your heart.

MOVIE REVIEW: Swan Song

By channeling its abundantly unique story down a futuristic path, Swan Song also embraces the realm of potential science fiction. Moored by an immensely complex performance from two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali, the crux of Cleary’s debut feature film oscillates on a virtuous decision amplified by the reach of technology not yet viable today. The drama may be all-inclusive with its existential dread, but the choices and implications considered and then enacted are strenuous yet sublime.

2021, 5 STARS, 2022, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanJanuary 17, 2022Swan Song, Mahershala AliComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Tragedy of Macbeth

Better than that academic boost, you will find a zealous movie that stands with decisiveness as one of the finest films of the year. The Tragedy of Macbeth seizes that prominence with precisely those two aforementioned traits: an inspired look and fire within the performers. There is no shortness of acting brilliance or production value perfection in every corner and millisecond of this picture.

MOVIE REVIEW: Belfast

All of these lessons centered on Buddy’s experiences speak to the greater hopeful streak of generational bonds at the heart of the film. Backed by a soundtrack of reminiscent Van Morrison songs, the exit emotions of Belfast strike terrific chords for the power of home beyond brick and mortar. Branagh’s movie closes with a three-pronged tribute of “For the ones who stayed,” “For the ones who left,” and “For all the ones who were lost” as it transitions back to a current Northern Ireland where the healing has regenerated a viable city and region.