CAPSULE REVIEWS: The 53rd Chicago International Film Festival

The 53rd Chicago International FIlm Festival brings over 1,000 films of all genres and sizes to our fair city. There are premieres aplenty, between those making their world, North American, or Chicago debuts. Opening with a red carpet premiere of Marshall, peaking with the centerpiece of Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, and closing with the Oscar contender The Shape of Water from Guillermo del Toro, the 53rd CIFF fills the AMC River East 21 for two weeks. For the fourth year in a row, Every Movie Has a Lesson has been granted press credentials to cover the CIFF and here are my capsule reviews.

2017, CAPSULE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Foreign Film, Independent Film, Social Media, SPECIALDon ShanahanOctober 24, 2017The 53rd Chicago International Film Festival2017, Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, Chicago International Film Festival, 53rd Chicago International Film Festival, 53rd CIFF, CIFF, #CIFCCattheCIFF, Opening Night Gala, Opening Night Film, Special Presentations, U.S. Indies, City and State, World Cinema, Cinema of the Americas, Shorts, Marshall, Eman's Movie Reviews, Emmanuel Noisette, Chadwick Boseman, Sterling K. Brown, Jussie Smollett, Marina Squerciati, Reginald Hudlin, red carpet, red carpet coverage, MovieMob, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Simon Curtis, Blueprint, Daryl Wein, Jerod Haynes, Chasing the Blues, Scott Smith, Kevin Guilfoile, Liquid Truth, The Shape of Water, Lady Bird, Caroline Jabor, Daniel de Oliviera, Night Shift, Tunde Adebimpe, Gold Hugo, Gold Hugo AwardComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Liquid Truth

The discolored and dingy tile grout at the bottom of a swimming pool and the imagery effect of rippling water seen under the surface bending the images above perspective starkly symbolize the many warped dimensions of Liquid Truth. The truth in the title is as slippery as the water in director Caroline Jabor’s simmering social commentary. The film may be foreign from Brazil, but it typifies all too many social media ills that would explode in a parallel fashion here in this country.

2017, 4 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social MediaDon ShanahanOctober 23, 2017The 53rd Chicago International Film Festival2017, Brazil, Liquid Truth, helicopter parenting, WeAreTeachers, Dr. Carolyn Daitch, Lucas Paraizo, Best Narrative Film, Rio International Film Festival, Aos Teus Olhos, Audience Award, Malu Galli, Stella Rabello, Luiz Felipe Mello, Marco Ricca, Facebook, Instagram, Luisa Arraes, Daniel de Oliviera, 53rd Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, World Cinema, Cinema of the Americas, Caroline Jabor, film review, movie review, foreign film, Foreign films, foreign langugage film, foreign films, life lessons from foreign films, movie critic, film critic, CIFCC, CIFF, #CIFCCattheCIFF, social commentary, social media platform, social media, life lessons, life lessons from movies, independent film, independent films, films of Brazil, film festival, Festival review, Festival coverage, festival preview, movie reviews, movie commentary, film commentary, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Lisa TrifoneComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Goodbye Christopher Robin

Simon Curtis’ Goodbye Christopher Robin is a cinematic quilt collecting experiences from many different narrative themes. A few patches carry the pattern of biographical films, chronicling life’s highlights and lowlights within a well-to-do family and their hired caretaker. Others carry the created images of a writer’s world-building legend. The threads binding those quilt pieces are a woven blend of the barbed wire of post-traumatic stress disorder and the smoothly silken cords of childhood whimsy. The experience of snuggling up with the Goodbye Christopher Robin blanket of testimony and memories is as affectingly dramatic as it is comfortably warm.

2017, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 20, 2017Landmark Century Centre Cinema2017, 2017 Fall Movies, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Simon Curtis, Chicago International Film Festival, 53rd Chicago International Film Festival, CIFF, CIFCC, film festival, Festival coverage, Festival review, festival preview, movie review, film review, movie commentary, Domhnall Gleeson, Margot Robbie, Will Tilston, Kelly Macdonald, Stephen Campbell Moore, About Time, Brooklyn, Finding Neverland, Odile Dicks-Mireaux, David Roger, Ben Smithard, East Sussex, Ashdown Forest, Winnie-the-Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne, Christopher Robin, Michael Bolton, The Office, Christopher Robin Milne, Alex Lawther, Carter Burwell, life lessons from movies, life lessons, life lessons from film, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, biopic, Biopics, Biographical filmsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Chasing the Blues

Chasing the Blues is a dark comedy through and through. Director Scott Smith and his co-writer Kevin Guifoile crafted an engaging yarn of hijinks and hilarity. Their narrative might feel like something out of a Coen brothers rough draft, but this film sides with a far less gonzo approach that suits its shrewder stature. Like the musical genre at its core, patient storytelling is at the forefront. Could it use a stiffer punch or two? Maybe, but then it wouldn’t be the blue and not everything has to be shock cinema. Waiting for the payoff in this tidy 77-minute film is an easy and worthwhile short hike to climb.

2017, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDon ShanahanOctober 18, 201753rd Chicago International Film Festival2017, U.S. Indies, Chicago International Film Festival, 53rd Chicago International Film Festival, CIFF, CIFCC, independent films, independent film, Chasing the Blues, Scott Smith, Jimmie Kane Baldwin, Cicero Records, Chicago, Chicago films, The Royal Tenenbaums, Grant Rosenmeyer, Chelsea Tavares, Anna Maria Horsford, Amen, Ronald L. Conner, Kevin Guilfoile, blues, blues music, movie review, film review, festival preview, film festival, Festival coverage, Festival review, movie commentary, film commentary, music, movie critic, film critic, AMC River East 21, press credentials, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Donald Shanahan, Don ShanahanComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Marshall

Can you learn about a popular band by listening to their B-sides instead of their greatest hits? Can you get a sense of the brilliance within a writer from their early drafts and not their published masterpieces? Can you spot the traits of a future Hall of Fame sports legend solely by their work in college or the minor leagues before the professional ranks? The answer to each is quite likely the same: sometimes, but not always. Tally one in the sometimes column for Reginald Hudlin’s Marshall and its biographical podium choice.

4 STARS, 2017, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 12, 201753rd Chicago International Film Festival53rd Chicago International Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, CIFF, CIFCC, #StandUpForSomething, Marshall, Biopics, Biographical films, lawfare, NAACP, Reginald Hudlin, Hidden Figures, Serving Sara, Boomerang, dramatic license, drama, legal drama, courtroom drama, Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, E-Man's Movie Reviews, Eman, Eman's Movie Reviews, Emmanuel Noisette, Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther, Mr. Biopic, Joseph Spell, State of Connecticut vs. Joseph Spell, White Savior, white savior, Josh Gad, Dan Stevens, James Cromwell, Sam Friedman, Sterling K. Brown, 42, Get On Up, Kate Hudson, Opening Night Film, Opening Night Gala, Brown vs. Board of EducationComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Florida Project

The crucial emotional response The Florida Project demands of its viewers is empathy. If you can’t find that, if you turn your nose, close your eyes, and refuse to accept that this kind of American lifestyle exists, you are missing the hard truths, the teachable moments, and the larger points being presented. onvenient Hollywood endings don’t exist in the real life Baker’s film examines. Applaud a film that dares to push that stark reality.

MOVIE REVIEW: Lucky

In each winsome second, Lucky continuously unearths affecting ways of making cantankerous endearing. With grizzled resolve and humor as dry as the desert he walks in, the late Harry Dean Stanton personifies the charm culled from the crotchety put on display in John Carroll Lynch’s straight-shooting film. Far from any Grumpy Old Men folly and possessing a hidden heart twice the size of Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, meet a lovable unlovable asshole that flourishes to galvanize unexpected wholesomeness from the prickliest of cacti.

2017, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 6, 2017Music Box TheatreComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Young Offenders

The banter and B.S. traded back and forth between Alex Murphy and Chris Walley is as hysterical as it is pleasurably uncouth. It’s an absolute wonder to realize that The Young Offenders is mutually their first on-camera film roles. Alex and Chris’s chemistry through sarcasm and shared shenanigans feels and looks effortless. Flabbergasted energy blasts out of both of them and it’s a hoot to watch. Seeing the two young actors operate these over-the-top losers with reckless abandon while still injecting a little coming-of-age heart for good measure, makes the film highly entertaining.

2017, 2016, 3 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Foreign Film, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanOctober 3, 2017Gene Siskel Film Center2017, The Young Offenders, Children's Act of 2001, Urban Dictionary, Knacker, Alex Murphy, Chris Walley, hijinks, Dominic MacHale, Shane Casey, Hilary Rose, Trainspotting, Danny Boyle, Conor MacSweeney, Jock Murphy, Euro, Peter Foott, Irish, Ireland, Ireland films, films set in Ireland, Irish American Movie Hooley, Irish films, Irish-themed films, Irish American films, 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey, Hibernian Transmedia, Movie Hooley, Gene Siskel Film Center, Siskel Film Center, Mike Houlihan, CIFCC, Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, 3rd annual Irish American Movie Hooley, movie critic, film critic, foreign film, independent film, independent films, heist films, coming of age, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, Festival coverage, festival preview, closing night, comedy, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, life lessons from films, life lessons from foreign films, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Emerald City

I know it’s the clickbait haven of Buzzfeed, but this list of jobs well-known celebrities had before they hit it big is pretty humbling and eye-opening at the same time. Once the millions roll in and we see the red carpets and flash bulbs, we forget the lucky breaks and hard work it took to get there, and that for every one of those matinee idols a thousand never make it. Upon seeing Emerald City at the 3rd annual Irish American Movie Hooley, I’ll gladly raise my glass in hopes that Colin Broderick’s minimum wage days are over.

2017, 2016, 4 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent FilmDon ShanahanOctober 3, 2017Gene Siskel Film CenterColin Broderick, Emerald City, Buzzfeed, Irish American films, Irish American Movie Hooley, Irish, Irish-themed films, Irish films, 2017 Irish American Movie Hooley, 2 Gingers Irish Whiskey, Gene Siskel Film Center, Siskel Film Center, John Keating, Boardwalk Empire, John McConnell, The Departed, John Duddy, Hands of Stone, Rachel Broderick, Jacqueline Kealy, independent films, independent film, foreign film, foreign films, CIFCC, movie critic, film critic, Movie Hooley, 3rd annual Irish American Movie Hooley, Mike Houlihan, film reivew, film review, movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, life lessons, life lessons from films, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, hardscrabble, New York City, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Hibernian TransmediaComment

CAPSULE REVIEWS: The third annual Irish American Movie Hooley

The third annual Irish American Movie Hooley is happening this weekend at the Gene Siskel Film Center from September 29-October 1st. This very writer and website was both lucky and honored to cover this event last year and has again been granted coverage access this year. The event is comprised of three feature films, two of which are directorial debuts, all of whom are making their Chicago premieres. Here are my capsule reviews of the three films. Get your Irish on at the Siskel Film Center this weekend!

PREVIEW: The third annual Irish American Movie Hooley

The Gene Siskel Film Center will host the third annual Irish American Movie Hooley from September 29-October 1st. This year’s event is comprised of three feature films, two of which are directorial debuts, all of whom are making their Chicago premieres. All screenings and events are at the Gene Siskel Film Center. his very writer and website was both lucky and honored to cover this event last year and will again this year. Stay tuned here for future capsule reviews and full reviews.

MOVIE REVIEW: Stronger

Diametric to its title, the core of Stronger’s life after trauma chronicles a venerating angle applied to the “Boston Strong” nature with little melodrama. This is director David Gordon Green’s best film to date, easily surpassing the fad success of Pineapple Express. Stronger’s touching tone carries unmistakable courage and inspires an unshakeable stir of appreciation.

2017, 4 STARS, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 22, 2017Comment