GUEST CRITIC #65: Judas and the Black Messiah

by Lafronda Stumn

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social Media, Foreign Film, 2021Don ShanahanMay 29, 2021Comment

GUEST EDITORIAL: The "Escape Room" Movie

by Kevin Gardner

Escape rooms are like an adventure game brought to life. When you play them, you and a team of people are placed in a themed room and have to complete a mission to "escape." It has become a popular activity for team building, family outings and friendly competition among friends. The Escape Room movie took that concept and turned it into a horror film.

Column, Editorial, GUEST CRITIC, GUEST EDITORIAL, Home Media, Independent FilmDon ShanahanMay 29, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Water Man

That’s a sample of the welcome, sympathetic depth of The Water Man. So few fantasy films nowadays handle difficult questions like that one. Escapism for this demographic sells, no doubt, but internal odysseys will always have their place and merit. The Water Man, while destroying far fewer warehouses of Kleenex to reach its pinnacle, joins A Monster Calls and I Kill Giants as a trilogy of valuable discourses for bridging teens and adults together to engage with current and impending despair they may feel in their lives.

2021, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, Streaming, 4 STARSDon ShanahanMay 8, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Here Today

Within the movie, the themes all surround help that comes from lifted spirits found in many walks of life, both personal and professional. On the performance side, the material is solid enough to matter more than mere bits, yet light enough to spread its wealth of charm. No one is scene-stealing because no one has to, and that’s quite a tall order with the presence of Tiffany Haddish sharing the billing. Everyone is making the same music, so to speak, with Billy conducting every measure.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Outside Story

The sliding scale severity of the answers to those questions creates the embarrassing memory and the “have I got a story for you” yarn we tell your friends and family later of the past predicament. This simple premise can have any number of interesting connective circumstances, from nightmarish to adventurous. With a sunny glow of lifted spirits and healed flaws, the batch of life’s little inconveniences dealt to Brian Tyree Henry’s Charles Young enchant a bevy of wry smiles in The Outside Story.

2021, 3 STARS, Independent Film, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMay 1, 2021Comment

GUEST CRITIC #64: Miss Juneteenth

by Lafronda Stumn

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social Media, Foreign Film, 2021Don ShanahanApril 24, 2021Comment

GUEST CRITIC #63: The United States vs. Billie Holiday

by Lafronda Stumn

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social Media, Foreign Film, 2021Don ShanahanApril 17, 2021Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Voyagers

This is going to get confusing, but critiquing Voyagers calls upon several illustrative conflicts. First off, science fiction is the realm of high-minded concepts of fantasy, and yet organic humanity creates and drives each and every great idea in the genre. In the same regard, you have homage versus originality in applying prototypical themes to the luster of new settings. Lasty, you have an audience’s subjective aim to project any number of thoughts out of a movie while the work was created with certain objectives in mind that may not be seen or readily interpreted. All three of those dichotomies clash in Neil Burger’s new film with mixed results.

2 STARS, 2021, Home Media, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanApril 9, 2021Comment

GUEST CRITIC #62: Pieces of a Woman

by Lafronda Stumn

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social Media, Foreign Film, 2021Don ShanahanMarch 20, 2021Comment

GUEST CRITIC #61: Hoodlum

by Lafronda Stumn

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social Media, Foreign Film, 2021Don ShanahanMarch 15, 2021Comment

SHORT FILM REVIEW: Batman: Dying is Easy

The medium of movies fits the swelling urge to be big and loud. They are sensory explosions we love, but that only goes so far in that endless style vs. substance debate. No matter the noise or spectacle, in this critic’s opinion, story and character are what secure success the most. The crowdfunded Batman: Dying is Easy is precisely that example. The short film from Sean and Aaron Schoenke of Bat in the Sun Productions nails its characters without overplaying spectacle. That’s likely a lecture that we may very well revisit this very week with a certain hotly anticipated director’s cut fanning all the fanboy flames in sight.

2021, 4 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, SHORT FILMS, Social Media, StreamingDon ShanahanMarch 12, 2021Batman: Dying is EasyComment

GUEST CRITIC #60: Get On Up

by Lafronda Stumn

As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

GUEST CRITIC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social Media, Foreign Film, 2021Don ShanahanMarch 7, 2021Comment