MOVIE REVIEW: Babylon

The audience’s constitution will be the deciding factor on Babylon’s wide gamut of pungent engagement and raging spectacle. This juxtaposition of the carefree and zany with the dirty and dark underneath can very easily be too much. Any twinkling enchantment is met with bracing hardness. Any gleaming art is met with harsh repulsiveness. Extend this blaring back-and-forth of lift and defeat for over three hours, and Babylon can be as exhausting and unfocused as it is impressive. Good luck coming down from that high or out of that fog.

2022, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 16, 2022Babylon, Damien Chazelle, Brad Pitt, Margo Robbie, Diego Calva, Jovan Adepo, Jean Smart, Linus Sandgren, Justin HurwitzComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Lost City of Z

The most crucial dramatic trait for films about exploration is a drawing a strong reaction to the unknown from the audience. Whether it’s a historical story or a fantastical one of fiction, the film has to evoke awe, be that stirring swells of inspiration or jarring feelings of danger. It has to move you, not bore you. If a film can’t achieve that quickened pulse or heavy heart, it’s little better than a travelogue on cable television or a curriculum video they show soon-to-be-bored high school students in Social Studies class.

2 STARS, 2017, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanApril 20, 2017ShowPlace Icon X at Roosevelt Collections2017, 2017 Spring Movies, The Lost City of Z, Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, James Gray, Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now!, Anaconda, The Lost World, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Arthur Conan Doyle, Percy Fawcett, Darius Khondji, 35mm, Columbia, Christopher Spelman, American Sniper, Black Mass, Foxcatcher, Live by Night, High-Rise, Ian McDiarmid, Angus Macfayden, Harry Melling, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Bleeker Street, Plan B, Guy Ritchie, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Val Kilmer, Tom Holland, Mato Grosso, Brazil, Amazon River, Amazon, David Grann, bestseller, Royal Geographical Society, South America, films about exploration, exploration films, Biopics, Biographical films, movie review, film review, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, movie commentary, film commentary, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Moonlight

I dare you to look into the painful eyes of the three ages of Chiron and their matching performers and not have your soul triple in weight. The arc in "Moonlight" from the innocence of the little boy to the uncomfortable vulnerability hiding underneath the muscles and gold fronts of the hardened resulting adult is arduously moving on multiple levels. Observing his difficulties forces you to absorb the conflict and inescapable trepidation that surrounds the shared character. Pressing his heart to your own makes for one of the most moving and rewarding film experiences this year.

2016, 5 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 6, 2016Landmark Century Centre Cinemas2016, Festival coverage, festival preview, Chicago International Film Festival, 52nd Chicago International Film Festival, Black Perspectives, Special Presentations, Moonlight, Barry Jenkins, Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, Alex Hibbert, Barbara Lewis, Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Brad Pitt, Plan B, #OscarsSoWhite, James Laxton, Nicholas Britell, Loving, Jeff Nichols, Andre Holland, Jharrel Jerome, Janelle Monae, Jaden Piner, Liberty City, Miami, LGBT, LGBTQ+, Boyhood, Richard Linklater, film review, movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, Life lessons from movies, life lessons from films, life lessons from movies, life lessons, life lessons from film, Life lessons, Audience Award, 2016 Fall Movues, 2016 Fall Movies, 2016 Holiday Movies, Oscar contenders, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, independent filmsComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Big Short

Closing out 2015, you will find the most argumentative and ballsiest movie of the year hitting wide theatrical release over the Christmas holiday. The real film in question to bear those bold superlatives is "The Big Short." Headlined by a star-studded cast and directed by one of the most unlikely of sources, this legitimate must-see film tip-toes audaciously between biting satire and topical cautionary tale. You won't know whether to be pissed or be entertained and that's a powerful quality to pull off.