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: 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: Churchill

Brian Cox one of the most underappreciated character actors in the business today. He has been an accomplished and terrifically versatile mainstay through all levels and genres of film for over thirty years since turning our heads as cinema’s first Hannibal Lecktor in Michael Mann’s Manhunter. Cox is a consummate performer, brimming with fervid screen presence. From Braveheart to Super Troopers, he is never the weak link to any picture. Churchill offers a rare lead performance from Cox and, like the chameleon he’s always been, he reminds us of his indomitable intensity.

2017, 3 STARS, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDon ShanahanJune 4, 20172017, 2017 Summer Movies, Churchill, Jonathan Teplitzky, Alex von Tunzelmann, Brian Cox, John Slattery, Miranda Richardson, Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour, Joe Wright, Winston Churchill, Sir Winston Churchill, The Railway Man, Burning Man, British Bulldog, Operation Overlord, D-Day, World War II, World War II movies, Julian Wadham, James Purefoy, Bernard Montgomery, King George VI, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eisenhower, Clementine Churchill, David Higgs, Lorne Balfe, Care Hall, prosthetics, Michael Mann, Manhunter, Hannibal Lecktor, Braveheart, Super Troppers, leaders, Prime Minister, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, historical drama, Biopics, war films, anti-war films, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, foreign film, independent films, independent film, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Don Shanahan, Donald ShanahanComment

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: Hacksaw Ridge

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the career path of Mel Gibson, either in front or behind the camera, that "Hacksaw Ridge" rings up the descriptor of "excessive" more than any film to date this year. "Hacksaw Ridge" is a war film of excessive violence operatically woven into a biopic screen story of excessive hero worship based on a true story of World War II Congressional Medal of Honor winner Desmond Doss. Both excesses are laid on very thick. Only half of one of them are worth it.

MOVIE REVIEW: Loving

With a minimalist style and unadorned simplicity to reflect on racial intolerance, Jeff Nichols crafts “Loving” as a reminiscence of history without the histrionics. Devoid of soapboxes, speechifying, and manufactured swells of forced emotion seen in far too many historical dramas, “Loving” cuts a different cloth, trading in Hollywood glamor for blue collar truthfulness. Nichols brilliantly lets the honesty and grace of Richard and Mildred Loving stand on their own without an unnecessary pedestal. Cite this film as proof that “tell it like it is” does not require bombastic noise and volume.

MOVIE REVIEW: Love and Mercy

Come to "Love and Mercy" for the music but stay for the involving double-barreled saga of creative energy, new-found redemption, and growing companionship. This film relishes the understated vibe it seeks. It's not earth-shatteringly profound as a story or a film. It's not going to jump off the screen or crush your emotions. However, this film will impress you and gain your respect. That's better than 90% of the tired biographical films that hit cinemas every year. Enjoy a winner right here.

MOVIE REVIEW: Mr. Turner

As beautifully presented as Mike Leigh's "Mr. Turner" is at telling the story of English Romanticist painter J.M.W. Turner, too much of it is uninteresting, familiar in tone, and predictably in execution. What normally can save a film about an artist is the subject's life beyond his or her work. An interesting person can make up for the uninteresting content. Though led by a invested performance from character actor Timothy Spall, "Mr. Turner" can't muster enough of that to separate itself as something special.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Theory of Everything

"The Theory of Everything" elected for the safe side of risk as a biographical film. Adapted from "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen," the memoirs of Jane Wilde Hawking, the first wife of renowned theoretical physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking, by New Zealand playwright Anthony McCarten, the film is the second feature effort from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker James Marsh ("Man on Wire"). To its credit, "The Theory of Everything" takes decidedly different route than one would expect from a documentarian telling the life story of a world-famous scientist.

MOVIE REVIEW: Get On Up

"Get On Up," the new film from "The Help" director Tate Taylor breaks away from a good chunk of the formula and cliche pitfalls that beset biographical films. With the casting of lesser-known Chadwick Boseman and the flavor by which it does its time-hopping, "Get On Up" succeeds in those two extra qualities that I like to see in a really good biopic. For that, the film separates itself nicely from the rest of the pack as one of the best biographical films in recent memory.

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