MOVIE REVIEW: What's Love Got to Do With It?

When the larger societal issues of Britain’s social politics towards POC creep in, the hurdles, so to speak, get even higher. To Shekhar Kapur’s great credit and shared with producer and debuting screenwriter Jemimia Khan, those inclusions are honest more than heavy-handed. More than anything, What’s Love Got to Do With It puts a strong emphasis on family honor and its aforementioned different speed of romantic finality. Those nuclei become natural and not forced on a journey where the wallup and flourish surprisingly arrive in two different places.

2022, 2023, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMay 2, 2023Shekhar Kapur, Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabana Azmi, Emma ThompsonComment

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.”

2022, 5 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanJune 18, 2022Good Luck to You Leo Grande, Emma Thompson, Daryl McCormack, Sophia Hyde, Katy BrandComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Cruella

Cruella tosses that “psycho” term and label around flippantly, even with its successful motivation to be interesting and darker than the usual live-action works from the Mouse House. It offers a villainess to believe in, but what does that say to audiences? Swinging for sympathy towards the amoral could have amounted to the same mistake as Maleficent seven years ago. Luckily, the conniptions and confrontations of “Emma vs. Emma” are damn fun. There’s a welcome place to relish in their wickedness.

2021, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Home Media, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanMay 27, 2021Cruella, Emma Thompson, Emma StoneComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Beauty and the Beast

Bill Condon’s “Beauty and the Beast” stands firmly on its own merit. True to Disney’s recent trajectory, its goal is to “reimagine” a previous animated classic into the live-action medium for a new era and audience. Unlike the recent treatments of "Cinderella" and "Malificent," this "Beauty and the Beast" stays a full-blown musical. Imitation, emulation, and homage are all part of that process, but so is reappraisal and reinterpretation. Those later two actions are what drive this new fantasy film to soaring and successful heights.

2017, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanMarch 15, 2017AMC Navy Pier IMAX2017, 2017 Spring Movies, Beauty and the Beast, La Belle et la Bete, Christophe Gans, Bill Condon, Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellan, Guga Mbatha-Raw, Emma Thompson, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Kevin Kline, Oscar nominee, Best Picture, Disney classics, Disney, animated films, live-action, remakes, Reimagining, Jeanne-Marie Leprine de Beaumont, Hattie Morahan, Kevin Kline Moustache Principle, Audra McDonald, Sarah Underwood, Katie Spencer, Atonement, Sherlock Holmes, Jacqueline Durran, Tobia A. Schliessler, Peter Berg, IMAX, IMAX 3D, Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Evan Spiliotopoulos, Hercules, Tim Rice, Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Evermore, Josh Groban, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Beast, Hugh Jackman, Controversy, La La Land, Screen Junkies, Honest Trailers, YouTube, Gaston, life lessons from film, life lessons, life lessons from films, life lessons from movies, Life lessons, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, review, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Bridget Jones's Baby

Tongues are inserted into cheeks at a rapid-fire pace in “Bridget Jones’s Baby. The euphemisms, drollery, puns, wild physical gags, and self-deprecating farce originate from all directions and target anyone with eyes and a smile. The writing is harebrained in the most smart and witty ways possible and, trust me, that is a compliment. Better yet, when it needs to, the movie turns off the jokes and hits you with the necessary heart to make all the silly stuff enormously endearing.

2016, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEW, 3 STARSDon ShanahanSeptember 14, 2016Kerasotes ShowPlace ICON X at Roosevelt Collections2016, 2016 Fall Movies, Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones's Baby, Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Patrick Dempsey, Colin Firth, Tim Beven, Eric Fellner, Sharon Maguire, Helen Fielding, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Women over 40, Romantic comedies, life lesson, life lessons from films, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, Life lessons, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, sequels, movie sequels, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Bridget Jones, Dan Mazar, Dan Mazer, Sarah Solemani, Sally Phillips, James Callis, Shirley Richardson, Neil Pearson, Kate O'Flynn, Gangnam StyleComment

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2014: The female acting awards

It's time to make my formal predictions. In this fifth post, we are deep into the major award categories. Here are my picks for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Stick with me and I will win you your Oscar pool. Let's go!