That crucial third act would make a heck of a short film on its own. If we could fast-forward to there, we would be in business. Instead, we get the Eastwood hero worship vanity project parade. Invisible yet incredibly overt, The 15:17 to Paris freely flies its flags of god-fearing conservative morals, manly superiority, unwavering courage, dreams of glory, and military brotherhood. The content isn't lowered for Eastwood’s credibility, but the execution is, even if there is an audience for this sort of thing.

VINTAGE REVIEW: The Astrologer

In a reversal of this practical parable’s usual cadence, one man’s treasure is another man’s trash. This is where the tastes, descriptions, and comparisons begin for 1975’s The Astrologer. A young man named Craig Denney set out to direct and star is his own feature film to break into stardom. It was a passion project of sorts derailed by a backstory of avoidable failure. Along the same lines as trash versus treasure, one filmmaker’s passion project is another man’s vanity film.

COLUMN: The 10 Best Films of 2017

The end of the year brings grading and reflection points for both the school teacher in me and the film critic. Looking at the online Trapper Keeper portfolio called Every Movie has a Lesson, I published 126 full film reviews in 2017, topping last year’s 114 and setting a new high mark. Here’s my definitive list of the "10 Best" films of 2017. True to this website’s specialty, each film will be paired with its best life lesson. Enjoy!

MOVIE REVIEW: Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour and Gary Oldman exhibit tremendous fight to match the vigor of the era. The film builds its mounting prospects of calamity and clashes of dissension with polish and gumption, avoiding many of the dull notes normally saddling most other behind-the-war-room yak-fest. The screenplay shrewdly skips laborious biographical notes and tautly fixates primarily on the two weeks of debate leading up to Operation Dynamo

2017, 4 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 5, 2017Landmark Century Centre CinemasWinston Churchill, Darkest Hour, Joe Wright, Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas, World War II, Operation Dynamo, Dunkirk, Clementine Churchill, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actor Oscar, Gary Oldman, Dario Marianelli, Atonement, Pan, Stephen Frears, Valerio Bonelli, Bruno Delbonnel, Amelie, The Theory of Everything, Anthony McCarten, Ben Mendelsohn, Prime Minister, King Edward VI, film critic, movie critic, film review, movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, 2017 Holiday Films, Churchill, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, life lessons from films, Oscar contenders, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson Comments

MOVIE REVIEW: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Martin McDonagh’s new film puts prickly in the pastoral glazing its country charm with absolute acid every chance it gets. Part stern crime drama and part small-town chicanery, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri displays the next level of McDonagh’s talent and potential. Always the sharp storyteller since his roots on the Irish stage, McDonagh’s writing prowess elevates a premise that would fall flat as pure farce in other hands

MOVIE REVIEW: Mercury in Retrograde

Michael Glover Smith’s words of mounting depth and weight turn idle chatter into soapboxes that eventually become proverbial fortifications built around questioned principles and shattered wills. The ensemble of performers delivers on the required heavy lifting from the director to make the multitude of human flaws believable yet still approachable. Mercury in Retrograde is a hidden gem.

2017, 4 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Social MediaDon ShanahanNovember 27, 20174th Annual Oakton Pop-Up Film Festival2017, independent films, micro-budget film, Mercury in Retrograde, Best Narrative Feature, Full Bloom Film Festival, 2017 Full Bloom Film Festival, 4th annual Oakton Pop-Up Film Festival, Oakton Pop-Up Film Festival, Michael Glover Smith, Michael Smith, Najarra Townsend, Alana Arenas, Jack C. Newell, Rubber, Contracted, Open Tables, Pam Powell, Pamela Powell, Reel Honest Reviews, The Daily Journal, Oakton Community College, Gene Siskel Film Center, Mercury retrograde, Charles-Camille Saint-Saens, The Carnival of Animals, Wolfgang Strutz, Jason Chiu, Roxane Mesquida, Cool Apocalypse, Dashiell Hammett, Ned Beaumont, The Glass Key, Fennville, Saugatuck, southwest Michigan, Chicago, Kevin Wehby, Shane Simmons, Mercury, movie review, film review, film critic, movie critic, film commentary, movie commentary, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, life lessons from independent films, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

STUDENT-FRIENDLY MOVIE REVIEW: Wonder

I do my best to write professional grade film criticism fit for a formal audience, becoming best friends with a thesaurus and using my big boy words. By day, I'm an elementary school educator. At work this year, I've been organizing a special field trip for 5th graders to see Wonder after they've been reading the novel all fall. This second "student-friendly" movie review is for them and other younger readers. Revised, this review scales down my review down from an 11.6 Flesch Kincaid readability level to a comfy 4.4 average.

MOVIE REVIEW: Wonder

Wonder’s buoyant messages are the moving jolt of empathy this generation needs. Even better, its literal and figurative precepts carry an inspiring weight worthy to last many generations more. Directed by the good hands of Stephen Chbosky, Wonder is an instant classic, sure to become a new favorite, for its target audience and a winning (and rare) example of a film taking great care to do justice by the book it is based on.

2017, 5 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 16, 2017The Wilmette Theatreelementary educator, Wonder, 2017 Holiday Films, 2017, R.J. Palacio, Cinderella, Auggie Pullman, Room, Jacob Tremblay, Treacher Collins syndrome, Star Wars, Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Mandy Patinkin, Noah Jupe, Suburbicon, Millie Davis, Elle McKinnon, Bryce Gheisar, Daveed Diggs, Ali Liebert, bullying, empathy, kindness, Steve Conrad, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Jack Thorne, A Long Way Down, Stephen Chbosky, Izabela Vidovic, Danielle Rose Russell, Nadji Jeter, Sonia Braga, medlodrama, coming of age, syrup, Wonder Woman, dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, movie critic, film critic, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, family films, family drama, family comedy, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Justice League

Justice League comes across like attempted course correction done on that Etch-a-Sketch. The artist, or artists in this case, are trying to retrace old paths and smooth over past missteps with redrawn swirls, lighter hues, and a fluffy cover-up we call comedy. That effort on the cinematic Etch-a-Sketch indeed changes the initial picture, but only after unnecessarily tedious effort and some remaining messy results.

2017, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, MOVIE REVIEW, 2 STARSDon ShanahanNovember 15, 2017AMC River East 21Justice League, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Blueprint, DCEU, DC Extended Universe, DC Comics, DC Universe, DC, Etch-a-Sketch, 2017, 2017 Holiday Films, Etch A Sketch, Buddy the Elf, Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Ben Affleck, Batman, The Batman, Ciarin Hinds, Steppenwolf, Apokolips, Mother Boxes, Man of Steel, Bruce Wayne, Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, The Flash, Barry Allen, Arthur Curry, Aquaman, Jason Momoa, Victor Stone, Cyborg, Ray Fisher, Jeremey Irons, Alfred Pennyworth, Lois Lane, Amy Adams, Commissioner Gordon, J.K. Simmons, Suicide Squad, James Wan, Henry Cavill, Victor Frankenstein, Fabian Wagner, Danny Elfman, Spider-Man, Hans Zimmer, reshoots, Zack Snyder, Joss Whedon, movie critic, film critic, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, Every Movie Has a Lesson Comments

MOVIE REVIEW: Lady Bird

In her solo feature directorial debut, Greta Gerwig has stepped in and pushed this cinematic species tremendously forward with the dramedy Lady Bird. The film destroys any notion of the “manic pixie dream girl” fakery. Lady Bird is a cornucopia woven with striking candor and filled with delightful oxymorons artfully composed to challenge taboos and stereotypes. Let’s give each oxymoron a life lesson and a paragraph or two along the way.

2017, 5 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanNovember 10, 2017AMC River East 212017, 2017 Fall Movies, Lady Bird, Now and Then, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Thirteen, Catherine Hardwicke, Kelly Fremon Craig, The Edge of Seventeen, John Hughes, Sixteen Candles, manic pixie dream girl, Greta Gerwig, oxymoron, Atonement, Brooklyn, Saoirse Ronan, Sacramento, Dave Matthews Band, Beanie Feldstein, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea, Goosebumps, Odeya Rush, Timothee Chalamet, Interstellar, Tracy Letts, Laurie Metcalf, Jon Brion, movie review, film review, life lessons, life lessons from film, life lessons from movies, life lessons from films, Coming of Age films, Coming of Age movies, coming of age, Boyhood, movie critic, film critic, Chicago International Film Festival, 53rd Chicago International Film Festival, Festival Centerpiece, Festival review, festival preview, film festival, CIFF, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Thor: Ragnarok

Paired perfectly as a double-feature follow-up to this summer’s spacefaring Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok is a raucously rad roller coaster that shoots rainbows out of every digitally-rendered pore. Blasting with energetic pace in the complete opposite direction from the dreary and grayish Game of Thrones Lite tone of Thor: The Dark World, this new chapter is a cinematic box of Crayola crayons laced with dynamite.

2017, 4 STARSDon ShanahanNovember 2, 2017AMC Navy Pier IMAX2017 Holiday Films, 2017, Thor, Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragonark, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Phase 3, Marvel Films, Marvel, Marvel Comics, Marvel Entertainment, Disney/Marvel, Marvel Studios, Taika Waititi, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Mark Mothersbaugh, Mjolnir, Kat Dennings, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, What We Do in the Shadows, Team Thor, YouTube, Vacation, Ghostbusters, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Ruffalo, Planet Hulk, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, The Grandmaster, Clancy Brown, Surtur, Hela, Loki, Anthony Hopkins, movie review, film review, movie commentary, film commentary, film critic, movie critic, God of Thunder, Goddess of Death, God of Mischief, Ragnarok, Odin, comic book films, Comic Book Guy, comic book movies, comic book movie, DC Comics, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, Every Movie Has a Lesson, Don Shanahan, Donald ShanahanComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Suburbicon

Suburbicon lazily delivers a caper that lacks cleverness, smarts, and anything edgy other than the spurts of hemoglobin that stain a few starched shirts. Even if it is pitch black by design, the final ingredient of fake sentimentality glazed over the proceedings is ineffective to add any varnish to the acidic angle of white-collar crime. Nonsensical twist follows nonsensical twist for an aimless purpose.

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