EVERY MOVIE HAS A LESSON

by Don Shanahan

Posts in Independent Film

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on December 10, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, CIFCC, IndieWire, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDonald ShanahanDecember 12, 2018David EhrlichComment

MOVIE REVIEW: When Jeff Tried to Save the World

MOVIE REVIEW: When Jeff Tried to Save the World

Not only has writer-director Kendall Goldberg fleshed out this excellent main character, she guides it through this plot with a matching sense imagination and earnestness. The nuances win in a story where heart and pragmatic approachability outshine any need for shock value and raunch. The smart and spot-on tonal mix of such simplicities deserve to be appreciated.

2018, 4 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDonald ShanahanDecember 12, 2018Music Box TheatreComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Favourite

MOVIE REVIEW: The Favourite

The Favourite has a wider scope and warmer temperature than Lanthimos’ previous two films. His aim for deadpan delivery highly on display last year in The Killing of the Sacred Deer bends to occasionally include pulse-quickening emotions and diaphragm-shaking chuckles. The Favourite says that “love has limits.” The same can be said for Lanthimos. He is the exact definition of an acquired taste. The brilliance is there, with much to love and plenty still to rebuke.

2018, 3 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, CIFCC, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDonald ShanahanDecember 11, 2018AMC River East 21Comment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on December 3, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, CIFCC, IndieWire, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDonald ShanahanDecember 5, 2018David EhrlichComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Roma

MOVIE REVIEW: Roma

That unfortunate fate could not be farther away from a film like Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma. For all of those possible extrapolations of commitment and dedication taking place within the craft of filmmaking, you may never, not this year and maybe several more after, see a more intimate artistic expression than this powerful and personal film. To the man making Roma, this film is special. To those viewing it, this film is important. To the art it serves, this film could be a potential masterpiece.

2018, 5 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Foreign Film, Independent Film, Netflix, MOVIE REVIEWDonald ShanahanDecember 3, 201854th Chicago International Film FestivalComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Rendezvous in Chicago

MOVIE REVIEW: Rendezvous in Chicago

Michael Glover Smith’s third feature film channels Éric Rohmer to present three collisions of love occurring in the writer-director’s own beloved Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. Smith’s canny talent to pen and juggle a triptych is not what impresses the most. Rather, what is greater, quite simply, is his sense of feel as a storyteller and filmmaker.

2018, 4 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, CIFCC, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, SPECIALDonald ShanahanNovember 30, 2018Oakton Community CollegeComment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Guilty

MOVIE REVIEW: The Guilty

Played in nearly real-time, The Guilty jolts the audience with the fits and spurts of the received and dropped calls. Some are dangled snippets and others linger with impact. Their rising and falling tensions are shrewdly and sharply written by director Gustav Möller and TV writer Emil Nygaard Albertsen. Their unforgiving suspense create an engrossing and choking mood of unknown and mounting dread. The Guilty is as smooth and taut of a 85-minute feature as you’ll see, no matter the language.

2018, 4 STARS, Best Films, Foreign Film, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDonald ShanahanNovember 27, 2018Music Box TheatreComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on November 19, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, CIFCC, IndieWire, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDonald ShanahanNovember 20, 2018David EhrlichComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Widows

MOVIE REVIEW: Widows

Kicking something flaky and flimsy like Ocean’s 8 to the curb, the Shame and 12 Years a Slave Oscar winner has assembled a dauntless ensemble cast lead by dynamic females. Rooted in the thinly and sinfully fabricated dermal and subcutaneous layers of Chicago, Widows wields an effeminate brawn and sly intelligence working to stoke a masterful slow burn. The film’s bold gravity constricts us wonderfully for one of the most visceral crime films of recent memory and one of the best films of 2018.

2018, 4 STARS, Chicago Film Festival, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDonald ShanahanNovember 15, 2018AMC River East 21Comment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on November 12, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, CIFCC, IndieWire, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDonald ShanahanNovember 13, 2018David EhrlichComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Minisode #55 Minisode podcast guest for "Feelin' Film" to review "A Private War"

MEDIA APPEARANCE: Minisode #55 Minisode podcast guest for "Feelin' Film" to review "A Private War"

A Private War takes Colvin’s words off the page and lets us experience just why her work was so important, making this one of 2018’s most essential films. In this special minisode, Feelin’ Film Aaron White interviews Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award winning director Matthew Heineman about his first narrative feature film, followed by a discussion with yours truly from Every Movie Has a Lesson.

2018, 4 STARS, Feelin' Film, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Podcast, Social Media, SPECIALDonald ShanahanNovember 13, 2018Comment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on November 5, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, CIFCC, IndieWire, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDonald ShanahanNovember 8, 2018David Ehrlich, Ethan HawkeComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on October 29, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, CIFCC, IndieWire, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDonald ShanahanNovember 6, 2018David Ehrlich, Ethan HawkeComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on October 22, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, CIFCC, IndieWire, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDonald ShanahanOctober 25, 2018David Ehrlich, Ethan HawkeComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Can You Ever Forgive Me?

MOVIE REVIEW: Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a new cornerstone for Melissa McCarthy. If she can continue this maturation and start trading one or two raunchy romps for introspection and challenge like this, she could become the one of the best American actresses of her generation. Watch out. This might just be the second coming of Robin Williams. Add a “yet” in there somewhere if you must, but the potential is real.

2018, 4 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDonald ShanahanOctober 25, 2018AMC River East 21Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Silencio

MOVIE REVIEW: Silencio

Within in the 98 minutes of Silencio, this little dual-language flick accomplishes what few high concept indie films have been able to achieve with their wildly audacious ideas. It builds a bridge, not a wide and sturdy one, mind you, but a successful structure nonetheless, from the nonsensical to the profound. That is a normally a huge canyon of belief and consideration to cross.

2018, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Foreign Film, Video on DemandDonald ShanahanOctober 23, 2018Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Oath

MOVIE REVIEW: The Oath

Spinning out of a ridiculous-yet-just-plausible-enough premise, Ike Barinholtz and his fellow comedians light a ticking clock fuse towards a powder keg of social commentary dipped in the incendiary gasoline of partisan politics.The result is an entertaining explosion where every tame “bless your heart” or “agree to disagree” pleasantry shared through gritted teeth becomes replaced with “shut the f — k up” shouts and punches to the face. No matter how wrong all of this is, The Oath is a finger-pointing wake-up we could all use.

2018, 4 STARS, FUNNY, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDonald ShanahanOctober 18, 2018Arclight Chicago TheaterComment

MEDIA APPEARANCE: David Ehrlich's IndieWire Critics Survey on October 15, 2018

Notable and notorious IndieWire film critic David Ehrlich recently put out a social media call for film critic peers to join a weekly survey to discuss movie topics, answer questions, and highlight their work. Representing Every Movie Has a Lesson, I, along with over 50 other emerging and established film critics including some of my fellow Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle members, accepted the invitation to participate. I'm honored by the opportunity, and I hope my responses are chosen each week.

2018, CIFCC, IndieWire, Independent Film, Media Appearance, Social Media, SPECIALDonald ShanahanOctober 17, 2018David Ehrlich, Ethan HawkeComment