MOVIE REVIEW: Perfect Strangers (Perfectos Desconocidos)

The poster for the Mexican remake Perfectos Desconocidos glows with affluence. We see a richly appointed dinner party scene flush with refinement from edge to edge across fashions, place settings, and the flowing wine. What intentionally glows the brightest on the poster is the statement “We all have a secret life.” It symbolically shows materialistic beauty undone by the blunt intrusion of technology. Thematically, that tagline statement is the lightning bolt of tension that charges this entire film.

2018, 2019, 3 STARS, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDon ShanahanFebruary 5, 2019 Comments

MOVIE REVIEW: Vice

With more dismissive scowls than joking winks, thinly veiled outrage outweighs the drink-clinking humor in Adam McKay’s film presenting a biography of one of the least favored men in American political history. Hazy in some moments, hasty in others, and always provocative, Vice is easily the most polarizing film of the year. The movie is not unlike Cheney’s own aim with a shotgun, hitting and missing plenty with occasional collateral damage.

2018, 3 STARS, ADVANCE MOVIE REVIEW, Film Festival, MOVIE REVIEW, Independent FilmDon ShanahanDecember 23, 2018Dick Cheney, Christian BaleComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Bumblebee

Plenty of loud-and-dumb still comes out of Bumblebee, but at least the pompous hubris and sophomoric fixations that fuel it are exchanged for those three missing elements of tone, character, and heart. The charming zeal of this revisionist prequel stands as the beacon signal to welcome back those who wrote this series off (including this very writer) years ago.

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, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanDecember 11, 2018AMC River East 21Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Outlaw King

Filmmaker David Mackenzie’s strapping Netflix epic Outlaw King starts with prologue notes surrounding the glowing heat of a single candle in close-up. The flickering warmth is inviting and a tone of liberating light coming out of darkness is set to parallel the recreated history that will follow. But how much heat can one candle emit? Try as it may, no matter what measures of warm blood and sweaty brawn is infused into Outlaw King, it is very difficult to find or create sizzle out of something balmy.

2018, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEW, StreamingDon ShanahanNovember 10, 2018Showplace ICON X at Roosevelt CollectionsComment

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.

MOVIE REVIEW: Loving Pablo

The overarching challenge remains making romance out of a villain, enough to soften the depravity of the historical truth. Matching Vallejo’s own findings, Loving Pablo defines that Escobar’s darkness cannot be diluted, making much of this film a difficult and treacherous viewing experience. To its great credit, the merciless edge of Loving Pablo rejects forced cinematic sugar-coating overused in other crime films to romanticize its leviathans.

2017, 2018, 3 STARS, Film Festival, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDon ShanahanOctober 9, 2018Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Sisters Brothers

From “spaghetti,” “meat pie” and “ostern” to “curry” and “charro,” there are reasons for the good ole’ U.S. of A. to feel jealous and intrigued to realize that some of the best westerns being made today are coming from foreign directors and sources. After The Salvation, look no further than The Sisters Brothers from French director Jacques Audiard. Call it a “baguette,” “crepe,” or “foie gras” western, but the Rust and Bone and Dheepan filmmaker has genuflected to make a proper addition to this movie discipline.

2018, 3 STARS, Film Festival, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanSeptember 28, 2018Landmark Century Centre CinemasComment

MOVIE REVIEW: Unbroken: Path to Redemption

Stepping forward unofficially as a literal and figurative “spiritual sequel,” Unbroken: Path to Redemption corrects that omission. Glowing with effort above its pedigree, the film is an earnest and very commendable exploration into what elevated the former Olympian and POW survivor into a true legend of his “greatest generation.” There is no begrudging this second attempt to make worthy what was tabled as circumstantial.

2018, 3 STARS, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEW, Video on DemandDon ShanahanSeptember 11, 2018Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: The Meg

Smirking and confident in its own bristly sharkskin armor, The Meg is as lean a blockbuster as you will find. Any fat is trimmed quickly by the urge to chomp up more people and scenery. Since this go-big-or-go-home late summer IMAX sizzler is a creature feature B-movie dependent on a carnivorous buffet of victims (and customers) to satiate its excitement (and bottom line), the loving focus for this critique will be the types and cuts of meat consumed and on display. Tuck your monster movie napkin into shirt collar, skip the hoity-toity hand sanitizer, and bring your creative kill appetite to an entertaining little film feast.

MOVIE REVIEW, 2018, 3 STARSDon ShanahanAugust 8, 2018 Comments

MOVIE REVIEW: Christopher Robin

The messages wrapped up by this movie’s soft spirit may be achingly sympathetic and predictable simple. Things are better when the many Milne stories and adaptations of this wonderment can still offer timeless reminders very suitable and highly beneficial for both the parental and youthful generations of filmgoers today that could use a little slowdown and imaginative play. Foibles aside, Christopher Robin is an unapologetic heart-melter. Earnestness comes easy and there is a place and, even better, a need, for this in the cinema marketplace.

2018, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanAugust 3, 2018AMC River East 21Comment

MOVIE REVIEW: Skyscraper

When you see Dwayne Johnson wipe his sweat, furrow his brow, clench his muscles, and fixate his eyes of indomitable resilience at each obstacle in Skyscaper with the sole goal of rescuing his wife and two kids from a 225-story burning building, you immediately feel completely inadequate as a man and especially a father. You want a dad like The Rock. Johnson is the ultimate winning answer to every playground banter battle of “my dad is tougher than your dad.” His screen children don’t know how good they have it, but we sure do enjoying another glossy, ballsy, and brawny summer blockbuster from the most dependable and bankable action star in the world.

2018, 3 STARS, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJuly 15, 2018Classic Cinemas North Riverside 7Comment