Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

Like the chemical addiction on screen, you have at best, five-minute spurts here and there of those leaps from the concept. You’re likely left asking where all of the power goes. Review

Too much of The Tax Collector lacks the higher gravity beyond the flashy fronts. Review

With Made in Italy and its occasional dalliances into comedy, the shell that comprises Neeson’s defenses sheds layers of honesty and translucent prisms to his heart. Fear is no longer in the equation and that’s a remarkable and gratifying sight to behold. Review

Every braided shoestring of DIY indie filmmaking on Lake Michigan Monsters swings a proverbial kitchen sink of derring-do flair on the end of it. Review

The balance of the past and present in Summerland is a challenge. Swale’s film is pensive in many places and proud in many others, respectfully so, yet with difficult transitions of meshed tones. Review

The richest artistry comes from the written storytelling from Kore-eda. Without his created character dynamics, all the finery and stellar casting are merely shells. The Truth is a ripe role for Catherine Deneuve... Review

The strength of this film’s songs cannot stir the heavier human drama. If music is meant to be the binder, there’s not nearly enough of it. Review

Continuously without dialogue, Daniel Davids and Isobel Wood captivate our cores with courage. Review

The narrative screws might not be the tightest, but its aim is deadly enough to draw you in. Review

Greyhound is a simpler performance than the comparative likes of Captain Phillips and Sully, but Tom doesn’t miss a moment to matter. Review

No Small Matter can tug heartstrings as strongly as it backs its impassioned information. Review

This is an even-handed farce of finger-pointing where both political sides have dirty hands and the media in the middle is wholly and equally complicit. Stewart unleashes this cringing astonishment in a surprising movie that pulls your leg and also very rug right out from underneath you. Review

Miss Juneteenth has as much sincerity as it has struggle. The worthy themes ring true for a positive and willing audience that can pause looking down on pageants and see the bigger preparatory importance. Review

Guided by calm direction from Ani Simon-Kennedy, Carpenter, while green, never overacts. Review

You couldn’t be more there with Tobias and that senses-poking ambiance is constantly arresting. 7500 is a hearty welcome back for Joseph Gordon-Levitt in his first starring role in almost four years since Oliver Stone’s Snowden. Review

There is an almost teenage-level of absurdity to it all by the time the finger-pointing sparks conflict. Review

Re-teaming with his fellow Oscar-winning BlacKkKlansman writer Kevin Wilmott, Spike Lee puts his pungent poetry into a war film setting with dauntless theatrical results. Review

At its fullest and best, Judd Apatow’s newest dramedy is a collection of half-hearted beats and half-witted mischief. That’s it. Just half. Review

The way these writers and filmmakers can capture honest and domestic soul and vitality in such contained bursts is really something. Review

Lulu Wilson is frighteningly voracious. Review

Between the look, feel, and stunning execution of this narrative enigma, it all adds up, again, to tingles from a magnificent genuflection to so many genre inspirations. Review

The two lead actors accomplish the ever-present anguish wonderfully and honestly. Review

Every time they step forward, the movie shines. Instead, their wattage is filtered through milquetoast tropes of stepping stone laments, sell-out pushback, forced romances, career lies, and small-world bow-tying conveniences you’ve seen too many times and in better places. Review

Beyond the dialogue, those writers and The Big Sick director Michael Showalter assembled a semi-crafty plot course that is far from predictable and does not entirely wear out its freshness or welcome in a tidy 86 minutes. Far less and far worse has been slapped together for date night couch watch. Review