Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

Even in the name of the blackest pitch black dark comedies, Kinds of Kindness tests tolerance by trying to push three wayward and wonky exertions down your throat. At that volume, constitutions check out and all the ambition fizzles out. Review

Coming from such collaborative efforts, Ezra was always going to stay light by taking its mini-adventure route. In doing so, the movie skirts and glosses slightly over the ponderous reality and ugly truths of addressing hardships and traumas. Review

Sure, it may have taken a bit to get there, but talented writer-director Vincent Grashaw demonstrated the shrewd patience to make those culminating moments happen on their own time and without some grand public showdown or audience. Review

Guy Friends is rife with disarming humor punctuated by peppy and agile dialogue. First-time actresses Kavita Jariwala and Katie Muldowney exhibit effervescent appeal and clever chemistry with their differing and merging wavelengths of personality. Review

This baked-in layer of brains amid the brawn in Hit Man is credited to Linklater and Powell working together to punch up a screenplay together allowing fun to frolic next to intrigue. Review

Straight-line speed such as this can be impressive, but it’s the perilous swerves that kick up the real dust, multiply the risks, and amplify the bigger suspense. The Joy-to-Theron arc has a tangible level of myth and mystery and a high value of importance for a very worthwhile character, albeit it is limited here by having a telegraphed journey towards an inevitable destination. Review

They are setting yet another stage for an epic crowd pleaser. Among the trend of heavily predictable genre movies with low stakes, this one is going to ponderous and exciting places simultaneously, and it’s all the better for it. Review

The Fall Guy is an odd and ironic case in this day and age where an increase of the normally thin or absent stakes we bitch about might have become too high and too much. Review

This is a fairy tale with a swift kick of reality, and there’s a better-than-good chance Anne Hathaway knows all about this kind of personal and professional adversity. This role fit her perfectly and she has the stature to make this multi-layered quandary both alluring and convincing. Review

The Moon & Back can be a receptive salve type to open wounds for those who have lost parents and loved ones in their lives. Equally so, the soulful courage brimming from this movie to create something messy, yet personal and still glorious for others, fulfills such a need. Keep movies like this coming and go ahead and get them from the moon if you have to. Review

Because of this conundrum of slightly unnecessary happenstance, The Brink Of has its level of triteness and frustrations. In spite of that, you root for James and Lena as much as you admire and soak in their music. Review

Even though Deep Sky is an abrupt shorthand version (the running time could have been doubled with zero complaints) of a continuing story, it is exactly the type of presentation and ponderous point that will rightfully and fruitfully inspire the next generation of innovators and explorers. Review

The laughs are few and far between and stay in the cringe territory. Review

While no one is going to shatter a racket on the ground in frustration for getting more melodrama to play with, there’s about three twists too many, even if you’re hanging for every one of them. Review

Even granting The Absence of Eden reflective patience to flesh out a multi-pronged saga, that final intersection of the two leads occurs too late, is insufficiently brief, and not impactful enough to satisfy or resolve the double narrative. Review

During the time when the knock down-drag-out spectacle finally shows up at its fever pitch peak for Civil War, the dispassionate stances and reactions consume it all. You will exhale air of resigned consolation more than inhale breaths of moving eminence. Review

Much like the reactive public of Littlehampton, viewers of Wicked Little Letters may find themselves having to choose a side between Colman or Buckley. There’s no need for that whatsoever. The movie wins with either one of them. Review

Because Monkey Man exudes those three qualities of dedicated power sought by Patel, the result is a hungry dark horse movie never satisfied by anything basic. Review

Plenty can't and won't stomach this type of sentimental movie, leaving it for the dreamers and romantics out there more than ready to drop a needle and be swept away. Review

All of those recognizable ensemble members, as well as plenty of the lesser-known folks under them, should have been able to contribute thicker substance. Review

Steve Buscemi and Alessandro Camon understand that life is haunted and twisted enough not to require those exploitative tropes. The Listener exemplifies their restraint to tell something contemplative, powerful, and not preposterous. Review

While it may not overtake the likes of The Goonies or Stand By Me in the pantheon of big screen rascals, Weston Razooli has found the right infectious ambition to grab our attention and join the cult following. Review

Drew and Free Time ultimately unravel because he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, so the script from short film director-writer-editor Ryan Martin Brown has to manufacture a few for sympathy’s sake. Review

When everything is a question mark and very little is worth rooting for in Sleeping Dogs, the result can be, in the end, uninteresting. Review