Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

Stealing Pulp Fiction unravels too errantly and quickly to make it to a solid ending, making this comedic experiment more foolhardy than fun. Nothing is disrespectful, per se. It’s just incomplete. Review

The pulse-spiking thrills of F1’s IMAX-sized action sequences exemplify Kosinski’s high-quality filmmaking and will leave you gobsmacked and impressed. Review

Kathleen Chalfant’s creative and expressive character work in Familiar Touch is magnetic and appealing. Review

Elio carves a formative path with a more careful attitude for youths to observe and absorb that could not be more essential and relevant, especially with pre-teen boys. This is one for them, and the effort is welcome. Review

The inevitable comparisons will be divisive for some and a coin toss of preference for others. Either way, both movies are solid enough to stoke that fiery and spirit-stirring excitement for audiences new or old. Let’s show our own mercy and have both. Review

Chipping away at typical romantic comedy tropes and expectations, Celine Song dramatically examines the fragile emotions put in jeopardy during the quest for love and lasting relationships. Review

Underdog stories are indeed rich, inspiring, and a topical present-day dream of many, but Thirsty, longing to echo and honor recent female politicians—right down to the historical figures celebrated in the end credits—is aiming more than a shade too high to resonate fully. Review

Predator: Killer of Killers offers a four-part anthology that extends the What If…? comic book-style premise of historical hopscotch that made Prey so successful. It does so with a standout animation style that strikingly emulates painted art. Review

If you can reach this plane of empathetic understanding through the abnormal twists and turns of The Life of Chuck, you have found yourself one marvelous movie. Review

From these urges, Nora takes us into the protagonist’s psyche to a totally different realm of her personality. Nora breaks up its narrative with various song interludes, each pouring forth a different emoted feeling from her hopeful and ever-churning imagination. Review

With little consistent conviction of characters, tired tantrums, and very obvious twists, dumb brawn is taking away from brains at too many junctures. Review

Come to think of it, the challenge of The Kiss comes full circle back to pity; only this time it’s the pity held by the watchful film audience. Review

Just when you think this franchise couldn’t get any bigger with its ambition, just when you think more series-wide connections from its legacy couldn’t be squeezed into this culmination, and just when you think Tom Cruise can’t top himself in the daredevil department, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning answers. Review

With a marinade of humor and a dash of spiritual Catholic contrition, Chbosky and Maccie find the meaningful meat behind the fluff for a welcome crowd pleaser. Come hungry and leave full, with Billy Joel appropriately sending you out. Review

There’s a compelling playfulness in The Trouble with Jessica where viewers’ rooting interests are worked like a seesaw. Review

Even if there are fleeting bits of decent togetherness from the losers, Thunderbolts* is a meta image reclamation project going for no more than light applause, and it shows. Review

The Legend of Ochi is odd and uncool, maybe, but it’s forthright, meaningful, and prudently PG-rated with intentions, lessons, metaphors, and magic all its own. Review

While Daisy Edgar-Jones commands the leading role of the film and learns the most about herself through this year-long chapter of life, her romances are diluted somewhat by the plainness of marital domesticity. Review

As miraculously messy as it describes itself at one point, bringing those feelings and themes forward was very much worth the effort. Review

Death is Business continues to highlight Chicago-based filmmaker Matthew Weinstein’s deft skill of atmosphere and slow-boil revelations. Review

Ryan Coogler gives everything an important story, and, in the end, that concentration matters most. Steeped in all of these mythos and even more unmentioned sublayers of symbolism and imagery curated by a fleet of hired cultural consultants and their seals of approval, Sinners becomes grander and more profound than simply a sandbox genre experiment... Review

Unfortunately, the other by-product of Darkest Miriam’s low-key course is a muddle of bewildering minimalism. Review

The two men of Sacramento are going through this very emotional gauntlet right before our eyes for 90-odd minutes, leading to an ultra-relatable profundity that will garner support and appreciation. Review

If the human precision isn’t impressive enough in Warfare, the production value work and rigorous filmmaking effort will galvanize and hammer that point home. Review