Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

Before Dawn wants to be Australia’s answer to Sam Mendes’s 1917, but the suspense and emotionality are decidedly lower. Still, the film represents its origins honorably and with deeply commendable intent. That will also count positively. Review

Taken together, the swagger and bluster of Twisters returns us back to that sense of stamina and vigor for enduring all things windy. The exhilaration is there if you can take it. Review

Both KiKi Layne and Thomas Doherty have shown their charismatic appeal in several features and different genres before Dandelion, making their magnetic pull together here easy on the eyes. Review

With that domesticated and relatable-beyond-borders quality, Cottontail is creating a greater journey, one venturing beyond any map charting the route to Akiko’s destined lakeside. Review

When knowingly not trying to be serious up front, a caricature of a character like Rex can get away with much more, and that looseness becomes much more palatable and, frankly, more entertaining. Instead, you’ve got a reductive movie striving for inspiration it can’t and shouldn’t earn. Review

The narrative and its musical score deftly hop back and forth over a line between pain and happiness with its revealed secrets and choice of tones. Review

As long as Murphy could resummon that fluent tempo in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F– that crass, disarming, and profanity-soaked gift of gab– and keep it with some stamina for another lavish action comedy, all that was necessary would be fulfilled. Well, queue the popular wrestling crowd chant, because he’s still got it… and then some! Review

Incomplete as it is, the attention Horizon: An American Saga: Chapter 1’s paid to personal recovery mirroring the pioneering momentum of new establishment encapsulates the wide-eyed draw of this film genre. Review

While this film counts as Joey King positively stepping out of teen-centered roles, Zara may be the weakest link of A Family Affair. Review

Beyond the technical side, the true, powerful appeal of Daddio is the mano-y-mano acting showcase between Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn, and it does not disappoint. Review

This movie wasn’t ever going to be Mission: Impossible with its action, Hell or High Water with its pathos, or Ocean’s 11 with its dollar amounts, nor did it need to be anything on that level. Review

The Bikeriders is a penetrating, robust, and nostalgic return for Jeff Nichols... Review

As oxymoronic as this reads, Thelma is a mozzying thriller that never falls asleep at the wheel or on its cushy davenport. Review

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