Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

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

The movie doesn’t have one and the canyon-sized narrative hole because of it leaves us more perplexed than satisfied with a shoulder shrug and a chin rub of our own (emoji optional). Review

Tom Hardy sweats, seethes, and pants with a performance of pain that has to be seen to be believed. Review

Whether it’s Duke and co-writer Andrew Boonkrong, the source material, or both, this movie wavers wildly in tone and purpose. What could have been a menacing mystery ends up being little better than a quirky pickle or two. Review

Gerety brings a remarkable level of affecting introvertedness to this damaged leading role. Contrary to his career gilded by a brand of explosive boisterousness, the actor uses massive presence and body language to fill the drama of Working Man. Review

Reaching those bold heights of bracing social commentary, it is fair and complimentary to call Joe Robert Cole’s movie more important than entertaining. Review

Real fights cause real wounds, and no one’s safety is assured. That’s a rugged quality for Hemsworth and company better than most glamour projects. Review

Without some of that enveloping weight, all this amounts to is an abridged and radical folk tale without the proper embellishment. Review

Shailene has the uncanny ability of balancing bruised burdens with infinitely levitating allure. She’s the reason to see this movie. Review

Like a good sequel should, Trolls World Tour elevates stakes with its ambitious amusement to become an even bigger compilation tape than it already was. Review

He took the French’s concept and the ironic tropes of movie weddings and bent enough kinks to make something devilishly delightful. Review

Filled with dumbfounded narrative and creative choices, fake trauma, and forgotten consequences, he ain’t kidding. Pass the bullet and the remote. Review

No amount of razzle-dazzle filling eyes and ears can cover up the glaring examples of questionable creativity and incomplete development enacted by Abrams and lead screenwriter Chris Terrio. Review