Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

While intellectually satisfying to a degree, headiness cannot be its sole peak of moral damage. For peril’s sake, you have to let a little, or even a substantial, bit of your mounting suspense go ahead and detonate. Review

Somehow, even Rudd’s sterling Everyman charisma is smudged and dulled by the parade of green screen mattes and surrounding creature created by the VFX team... Review

Some purists or historians may call all of this speculative historical fiction in Emily hogwash, but they would be discounting those very moods, combined with Bronte’s strict upbringing as a marginalized woman. Review

Mature and malicious while skirting the line with a dash of kink, movies like Sharper don’t get made enough nowadays. Enjoy its casual boldness. Review

Home, per se, might be the most common setting in cinema and storytelling, but each place’s unique attitudes, connections, and people make them fascinating little worlds to examine and compare with our own. We’ve got a decent one here with Somebody I Used to Know. Review

While Maybe I Do is in the right heartfelt place to discuss the value of marriage and how children don’t have to turn out like their parents, there is a colossal amount of “practice what you preach” missing to make it tangible. Review

Barris and Hill missed creating a truly bold example for this current climate and stayed safe within glamor and predictability. There was room to present cultures and hearts matching in loving unison better than this. Review

When You Finish Saving the World stops right when an interesting alignment of merits could possibly begin. That ambiguous final moment of discovered courage and acceptance ends the journey at the point it should have begun. Review

Mary Nighy and Alanna Francis took on a more unique challenge to expose the coercive side that lacks tawdry bloodshed. Their result hurts plenty in its own right and succeeds to seek higher healing. Review

All the drama and comedy swirling together in Forster’s film empties into Tom Hanks. On different shoulders, A Man Called Otto is pure cinematic molasses, but Hanks is a sentimental soothsayer overcoming irony and doubt. Review

You would be hard-pressed to find a more rousing and rollicking movie experience this year or many others. Again and again, this is something truly passionate and special. Review

We have a mirthful movie that dares to dangle introspective yarn balls of fear, mortality, trust, friendship, and more towards our devil-may-care feline and the movie’s eager audience. Review

The audience’s constitution will be the deciding factor on Babylon’s wide gamut of pungent engagement and raging spectacle. This juxtaposition of the carefree and zany with the dirty and dark underneath can very easily be too much. Review

Thanks to Chau’s protective involvement, there’s a rock-solid, heart-crushing version of The Whale that would be just these two and no one else. They have enough painful and resurfaced history for two movies. Instead, outside factors in Hunter’s screenplay and tonal choices from Aronofsky sully the potential of those good graces becoming their own simpler, standalone core. ... Review

You can hold up Baz Luhrmann’s sparkle, Michael Bay’s bombast, Steven Spielberg’s precision, and Christopher Nolan’s scope, but none of them, and no one else not named, is close to making films at James Cameron’s level of science and engineering. Just when we think we’ve seen everything possible on a silver screen, he blazes new trails that open our eyes and drop our jaws. Review

Characters with tangible messiness about them are still pausing to think with their heart and head equally. That relatability brings about romantic possibilities in Something From Tiffany’s that spark with stronger potential connections than the short burst of superficial fireworks based on mere looks. Review

That escapist magic, while plenty special as we all know, is as fleeting as the permeating effect attempted in Empire of Light. The private and civil issues present in this film cannot be fixed and are not fixed by silver screen sorcery. Review

Once readers and viewers journey past the hot-and-bothered parts of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, they will find a story of elevated risks more difficult than high society gossip. Review

As if playing James Bond for a generation wasn’t iconic enough, the 54-year-old Brit has carved out another signature role we cannot get enough of that will define his career. Savoring this charm with the right cases and opposing actors to work against, he and Rian Johnson can rotate this party for decades without wearing out either of their welcomes. Review

In different hands, Devotion would be a Michael Bay fireworks show of grandiose noise. Director J.D. Dillard proves a story of proper hero worship can reach rousing and patriotic heights without screaming to high heaven. Once again, look no further than that perfect title and what it stands for in all its places. Review

The tagline on the poster of The Fabelmans commands to “capture every moment” just as the Spielberg proxy does. The more apt result would be a film lulling you into appreciation. Review

Like the main character, the submission of the movie itself does not put forth enough fight for earned growth. Review

Niceness, in any of its shades, is hard to find in The Banshee of Inisherin, but there’s something uncommonly compelling about absorbing and weathering this march to calamity. Review

There’s a limit reached in The Class where even the issues have their issues. Nevertheless, the effort is commendable. Review