Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

Beyond any John Williams musical backing, action figures, magazine covers, and wall posters, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story reinforces that the coda of Christopher Reeve and Dana Reeve’s stories deserves to be their tireless charitable efforts. Review

These exposed fractures in His Three Daughters are fascinating in their complication and frankness beyond the typical grief management narratives. No one ever said catharsis was easy to acquire, and that is the case here. Review

So often, a furrowed forehead flex from Clooney meets a nonplused raised eyebrow of Pitt, and we cannot help but smirk at the sight. By the time their banter increases and finishes each other’s sentences, we’re hooked by the beguiling bait. Review

Sit back and marvel at the unabashed fun and delirious delights he conducts. Review

Leave to a little indie movie like this to demonstrate sports sensibilities with a heart taller than any MLB stadium or a studio film ten times its budget, where a hug is a bigger victory than any home run. Review

Danny Kurtzman and Stanger wrote a soulful sojourn that keeps matters dramatic yet approachable. Review

The end result of War Game is a fascinating experience that jarringly resusitates the palpable unease felt back in 2021. Review

The exchanges of edgy profanity may count as some of the best entertainment present, but at some point we’re saying that phrase too right back at the movie itself. Review

The gravity of Peak Season is strong enough in its genuineness and quaintness to still find the right Bridges of Madison County-esque climactic quandary. Review

In presenting these heavenly heights of brotherhood and commitment with the truest possible representatives, Sing Sing is instantly one of the best prison films in movie history. Review

Deadpool & Wolverine operates with a reckless abandon that, through all the bottomless irreverent humor and pizazz on screen, smears its blood and guts from a surprising and corrective place of love. Review

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