Movie reviews of Don Shanahan

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

Thanks to the exuberant cast and the kind of contagious entertainment they dispensed, you may just come to love something you didn’t know a lick about 101 minutes earlier. Review

We’re watching a wringer that doesn’t wring us out in return because we come to understand and care so deeply for this broken woman at odds. Review

Compared to other medical-centered dramas that amp up their own kinds of manufactured peril, Audrey’s Children will not—nor should it really—be the most scintillating film of life-saving excitement. Review

We fail to see or feel the heavier point The Assessment wanted to confront us with. We’re too busy tidying up another bleak and futile mess. Review

As frightful and grisly as Majors and Magazine Dreams get, there is an unmistakable lure to their intensity and damaged textures. Majors’ narration, reactions, and jaded silent acts infuse a more layered human lost underneath the monstrous muscles and vices. He is undeniably impressive in those feats. Review

Because of all of this glowing style and sensational suspense, Black Bag is never dull, meaning Steven Soderbergh and his avant-garde arthouse tendencies are never pedestrian either. Review

When it’s all said and done, Queen of the Ring nailed the big fight feel in its 1954 climax that bookends the film, and they put on a barnburner. Review

It is a shame the rest of Picture This around Simone Ashley could not equal her level of vividness. Review

The majority of Riff Raff is a disjointed and boring intersection of Vincent’s present and past families. Too wide of a pendulum is swung between reflective complications and the trigger-happy dark comedy the movies probably should have been the whole time. Review

Thanks to Gretchen Mol, Minnie Driver, and Julianna Marguiles, Millers in Marriage stages a performative pageant of strength and sentiment. Review

Thankfully, Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller look just as good sharing lusty gazes as they do with a deadly rifle on their shoulder while being put through their paces by stunt coordinator Brycen Counts and fight coordinator Shahaub Roudbari. Review

It goes to show that, even with a tremendously polished and solid effort that quite honestly sells itself on brand name alone, Marvel still can’t help themselves. Review

Those who lean to and shine with the positive latter will be rewarded with a lovely odyssey of warmth fighting back bleakness. Review

The linchpin of the new release dramedy Suze isn’t the nicknamed middle-aged female title character played by comedienne and Saturday Night Live alum Michaela Watkins. The overall course is made unexpectedly and tremendously more interesting by the inclusion of a celebrated archetype that’s harder to pull off than audiences realize: the himbo. Review

With its idyllic morals and rural accoutrements, Green and Gold champions hopeful and wholesome vibes. Review

Surging with peppy vibrancy, Dog Man is a delightful and easy-going blast fit for entire fleets of minivans and family sedans arriving at multiplexes this winter. Review