After six appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Sam “Falcon” Wilson, Anthony Mackie didn’t need an audition tape for becoming the next Captain America for Disney+’s…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: Anthony Mackie Dominates Outside the Wire”

Every influential man or woman had a formative period of their life, where their impressionable knowledge coalesced into cemented principles that would guide them going forward. The…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: Barry Muses on the Catalysts That Shaped the Future Leader”

Folks, I’ve been publishing movie reviews under primarily journalistic rules for over a decade. I’m a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, proud to represent 25YL, but I have to…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: Malick’s The Tree of Life Doesn’t Have a Shred of a Point”

The majority of movie audiences prefer their happy endings. Too often, screenplays are written with an exorbitant magic eraser, one stronger than anything made by Mr. Clean,…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: If Not Now, When? Pushes Away the Magic Eraser of Happy Endings”

There is a point where film noir can be too stylized for its own good. Its traits of small-time crime, femme fatales, anti-heroes, and the underbelly style…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: The American Side Coolly Wears Its Well-Worn Noir Authenticity”

At the tipping point in Shadow in the Cloud when action becomes necessary to confront mounting threats, it is a lone woman surrounded by chauvinistic men that…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: Shadow in the Cloud is Brazen and Bonkers Girlpower Pulp”

Nearly every artistic element of Pieces of a Woman holds a fixation with its lead Vanessa Kirby and rightfully so. Co-stars encircle her aura hoping to get…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: Pieces of a Woman is Unflinching in its Despair”

Fans of celebrities, some of which border closer to hounds than admirers, love to speculate what their favorites are like when the cameras are off. In today’s…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: One Night in Miami is a Meeting of Talents and a Collision of Souls”

Somewhere in the last 30 years, anti-heroes became the #1 trending hero archetype. If a hero wasn’t edgy or cracking jokes every scene, they weren’t cool enough.…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: Wonder Woman 1984 Advances Gal Gadot’s Paragon Status”

Whether you readily see it or not, the great majority of Pixar films (and their adoptive Disney elders) we all know and love carry a streak of…… Read more “New from Don Shanahan on 25YL: Soul Evokes Pixar’s Underlying Streak of Existentialism”