Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  Some festive cheer now, and despite watching this in September I was ready to be charmed by this small town tale of mischief and human kindness. Alas it’s not so much ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ as it’s a big old piece of crap. The titular town of Pottersville is facing hard times. An opening drone shot shows the town to have a lot of failed businesses and repossessed properties. One business that is struggling on is the general store, run by Michael Shannon’s Maynard Greiger, which has to offer credit to its punters which Maynard logs in a large register. His shop assistant is the lovely Judy Greer and Stevie Wonder could see that the pair will end up as a couple by the movie’s end. For now though Maynard is married and after getting some elk steaks from Lovejoy’s mountain man character he heads home to surprise his wife. As anyone who has ever seen a film ever will know he of course stumbles onto the wife’s infidelity. She’s not shagging anyone but is partaking in a ‘furri...

  I watched this Christmas film in August so I may not have been totally in the Christmas spirit at the time of viewing. It was OK, with a couple of laughs but I think Seth Rogan’s stoner persona is getting a bit old. The film opens with a book opening and a lot of rhyming couplets giving is the backstory of the three main characters. For a horrible moment I thought the whole film was going to be in rhyme but thankfully that was reserved for the preamble only. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s parents are killed in a car accident and following their burial on Christmas eve his friends Seth Rogan and Anthony Mackie take him out. This becomes a tradition (the going out, not the burying the parents) and we get a trip through the ages as the lads have good festive fun in Christmas jumpers. One year they hear of ‘The Nutcracker Ball’ an exclusive and secretive party. They want to go but as the years pass they never get close to the fabled event. We then hit the present day with Mackie a late bloom...