Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  Death By Lightning at the IMDb   More up to date Shannon now, albeit one set in the past. This is a 4 part mini series that you can find on Netflix and I would recommend that you do. Shannon plays James Garfield, a lesser-known American president who was shot by an assassin three months into his presidency and who died of complications from the wound a few months later. His story is not well known, at least to myself, but it was an engaging and entertaining historical drama which was sumptuously staged and well-acted, by a stellar cast. The first episode opens in a contemporary warehouse as an old box splits open and out rolls a jar containing a human brain. This is labelled ‘Charles Guiteau: Brain’ and the series then dissolves into the past to see how we ended up at the brain storage facility. We meet Shannon’s Garfield as a young senator working his farm. He has the familiar trait of being a poor woodworker – we know his talents lie elsewhere! He has a long-suff...

  Nuremberg at the IMDb Up to date Shannon once again and I have to confess that I gave up the chance to see this in the cinema in favour of ‘The Running Man’. My choice wasn’t great, but it wasn’t 148 minutes either! Three hours including trailers is too much and I think this film was better served over three sittings on streaming. The film is a historical drama which closely follows the events in Nuremberg following the war when a group of Nazis were tried for war crimes. This was a new idea with the victors previously just killing all of the vanquished on the quiet. This time the Allies plan to send a message that war crimes will be tried and punished in all conflicts going forward. Whether that has done any good is up for debate, and some of the shady dealings on show suggest that the victors weren’t that virtuous in any event. Shannon has one of the three main roles in the film and shines as Justice Robert H Jackson. He has the job of prosecuting the Nazis alongside his Br...

  Hot off the press Shannon now as his latest offering comes to the fore. To be honest, it’s a glorified cameo and he’s in a single scene only, but he gets a credit as ‘Himself’, so let’s have a look. Sebastian Stan a.k.a. ‘The Winter Soldier’ stars as Edward, a man who has severe facial disfigurement. The cause is not mentioned but a childhood photo shows him without the affliction, so it’s safe to assume it’s a disease or genetic problem that’s caused the issue. We watch him struggle through his life with people gasping at his appearance. Things look up however when a new neighbour moves in and they soon hit it off. Edward is however too self-conscious to act on his feelings for Ingrid who is an aspiring playwright. Edward takes part in a new treatment trial and, as you’d probably guess it’s a roaring success, with his face being transformed overnight into that of heartthrob Stan. This helps Edward get on in life and he renames himself as ‘Guy’ and takes on a real estate job....

  As I near the end of this worthy endeavour the films get harder to find. This one required a £3.49 rental on Amazon! Oh, the humanity! It was a good watch though and I’m just glad the majority of Shannon’s work is easily available. There are a few that still escape me on all platforms, so we’ll just have to keep our eyes open.   This is a strange kind of movie with dark and comedy elements sitting side by side. In some senses it’s a film noir but in others it is a straightforward mystery drama.   Shannon plays a stereotypical private eye, almost in the Bogart style, but in 2009. He lives in a rundown apartment next to the train track and he likes booze, smoking and voiceover narration. We meet him in bed, rudely awakened by a 5am phone call. The news is good however, as it’s a job, and clearly one that he needs. He is tasked with taking a train so that he can follow a man and a child. Amy Ryan from the new employers is soon at his door with tickets and a pile of...

  This one opens with several short scenes of Rachel Weisz carrying out various occupations such as a nurse and a magician’s assistant. You may be forgiven for thinking you’ve stumbled onto a new celebrity reality show, but there is more if you hang around.   Meanwhile Michael Shannon is preparing for his birthday party. He starts out with a strange accent, but this is quickly dropped. He has problems of his own however – the bakery has put the wrong name on his birthday cake. There are also fissures appearing in his relationship with his exotic wife who has the option of a two-year jewellery making course and she wants Shannon to come with her to California.   Weisz shows up at the party with a colleague of Shannon’s with whom she'd engineered a meeting. We know he has no chance really as he’s a bit fat and he is destined to be in the friendzone forever. Shannon has a long doubletake at Weisz whom he knows as ‘Jenny’ but who now goes as ‘Alice’. He gets her alone...

  Here’s another film that I had previously reviewed for my Definite Article Movie blog. I’d forgotten I’d seen it and even went so far as buying a DVD of the film from eBay as I couldn’t find it on any of my other resources. About 20 minutes in it dawned on me that I’d seen Pierce Brosnan’s terrible gurning before. I did watch it through again however, it was £1.49 after all, and my reaction to it was much the same the second time around.   This film opens with Kick-Ass getting it on with Carey Mulligan - enjoy this happy scene as it’s the last bit of joy you’ll get for another 90 minutes, as a dysfunctional family deals with the loss of their son. Kick-Ass you see may be ‘the greatest’ in bed but isn’t so hot on his driving. He stops in the middle of the road to profess his love and is killed by Michael Shannon’s truck for his trouble.   His mother Susan Sarandon is devastated, and his father Pierce Brosnan is a bit upset too. His brother is mostly stoned and th...

  We’re nearly up to date with this offering which came five years after the original Waco miniseries, which I have previously reviewed. This one is a bit leaner at five episodes compared to the predecessor’s six, and is less satisfying too.   The series takes up the story straight after the end of the Waco siege and we get various threads that show us the origins of the Branch Davidians as well as the fall out in the FBI and the consequences of their actions, which the series suggests gave rise to more Patriot style militias who were distrustful of the government.   There are three main threads with the origins of the cult getting the most attention initially with a courtroom drama then playing out along with Shannon’s character trying to work out what the promised ‘Payback’ will take the form of – spoiler – it’s the Oklahoma City bombing.   We see the cult in its early days in 1981, with Koresh joining under his original name of Vernon. The cult is led ...

  Here’s another relic from my fabled ‘W’ Movies Blog. Michael Shannon has provided many offerings for both this and my other ‘Definitive Movies’ blog and for that I thank him. I think it was my exposure to these random films of his that set him up as the candidate for my next blog, the one that you are reading here. As with the others I’ve ported over my plot synopsis from my earlier blog but have added a few extra Shannon focused lines too. The film is a family drama about the onset of Alzheimer's in the elderly mother. Don’t run away - at least that’s what they should have told the old girl who goes for a wander in the middle of the night in a Chicago snow storm. Her husband Robert Forster calls his local bar owing son Michael Shannon who in turn calls the daughter Hilary Swank. They manage to find the old lady but realise that they have problems to address. Shannon wants the old bird moved into a home as he bears the brunt of looking after his age ing parents and is...

  Time for a dysfunctional relationship now as the titular couple fall in and out of love on a regular basis. The film opens with a sex scene with the couple teasing each other as to whether they should save themselves for later. Michael keeps his pants on but Imogen Poots is more devoted to her art. We get various out of sequence snapshots of the couple’s relationship including an awkward meeting with Lola’s mother. Frank (Shannon) is a talented chef but is a bit jealous and overbearing towards the younger Lola. He gets upset when Justin Long chats her up in a bar as he looks on, and more so when he offers her a fashion design job. He’s nothing but nice, and a bit miscast, and even helps Frank to get a leg up by suggesting him to head a new Las Vegas restaurant. The relationship hits the rocks when Lola gets caught out having slept with another man. Frank leaves her but later reconciles with her when she reveals that she was raped by a man who was wooing her mother. S...

  I watched this show when it came on Amazon TV last year. I wasn’t going to re-watch all 8 episodes for the purposes of this blog as I wasn’t that impressed by it, but I did skip through the series again to refresh my memory. The series starts with a pile of fruit and ice in a blender which then switches on. It’s reasonable to assume that this serves as a metaphor for what is to come. The blender in question is a tranquillity retreat, run by Nicole Kidman’s character, Masha. She takes in the titular group of strangers with the plan being to aid them with their own struggles. As you’d likely have guessed they all have secrets and the invitees are not as random as you’d been led to expect. The first guests we meet are Michael Shannon and his family. He plays a high school teacher called Napoleon, and he and his wife Heather are struggling following the death of their son. They bring along their daughter Zoe, who is a twin to the dead boy. The rest of the group are a col...

  I have vague memories of the 1993 Waco siege and had it down as some religious nutters killing themselves when the government lost patience with them following a long stand-off. This six part TV series covered a lot of ground and looked at both sides of the confrontation. The result was that the government forces came out of it looking worse, but the cultists could have been smarter too. The series opens with Michael Shannon’s character Gary trying to end another hostage incident. This one doesn’t end well and hopefully lessons will be learnt. They aren’t! Meanwhile in Waco Texas, David Koresh is living the high life of a cult leader. Someone does correct us in the show saying that no one in a cult thinks they are in a cult but it all looks a bit cultish to me. Koresh and his right hand man Steve, the ever reliable Paul Sparks, are running a large compound full of families who believe David to be the next coming of Christ. We see him recruit one of the Culkin clan and he...

  Super early Shannon now in this odd film that boasts a galaxy of stars but no plot to speak of. This one was hard to locate and I eventually had to splurge a couple of quid to source a copy on DVD. The DVD release obviously came far after the cinema run as the box boats the turns of Gillian Anderson and Michael Ironside when both barely get a minute of screen time. For Anderson this was made before her break on ‘The X-Files’ so no doubt the copyright holder saw the release as a quick cash in. The film is set, as you’d expect with that title, in Chicago, in the run up to Christmas. We ride for the duration of the film with an unnamed cabbie, played by Paul Dillon who is good and best known for his role as the Irish assassin in the first Austin Powers films. They may be after his Lucky Charms but they won’t find many in this largely grim offering. The film opens on an early Thursday ,morning with a family taking the cab to church. They ask the cabbie to come along but he r...

  Here’s another film that I had previously watched for an earlier blog – in this case it was The Definite Article Movie Blog about 4 years ago. I did watch the film through again with a more Shannon focused eye, but I will recycle the plot summary here because, you know, the environment. This film has a clever title; it’s not just about someone being on the hunt for their quarry, but bits of it are set in a quarry too! A priest is driving along an empty Texas road, whilst hammering the communion wine, when he sees a body lying by side of the street. He helps the man into his car and we see that it’s familiar Shannon co-star Shea Whigham. The two don’t say much but the priest buys his new friend dinner whilst still swigging the wine. He stops at a quarry - huge mistake - to sober up before heading into town. The two argue and the priest gets killed after being bashed on the head with a bottle. Our drifter cuts his hand and bandages it with the dead man’s shirt be...

  If ever a film was less than the sum of its parts it would have to be ‘Amsterdam’. A stellar cast, big budget and some great locations can’t hide the fact that this is a dull and meandering mess. The film starts well with Christian Bale’s First World War veteran who is now a doctor being asked to carry out an autopsy. His former military commander has been found dead and foul play is suspected. Bale teams up with his friend and former service buddy Harold who is now a lawyer. They are joined by Morgot Robbie’s character Valerie who was a nurse who tended to the pair’s wounds during the war. We get a flashback to 1918 and see the men before they suffered their injuries and their periods of treatment and convalescence. Robbie is a bit strange in that she makes art out of the bloodied shrapnel that she digs out of her patients. Back to the present day (in 1933) and the autopsy reveals that the dead man died of poisoning. His daughter, Taylor Swift, is then pushed under ...