Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  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 ...

  This film opens with a red car and a blue car having a race – for a minute I thought I was watching a dramatization of that old Milky Way advert! The film is in fact about a landmark legal case that allowed interracial marriage in the state of Virginia. That may not sound too exciting, and it isn’t, but it’s a likeable film about a pivotal case. The ‘Loving’ of the title is two fold – we have a loving couple but the main character is called ‘Richard Loving’ lucky his name wasn’t ‘Bastard’ or something similar. It’s the late 1950’s in the Deep South and Richard is dating Mildred who falls pregnant. The two decide to marry and do so in Washington seeing as interracial marriage isn’t allowed in their home state of Virginia. They set up home together but are soon slung in jail. The agree a plea deal which sees their one year sentences suspended for 25 years if they leave the state. They do so but are back five minutes later as Richard’s mother is a midwife and they have need...

  Here’s an awful American remake of the European film ‘13 Tzameti’ which I saw a long time ago and enjoyed. The original was a black and white effort set in Eastern Europe. In that the murder game being played looked horribly realistic and possible. In this remake version you get Jason Statham and 50 Cent going through the motions in a ridiculous offering which is believable as a politician's promise. Our hero is Vince (Sam Reily) a doe eyed electrician whose Dad is in the hospital. They have mortgaged the house for his treatment but a further operation is needed. Vince works as an electrician and whilst at a client’s house he overhears a conversation about a big job. This job is seemingly lucrative, but dangerous too. The client talks loudly about the secret scheme and has a bright coloured envelope with a sinister spider motif which was clearly designed so as not to attract attention. The client, for unspecified reasons, immediately dies of a drug overdose and Vince gra...

  This is the third of three short films that Shannon has listed on his Wikipedia page. I’ve already had a look at 'Zamboni Man' and 'Mullitt' and my views of these can be found elsewhere in this blog. This one came a bit later in Shannon’s career, by which time he was an established actor. Of the three this is probably the least appealing owing to the subject matter and you have to wonder why they bothered with this grubby project. The 14 minute film follows a day in the life of the titular Herbert. He works in forestry and much of the film is taken up with shots of him bringing down trees in his timber cutting machine. We see him go out with his family and he tells his wife that he needs to stop at the side of the road for a pee. He heads into the woods and starts to pleasure himself. When he returns his wife asks if we was taking a dump as he was away for so long. He gets home and returns calls made by his father and the relationship is clearly fractured...

  Next up we have another Shannon Short which can be found on YouTube – link below! This one is listed as being from 2004, but I wonder if it was shot earlier in the actor’s career but was released later as he is credited as ‘Mike Shannon’ something we haven’t seen since his second credit in the previously reviewed ‘Chain Reaction’. This short lasts 14 minutes but it is sweet and affecting and definitely worth your time. Shannon plays Walt the titular Zamboni man. He’s the man that drives the small truck over the ice after a skating session to smooth it out. The film opens with a hectic session on the ice, followed by Walt smoothing it off. There is no dialogue or music, just a man doing his job. His role also includes clearing up trash and he’s shown to be an an anonymous presence as kids and adults alike fail to acknowledge him and run through the rubbish he’s trying to collect. He then delivers one of his few lines in the film “Hey Tyler. The ice is ready for you" ...

  The second half of season 3 really ratchets up the action with a lot of long running storylines reaching a satisfying conclusion. Shannon however is reduced to a virtual bit part with his George Mueller trying to make an honest living but failing miserably. His job at the steam iron company ended when the practical jokes at his expense caused him to use the company’s product on a colleague’s face. He finds work with gangster O’Bannion but he finds the practical jokes with him even worse. His Norwegian wife Sigrid is clearly a social climber expecting Mueller to build her a house that will be furnished on tick. To pay off some gangsters they are provided with a still and a demand that they produce 24 bottles a week. Sigrid sees the chance to plug a gap in the market with her Norwegian Aqua-vita but inevitably, Mueller’s attempts to peddle her wares only leads to more trouble. The Gyp Rossetti storyline gathers apace when he blows up Nucky’s nightclub and his girlfrien...

  As my loyal reader is doubtlessly aware I reviewed this film under its alternative title of ‘The Harvest’ in my definite Article movie blog. I said in that that the title and poster, as shown below, were massive spoilers. What things can you harvest? Well there’s crops and… - and this film isn’t about agriculture! The film opens with surgeon Samantha Morton saving a young boy who suffered an injury whilst playing baseball. We initially think she’s a good sort, but her cold manner and chunky knit sweaters suggest otherwise. At home she has a bed bound son and a husband in Michael Shannon whom she’s not shy in putting down. She is always the doctor and he the nurse in all aspects of their relationship. Michael has one outlet in his miserable existence, as he’s sleeping with the pharma rep who provides him with the drugs needed to sustain his son. The film develops when orphan Maryann moves in with her grandparents across the woods from the Shannons. She’s a nosey girl...

  This is likely to be my most up to date offering of the whole blog as I caught this on its cinema release at the Paisley Showcase. It was expensive at £20.30 for our two tickets but happily I had a £20 gift card that I won at a raffle at my Mum’s care home – back of the net! It was a sparsely attended afternoon showing but the film was decent, if a bit grubby and derivative. The film has the familiar framing of a documentary maker having present day interviews with the principals, with their reminisces detailed in extensive flashbacks. Most of the narrative is through the viewpoint of Kathy, played by Jodie Comer with a funny accent that swings between Liverpool and New Jersey. We are back in the 1950s and mumbling Tom Hardy is smitten with Marlon Brando in ‘The Wild One’. He decides to start a motorcycle club for racing and talking about bikes and things take off from there. The main framing device is Jodie Cramer’s Kathy, who stumbles on the gang at a bar. She gets her...

  The second half of this season is better than the first and it clears the board (walk) for new characters and events in the next batch of episodes. Shannon’s Van Arlen is sinking deeper into the mire as his wife files for divorce, somewhat understandably, and Nucky starts to get his claws into the hapless prohibition agent. The noose is tightening on Nucky as his rivals move in, so Van Arlen is soon blackmailed into spying on his new boss. A lady federal prosecutor has set up shop in Van Arlen’s office and she’s keen to take Nucky down. Van Arlen’s dossier on her target is a great help but unbeknownst to her our man is on the take. He is still walking the thin line between good and bad and he turns down a lucrative sting offer from Mickey, but it’s not clear if he’s still on the right side of the law or that he has a good eye for an unreliable partner. On the home front he is living a meagre existence with his baby daughter Abigail and his sing-song voiced Scandinavian n...

  This period horror/drama is quite early Shannon, but he does muster 4 th billing in what has to be said a low budget offering. The two stars who have their names before the title are Henry Thomas and Patrick Fugit – if the child stars of E.T. and Almost Famous rock your boat then this could be the film for you. We open in the American Civil War era with a group of soldiers depositing some cash at a bank. It seems like a straightforward transaction but there is a lot of bad acting, long pauses and faffing over paperwork. It seems like something is a bit fishy, but before this is explored a bunch of bandits show up to rob the bank. Shannon is among their number playing Clyde, whose main character point is that he wears a funny hat. He is outgunned by another gang member who didn’t get the memo and showed up as a Droog out of ‘A Clockwork Orange’. The bank raid is pretty bloody with a head explosion and plenty of claret on the walls. The bandits take some shots themsel...

  Shannon gets perhaps his finest entrance to a film appearance in this outing, where we first meet him boffing Kim Basinger. Nice work if you can get it. Michael plays Greg, a sleazy contemporary of the film’s hero Eminem, who is having it off with the rapper’s mother in her trailer park home. At the time of filming Shannon was two years younger than Eminem and 21 years younger than the lovely Kim, who is somewhat miscast as the trailer trash bingo addict. You’ll probably be familiar with the film which follows the grim existence of Jimmy ‘Rabbit’ Smith Jnr. Who ekes out a depressing existence in Detroit in 1995. He lives in a grotty trailer with Kim and his young sister Lily who looks a bit too stage school to convince in her part. Jimmy holds a job at a car parts factory but hopes to become a rapper and escape his situation. He has a small crew who bitch and shout at other crews and with whom they engage in rap battles where they basically slag off each other’s mom...

  The second half of season one really ratchets up the violence and our investment in the characters, not least Shannon’s Agent Van Arlen. The twelve episodes form a neat arc that could exist as a stand alone mini series if nothing else was to follow. All of the plots reach a resolution of sorts, and although some futures are left uncertain, everyone got some redemption or development at least. In the first episode a booze shipment is hijacked and that action resonates throughout the series, as revenge is meted out and consequences felt. I don’t know if a second series was commissioned as the first ended, as the stories aren’t left hanging, but we are intrigued to see where the characters end up next. The main focus of the show is the relationships between Nucky and Margaret who have an on and off and then on again romance. We also get his henchman Jimmy who has mummy and daddy issues as well as PTSD from his time in the trenches. The characters are all placed in a wid...

  My memory of Boardwalk Empire was that Shannon had a bit part to begin with that was expanded upon later, once he had established himself. The truth is he gets fourth billing in the titles and appears in the first episode, and is missing only in the fourth in this first tranche. If you have not seen the show you really should. I watched it all when first broadcast and I still enjoyed this first part of a planned full re-watch. I’d forgotten that Martin Scorsese directed the first episode and there are plenty of name directors appearing throughout the run including some who worked on ‘The Sopranos’. The show opens in Atlantic City in 1930 with the Volstead Act, which brings in prohibition, due to begin the next day. The main focus of the series is Enoch ‘Nucky’ Thompson (Steve Buscemi) whom we first meet addressing a meeting of the Temperance League. He talks about the evils of booze before having a swig from his hip flask in the car park and heading off to a big party. ...

  We jump forward now from Shannon’s debut and sophomore features to this one where he gets a proper part and next to top billing. It’s a pity the film is pretty rubbish, but you can’t have everything. We open with three scientist being taken hostage with men in balaclavas in what we understand to be Bolivia. The three are on a UN mission to understand an ecological disaster that led to a large salt desert being created in what was once fertile land. The scientists moan constantly and there is a lot of talk about diarrhoea, as two quickly go down with food poisoning. For some reason we then get a long flashback which shows them travelling and getting kidnapped. No surprises there as they were already kidnapped when we started. Shannon appears early on but he’s wearing a mask and the subtitles have him as ‘Masked Man’ but his eyes give him away from the start. Another of the kidnappers is in a wheelchair but still dons the full commando outfit. He later springs out of t...

  Here we go with another unrequested and unnecessary film blog. After seeing all of the IMDb 250 and all films by Michaels Caine and Fassbender, we move on to the third Michael, Mr Shannon. Why Michael Shannon? Well, he’s a recognisable actor who is usually the best thing in any production that he appears in. Born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1974, Shannon first came to prominence, to my mind at least, in ‘Boardwalk Empire’. As the creepy and disturbed Agent Van Arlen he was a standout turn in an excellent show. I will re-watch this series as part of this process in half season chunks and will report accordingly on Shannon’s part, which I remember expanding as the show wore on. I have allowed nine entries for Boardwalk Empire ( eight half seasons and one for the shortened Season 9), giving Shannon a nice round 100 credits to consider. This number includes two 'in production' entries and a final one for shorts, music videos, TV guest spots and the like. I have seen many o...