Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  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...

  This film opens with the dreaded ‘based on true story’ caption with some scenes and characters invented. I hate that – they may as well just make up the whole thing if you have no idea what elements are real and what are not. That said it is not billed as a documentary and having looked at the infallible Wikipedia page it looks like the story told by the film largely followed the facts. Set in 1973 the film opens with the drug induced death of country singer Gram Parsons. Johnny Knoxville shows up as his road manager and takes away all the drug related paraphernalia from the rock star’s room. He looks to take ownership of the body but Christiana Applegate shows up with a handwritten will bequeathing her all of the star’s possessions. Also in the frame is the singer’s father, played by Robert Forster, who is looking to take the body back home. With the body already at the hospital morgue Knoxville makes plans to steal it so that he can arrange to cremate it in the Joshua ...