Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  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...

  Like our earlier watch of ‘Loving’ this is another ‘based on a true story’ film of a battle to right a civil wrong. It stars Julianne Moore as Laurel Hester a gay New Jersey cop who in 2002 has to stay in the closet due to the macho demands of her job. She’s partnered with Michael Shannon and the film opens with them covering each other’s backs during a drug bust. At a volley ball game Laurel hooks up with Stacie, played by the now Elliot Page. The romance goes slowly at first but eventually the pair buy a house and get a civil partnership. They come out to their friends, including a bemused Shannon, but tragedy strikes when Laurel develops cancer. As the disease takes hold, she writes to the Freeholders of the county to ask that her pension benefits be transferred to Stacie. Of course they refuse (otherwise we don’t have a film) and the fight is now on to secure the benefits that will allow Stacie to live in their home forever. Much of the film deals with the various co...

  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...