Dina (2017; Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, October 20, at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. Dina is the best documentary of the year so far, and also the most touching love story. Directors Santini […]
In recent years, I spent the first two weeks of October covering the Mill Valley Film Festival . The festival celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, honoring the gamut of independent film, from star-heavy productions with awards in their sights (Sean Penn, Greta Gerwig and Andrew Garfield were […]
Ex Libris – The New York Public Library (2017; Frederick Wiseman) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, October 13, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Somewhere in the middle of this 44th feature-length Frederick Wiseman documentary, a typically sprawling and reflective look at the New York […]
Chavela (2017; Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, October 6, at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. An affectionate but rudimentary documentary introduction to Chavela Vargas, a singer virtually unknown to western audiences, but a groundbreaking […]
The Lost City of Cecil B. Demille (2017; Peter Brosnan) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes An amateurish but compelling documentary passion project from Brosnan, a low-level screenwriter who spent several decades obsessing over a piece of Hollywood history buried in the California sands. When Cecil B. DeMille filmed his […]
Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story (2017; Daniel Raim) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, July 21 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, the Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley, the Rialto Sebastopol in Sebastopol and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. When Andy […]
