Co-host of the Dare Daniel and Canon Fodder podcasts and a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle.
The Measure of a Man (2016; Stéphane Brizé) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Impotent resistance versus soul-sucking compliance in the bloody coliseum of capitalism. Human dignity loses either way. Vincent Lindon won the Best Actor prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for his work here as Thierry, […]
The American Side (2016; Jenna Ricker) GRADE: C By Daniel Barnes I can’t describe how much I want to like a scruffy, amiable, widescreen neo-noir lovingly shot in and around Buffalo. Unfortunately, The American Side feels stiff from start to finish. Co-writer Greg Stuhr makes for an extremely […]
Sunset Song (2016; Terence Davies) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes The rare English-language movie with non-superfluous subtitles, Sunset Song debuted over a year ago at Cannes. Meanwhile, the usually snail-paced Davies’ follow-up film A Quiet Passion already played last February in Berlin. Icy and warmly nostalgic, sprawling but […]
The Idol (2016; Hany Abu-Assad) GRADE: C By Daniel Barnes Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad garnered Best Foreign Film Oscar nominations for his terrorist dramas Paradise Now and Omar, both mediocre efforts elevated by their presumed hot-button timeliness. Abu-Assad’s latest film The Idol is something different: an intentionally […]
A Monster with a Thousand Heads (2016; Rodrigo Plá) GRADE: C By Daniel Barnes You won’t find a stronger proponent for unconventional running times than this critic. In the world where I rule you like a god, the multiplexes play 50-minute movies right along with 500-minute movies, and […]
Margarita with a Straw (2016; Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens today at the Cine Grand 7 in Fremont and the Camera 3 in San Jose. Kalki Koechlin stars in this wispy but well-meaning romantic comedy as Laila, a spunky aspiring writer with […]
