Co-host of the Dare Daniel and Canon Fodder podcasts and a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle.
Tab Hunter Confidential (2015; Jeffrey Schwarz) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes A 1950s heartthrob sold to the public as “six feet of rugged manhood” and chaste, Dobie Gillis-like heterosexuality, Tab Hunter remained “very closeted” away from the cameras. Now 84 years old and still the embodiment of sun-kissed […]
Welcome to Leith (2015; Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Welcome to Leith looks at the panic that overtook the citizens of a tiny North Dakota farming community when white supremacists sought to take over their town. A barren city of a […]
17th Annual Animation Show of Shows By Daniel Barnes I’ll take any opportunity to urge people towards the seventeen life-changing minutes of Don Herzfeldt’s World of Tomorrow, so here we go again. I wrote this about World of Tomorrow in my 2015 mid-year review: “It’s a beautiful and […]
Experimenter (2015; Michael Almereyda) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opening tomorrow at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco, the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael. Now available to rent on VOD. Peter Sarsgaard stars in this intriguing but […]
By Daniel Barnes The 38th annual Mill Valley Film Festival wrapped up last night with a gala screening of Suffragette, starring an on-the-scene Carey Mulligan, as well as Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep. Suffragette is a legit awards season “contender,” so I’ll have ample opportunity to see […]
By Daniel Barnes I’ve reached the point of #MVFF38 where the buffet line of cinematic options that once seemed so appetizing has come to feel more like an indigestible eating challenge. Going into the final weekend of the festival, I have screened eighteen #MVFF38 films, and it feels […]
