Co-host of the Dare Daniel and Canon Fodder podcasts and a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle.
White God (2015; Kornel Mundruczo) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Opens today at the Embarcadero Center Cinemas in San Francisco. A striking film from its opening shots of wild dogs stampeding through the streets of an abandoned city, Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo’s White God is one of the […]
Danny Collins (2015; Dan Fogelman) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes “Doing Al Pacino” It feels as though Al Pacino has been “doing Al Pacino” in movies ever since he won the Oscar for 1992’s Scent of a Woman, where he played the blind, brash, brazenly offensive Lieutenant Colonel […]
The Wrecking Crew (1996/2008/2015; Denny Tedesco) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes In case you didn’t know a loosely knit group of roughly two dozen Southern California session musicians played on almost every classic pop song and TV theme you ever loved. Dubbed The Wrecking Crew, they were Phil […]
Intimidation (1960; Koreyoshi Kurahara) GRADE: B- Underworld Beauty (1958; Seijun Suzuki) GRADE: B+ Pale Flower (1964; Masahiro Shinoda) GRADE: A By Daniel Barnes On Saturday at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, the “A Rare Noir is Good to Find! – International Film Noir 1949-1974” festival offers a […]
Ida (2014; Pawel Pawlikowski) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes “Understated and Carefully Controlled” Nominated for Best Cinematography and winner of Best Foreign Film at this year’s Academy Awards, the bone-dry, black-and-white Ida is the fifth film from Polish writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski, but it’s just his second in the […]
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011; Stephen Daldry) GRADE: D- By Daniel Barnes In the decade following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Hollywood made a few films that attempted to recreate the events and aftermath of that day, most notably United 93 and World Trade Center. However, neither […]
