Co-host of the Dare Daniel and Canon Fodder podcasts and a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle.
Jack and Jill (2011; Dennis Dugan) GRADE: D- By Daniel Barnes *Dared by Matt B. Over a decade ago in a college newspaper review of Little Nicky, I wrote, “Adam Sandler is truly his generation’s Jerry Lewis,” with everything great and terrible that statement implies.” It’s a fairly […]
By Daniel Barnes Fixed Bayonets! (1951; Sam Fuller) GRADE: B+ War movies are an indigenous territory for a director who liked to describe cinema as a battlefield. However, Fixed Bayonets! is a little more limited by its genre and commercial obligations. It’s about an outnumbered platoon given a […]
Kapo (1960; Gillo Pontecorvo) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes At the age of 17, I saw Schindler’s List in the movie theater along with everyone else and loved it along with everyone else. I never revisited the Spielberg film, but I remain somewhat suspicious of my affection for […]
The Class (2008; Laurent Cantet) GRADE: A- By Daniel Barnes While Hollywood films are typically and predictably dismissive of school teachers (and all public servants, really) as pedants, snobs, fascists, and/or layabouts, there also exists a mostly icky vein of educator-as-hero stories. Movies ranging from Goodbye, Mr. Chips […]
Equus (1977; Sidney Lumet) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes Adapted from a Tony Award-winning play by Peter Shaffer, Equus came at a seemingly perfect time for director Sidney Lumet to shepherd a prestige production to the screen. A workhorse since his TV days, the economic limitations and concomitant […]
By Daniel Barnes and Mike Dub Daniel Barnes: My main reason for putting together this festival, beyond exploring a few actresses whose films I had never seen, was to examine cinematic sexuality in the silent era. As I said in my festival intro, movies don’t create trends, but […]
