Co-host of the Dare Daniel and Canon Fodder podcasts and a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014; Marc Webb) GRADE: C- By Daniel Barnes It is so difficult to relay in writing what doesn’t work about both The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and its 2011 predecessor. Both films rely heavily on tropes and clichés that worked for superhero movies in the […]
The Back-up Plan (2010; Alan Poul) GRADE: F By Daniel Barnes The “and” credit is hallowed ground in the opening credits of any film, an honorable position of respect not to be bestowed lightly. Naturally, the film’s stars are always listed first in a movie’s credits, followed by […]
Strange Days (1995; Kathryn Bigelow) GRADE: C By Daniel Barnes One of the fascinating and unfortunate things about director Kathryn Bigelow is her natural and often exploitative appropriation of the male gaze. As I wrote in this 2010 SN&R column on Bigelow, “Her great cinematic obsession is the […]
Pandora’s Box (1929; G.W. Pabst) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Some people have argued that the black bob haircut popularly associated with Louise Brooks was first sported onscreen by actress Colleen Moore. This may be true, even if pre-fame photos of Brooks show her with an evolving version […]
The Holy Mountain (1973; Alejandro Jodorowsky) GRADE: A- By Daniel Barnes Where do you even begin to penetrate something as insane, and insanely inventive, as Jodorowsky’s psychedelic religious parable? Here is the plot synopsis offered by IMDB: “This film gives the omniscient view of what social engineering caused by […]
A Fool There Was (1915; Frank Powell) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes As I stated in my festival intro, while Theda Bara may have created a cinematic archetype and inspired an evolution in movie publicity machines with A Fool There Was, her “vamp” character did not break any […]
