Co-host of the Dare Daniel and Canon Fodder podcasts and a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle.
How I Live Now (2013; Kevin MacDonald) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes This barely released drama from The Last King of Scotland director Kevin MacDonald is an odd-duck hybrid of a teenage summer romance and an apocalyptic nightmare. How I Live Now has some impressive ambitions, but mostly […]
The Night of the Following Day (1968; Hubert Cornfield) GRADE: D- Inert, pretentious, would-be nail biter featuring Marlon Brando in his weird, pre-Godfather down period as a hepcat kidnapper. He pairs with Mafia hard man Richard Boone to snatch and ransom the daughter of a wealthy American businessman. […]
The Chase (1966; Arthur Penn) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes In most if not all of his best roles, the Nebraska-born Marlon Brando was an easy avatar for everything anti-heroic about America. A Streetcar Named Desire and The Wild One boosted him to prominence as a post-WWII, hyper-sensitive […]
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976; John Cassavetes) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes Like most of John Cassavetes’ movies, his meditative 1976 crime film The Killing of a Chinese Bookie opens on what appears to be a random moment. When I watched Faces for the first time […]
STEPMOM (1998; Chris Columbus) GRADE: D- By Daniel Barnes *Originally published on the Movie City USA blog on June 5, 2008. At the end of Chris Columbus’ mummified would-be tearjerker Stepmom, a credit reads, “In Loving Memory of Irene Columbus.” It’s a reference to the director’s mother, who […]
By Daniel Barnes *Originally published on the Movie City USA blog on August 21, 2007 [w/updated comments at the end] “He makes Hollywood feel better about itself.” -David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film I think that Thomson means this not just in the sense that Ron […]
