The Unknown Girl (2017; Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes The Dardenne Brothers, those Belgian purveyors of austerity and despair, have always been a tough sell for mainstream audiences. Their films are so raw, so pure, so devoid of artifice and often so hopeless that […]
The Girl Without Hands (2017; Sébastien Laudenbach) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, September 15, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. In this woozy adaptation of the Grimm Brothers fairy tale, a young girl is sold to the devil by her poor father in exchange for a […]
Whose Streets? (2017; Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, August 11, at the Landmark Embarcadero in San Francisco and the Landmark California in Berkeley. A portrait of activism captured by activists, mostly focusing on street-level views of the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri. […]
Columbus (2017; Kogonada) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes A promising but arid directing debut from video essayist Kogonada, with a rare showcase role for John Cho and a potential breakout performance from Haley Lu Richardson (she played Hailee Steinfeld’s best friend in The Edge of Seventeen, as well […]
The Untamed (2017; Amat Escalante) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes Here comes more dreary provocation from Heli director Escalante. This time around, Escalante offers an intriguing but no less deadening blend of sexually charged sci-fi and kitchen-sink social drama. Impressive newcomer Ruth Ramos stars as Alejandra, the flustered […]
Person to Person (2017; Dustin Guy Defa) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes A scruffy little charmer from festival darling Defa, in the form of a smart indie ensemble piece about – what else? – mixed-up New Yorkers stumbling towards some sort of personal connection. Defa made his bones with […]
