The American Side (2016; Jenna Ricker) GRADE: C By Daniel Barnes I can’t describe how much I want to like a scruffy, amiable, widescreen neo-noir lovingly shot in and around Buffalo. Unfortunately, The American Side feels stiff from start to finish. Co-writer Greg Stuhr makes for an extremely […]
Sunset Song (2016; Terence Davies) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes The rare English-language movie with non-superfluous subtitles, Sunset Song debuted over a year ago at Cannes. Meanwhile, the usually snail-paced Davies’ follow-up film A Quiet Passion already played last February in Berlin. Icy and warmly nostalgic, sprawling but […]
The Idol (2016; Hany Abu-Assad) GRADE: C By Daniel Barnes Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad garnered Best Foreign Film Oscar nominations for his terrorist dramas Paradise Now and Omar, both mediocre efforts elevated by their presumed hot-button timeliness. Abu-Assad’s latest film The Idol is something different: an intentionally […]
A Monster with a Thousand Heads (2016; Rodrigo Plá) GRADE: C By Daniel Barnes You won’t find a stronger proponent for unconventional running times than this critic. In the world where I rule you like a god, the multiplexes play 50-minute movies right along with 500-minute movies, and […]
Margarita with a Straw (2016; Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens today at the Cine Grand 7 in Fremont and the Camera 3 in San Jose. Kalki Koechlin stars in this wispy but well-meaning romantic comedy as Laila, a spunky aspiring writer with […]
High-Rise (2016; Ben Wheatley) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, May 13, in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Rafael. A barbecued dog is an appetizer here, human flank steak the main course, with a buffet line of sociopathic consumption and apocalyptic class war in between. Director/co-editor Wheatley […]
