Jungle Cruise (2021; Jaume Collet-Serra) GRADE: D By Daniel Barnes *Now playing in wide release and streaming on Disney+ with Premier Access. Knockoffs Upon Knockoffs Based on an opening day Disneyland ride heavily inspired by John Huston’s The African Queen, the long-delayed Jungle Cruise is unnecessary, unoriginal and practically […]
Black Widow (2021; Cate Shortland) GRADE: C- By Daniel Barnes *Now playing in wide release and streaming on Disney+ Premier Access. MCU Filler Material In a tightly structured movie, the characters and the story become inseparable, with one element informing and supporting the other. Think of story and […]
Zola (2021; Janicza Bravo) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Now playing. “It’s kind of long, but it’s full of suspense.” So begins #thestory, A’Ziah Zola King’s 2015 Twitter thread recounting a Florida “ho trip” gone wrong. However, while a 148-tweet thread epic for Twitter, the film version of […]
Crimson Gold (2003; Jafar Panahi) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes *Opening Friday, June 25, in virtual cinemas nationwide. Incisive Naturalism Crimson Gold opens with a single-shot jewel heist gone wrong, then circles back to the origin story of the misguided thieves. It may bear the trappings of a […]
Undine (2021; Christian Petzold) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Now playing in select cinemas and on VOD services. “If you leave me, I’ll have to kill you.” The mildly inscrutable Undine is my third Petzold experience, following the similarly admirable yet underwhelming Phoenix and Transit. However, it’s the first time I […]
Riders of Justice (2021; Anders Thomas Jensen) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Now playing in select cinemas and on VOD services. Mikkelsen Goes Mads-eval Riders of Justice is revenge therapy, Danish style, as Mads Mikkelsen goes Mads-eval on the asses of the white supremacists who may have killed his […]
