By Daniel Barnes DANIEL’S TOP TEN FILMS OF 2020 1. Wolfwalkers For over a decade, Kilkenny, Ireland-based Cartoon Saloon has produced under-the-radar animated features for adults and smart kids. With the astonishing Wolfwalkers, Cartoon Saloon gives us a profound and humane movie that should shame Pixar. Set in […]
Another Round (2020; Thomas Vinterberg) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Now playing in select theaters and on VOD services. Dogme 95 refugee Thomas Vinterberg (The Commune and Far from the Madding Crowd) reunites with The Hunt star Mads Mikkelsen for this alcohol-soaked, coming-of-middle-age drama. Mikkelsen excels as Martin, a depressed high […]
To the Ends of the Earth (2020; Kiyoshi Kurosawa) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Now playing in select cinemas and opening tomorrow in virtual theaters. Atsuko Maeda plays a Japanese TV host struggling with her latest assignment in this lightly surrealist spin on Lost in Translation. But despite […]
Sound of Metal (2020; Darius Marder) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Now playing in select theaters and on Amazon Prime. Riz Ahmed delivers a solid performance as Ruben, a heavy metal drummer dealing with hearing loss in this otherwise pedestrian therapy drama. “Punk Rock Domesticity” As the film […]
City Hall (2020; Frederick Wiseman) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Now playing at the Roxie Virtual Cinema. Nonagenarian documentarian Frederick Wiseman (Ex Libris and Monrovia, Indiana ) applies his usual measured and methodical approach to this look at Boston’s city government. No one chronicles American institutions with Wiseman’s fly-on-the-wall thoroughness, […]
Sorry We Missed You (2020; Ken Loach) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Opening Friday, March 13, at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco. Ken Loach follows his Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake with another agreeable yet biting look at dehumanized working-class Brits. You were expecting maybe […]
