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 […]
` Tale of Tales (2016; Matteo Garrone) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, May 13 at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Tale of Tales is a gory, bizarre but oddly restrained fantasy from Gomorrah director Garrone, one inspired by the fairy tales of Giambattista Basile. Salma […]
Neon Bull (2016; Gabriel Mascaro) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes A documentary filmmaker making only his second narrative feature, writer-director Mascaro invests the entrancing and upsetting Neon Bull with equal parts lived-in authenticity and dreamlike beauty. Neon Bull follows a surrogate family of cowhands and entertainers at the […]
