The Fits (2016; Anna Rose Holmer) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco. A scrappy and big-hearted brawler of a film, but one without any real fighting spirit or punching power (OK, that’s enough with the boxing metaphors). First-timer Holmer […]
The Diary of a Chambermaid (2016; Benoît Jacquot) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, June 17, at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley. Lea Seydoux stars in this fourth film adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s infamous 1900 novel (Renoir and Buñuel […]
Chevalier (2016; Athina Rachel Tsangari) GRADE: C By Daniel Barnes Chevalier opens with long shots of figures struggling through the surf, oily blobs lurching from the ocean onto the beach like primordial creatures. Back on their Greek luxury liner, they shed their wet suits to reveal those most […]
The Measure of a Man (2016; Stéphane Brizé) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Impotent resistance versus soul-sucking compliance in the bloody coliseum of capitalism. Human dignity loses either way. Vincent Lindon won the Best Actor prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for his work here as Thierry, […]
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 […]
