Ismael’s Ghosts (2018; Arnaud Desplechin) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, April 20, at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Lark Theater in Larkspur. When I reviewed Arnaud Desplechin’s lovely My Golden Days in April 2016, I made the somewhat embarrassing admission that it was […]
Grudge Match (2013; Peter Segal) – Dare Daniel Podcast Episode 1 In Round 1 of the Dare Daniel podcast, fierce rivals Daniel and Corky trade punches on Peter Segal’s Grudge Match, starring Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro as shells of their former selves. Daniel and Corky go the distance […]
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Gemini (2018; Aaron Katz) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes Land Ho! director Aaron Katz delivers this meandering Hollywood noir about a beleaguered but loyal personal assistant accused of murdering her own boss. The wonderful Lola Kirke plays Jill, a long-time friend-ployee of Zoe Kravitz’s Heather, a flaky actress who uses their […]
Keep the Change (2018; Rachel Israel) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes Writer-director Israel makes her feature debut with this largely delightful romantic comedy. Keep the Change is an expansion of Israel’s 2013 short film starring the same lead actors. Brandon Polansky plays David, an acerbic autistic man who […]
24 Frames (2018; Abbas Kiarostami) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami passed away in July 2016, but this experimental passion project, which apparently occupied the last several years of his life, premiered at Cannes the following year and now gets a brief Bay Area run. […]
Tehran Taboo (2018; Ali Soozandeh) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes Iranian-born German filmmaker Soozandeh makes his feature debut with this rotoscope-animated ensemble drama about young adults searching for some measure of freedom in their extremely restrictive society. The serpentine story slinks around some tenuously connected city dwellers: ex-addict Pari, […]
