Harmonium (2017; Kôji Fukada) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes Over one year after winning the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes 2016, this repressed and implosive Japanese tragedy finally receives a limited stateside release. Mariko Tsutsui stars as Akié, unsatisfied small-town wife of a withdrawn machinist named Toshio (Kanji […]
God of War (2017; Gordon Chan) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, June 2, at the AMC Van Ness 14 in San Francisco. Hong Kong-born yeoman Chan delivers this war epic about Japanese pirates battling with Chinese armies in the 16th century. An unholy alliance forms between […]
The Commune (2017; Thomas Vinterberg) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes Here comes an unexpected, Ang Lee-like pivot from Dogme 95 refugee Vinterberg. He follows up the blistering The Hunt and his vital version of Far from the Madding Crowd with this weightless and unworthy drama about Copenhagen communal […]
Hounds of Love (2017; Ben Young) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, May 12, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Well, that was unpleasant. A stylish, squirm-inducing thriller from Australian first-timer Ben Young, Hounds of Love stars Ashleigh Cummings as Vicki Maloney, a rebellious teenager abducted […]
The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki (2017; Juho Kuosmanen) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes Shot in a hazy and washed-out black-and-white, and so slight and unassuming that it barely qualifies as a movie, this true story about the titular Finnish boxer training for the fight […]
My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea (2017; Dash Shaw) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes Jason Schwartzman voices another Max Fischer-esque, high school fabulist in this unique but strangely aggravating animated feature, an odd blend of crude hand-drawn animation and sophisticated Photoshop. Like the 34-year-old debut feature […]
