Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016; Gareth Edwards) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens everywhere December 16. After the joyless vapidity of the prequels, J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens rebooted the franchise back to its original settings. The film honored the past […]
Evolution (2016; Lucile Hadzihalilovic) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens today at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Evolution is an unusual, fairly original entry into the horror genre, blending Lost-style intrigue, Cronenberg-ian body horror and European neo-miserable disaffection. Unfortunately, despite a truly disturbing core and some nightmarish […]
Daughters of the Dust (1991; Julie Dash) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes It took Julie Dash fifteen years to make Daughters of the Dust, and although it’s raw and occasionally impenetrable, it’s also the sort of breakthrough low-budget movie that should have been the stepping stone to a […]
Monday, November 21 I Am Not Your Negro (Dir.: Raoul Peck; GRADE: B+) Do not open until 2017. Demon (Dir.: Marcin Wrona; GRADE: B-) An admirable but only fitfully successful arthouse horror movie about a Polish wedding disrupted by a “dybbuk,” an angry and dissatisfied Jewish spirit that […]
Once again this year, I am devoting the entire week of Thanksgiving to catching up with the 2016 films that I missed, as well as re-watching some of my favorites of the year so far. We begin this annual cinematic orgy with an invocation to our deity: All […]
The Handmaiden (2016; Chan-wook Park) GRADE: A- By Daniel Barnes The best film of the year so far. Anyone who has followed me over the years knows my love-hate relationship with the act of taking notes during a film. My chief concern: it interferes with the act of […]
