Rams (2016; Grímur Hákonarson) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes A prime Best Foreign Language Film Oscar snub now getting dumped pre-Oscars into an Opera Plaza bandbox, Rams is still smarter and more surprising than most of the actual nominees in that category. In an isolated valley in Iceland, sheep […]
ANIMATED SHORT NOMINEES (from best to worst) World of Tomorrow (Don Herzfeldt; USA) We Can’t Live Without Cosmos (Konstantin Bronzit; Russia) I already raved about both of these films last October in my review of the 17th Annual Animation Show of Shows, so it’s no surprise that they’re […]
The Treasure (2015; Corneliu Porumboui) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes Another deadpan, three-headed Romanian history lesson from the director of 12:08 East of Bucharest, this time in the form of a treasure hunt. Struggling family man Costi (Toma Cuzin, who also figures prominently into the superior Aferim!, this […]
Lamb (2016; Ross Partridge) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Now playing at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Journeyman actor Ross Partridge writes, directs and stars in this restrained but discomforting drama. He plays David Lamb, a middle-aged man stuck in a downward spiral. Into his life comes […]
When you add up my weekly reviews in the Sacramento News & Review, my work here at E Street Film Society, and my contributions to other print and online publications, I penned over 250 published movie reviews in 2015. At an average of 300 words a pop, that’s […]
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes “Tangible and Dimensional” “Luke Skywalker has vanished.” With those four words, strategically chosen by director J.J. Abrams and his co-screenwriters Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt to begin the opening crawl of Episode VII, […]
