A Fool There Was (1915; Frank Powell) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes As I stated in my festival intro, while Theda Bara may have created a cinematic archetype and inspired an evolution in movie publicity machines with A Fool There Was, her “vamp” character did not break any […]
Bad Timing (1980; Nicolas Roeg) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes There is nothing easily definable about Nicolas Roeg’s perverse romance Bad Timing, right down to that mysterious title. Bad Timing is a film about lies, distortions, and manipulation, not anything as fickle and uncalculated as “bad timing.” The […]
The Most Dangerous Game (1932; Ernest B. Schoedsack and Irving Pichel) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Based on a widely adapted 1924 short story by Richard Connell, the 1932 chiller The Most Dangerous Game is the film that producers Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper made right […]
Burn! (1969; Gillo Pontecorvo) Grade: B+ By Mike Dub Throughout the 1960s, Marlon Brando became increasingly active in social issues. Though his popularity was plummeting, he sought to make art that was relevant to the changing cultural landscape. The Ugly American (1963) is a well-intentioned (though drab) warning against […]
How I Live Now (2013; Kevin MacDonald) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes This barely released drama from The Last King of Scotland director Kevin MacDonald is an odd-duck hybrid of a teenage summer romance and an apocalyptic nightmare. How I Live Now has some impressive ambitions, but mostly […]
The Night of the Following Day (1968; Hubert Cornfield) GRADE: D- Inert, pretentious, would-be nail biter featuring Marlon Brando in his weird, pre-Godfather down period as a hepcat kidnapper. He pairs with Mafia hard man Richard Boone to snatch and ransom the daughter of a wealthy American businessman. […]
