The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976; John Cassavetes) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes Like most of John Cassavetes’ movies, his meditative 1976 crime film The Killing of a Chinese Bookie opens on what appears to be a random moment. When I watched Faces for the first time […]
STEPMOM (1998; Chris Columbus) GRADE: D- By Daniel Barnes *Originally published on the Movie City USA blog on June 5, 2008. At the end of Chris Columbus’ mummified would-be tearjerker Stepmom, a credit reads, “In Loving Memory of Irene Columbus.” It’s a reference to the director’s mother, who […]
By Daniel Barnes *Originally published on the Movie City USA blog on August 21, 2007 [w/updated comments at the end] “He makes Hollywood feel better about itself.” -David Thomson, The New Biographical Dictionary of Film I think that Thomson means this not just in the sense that Ron […]
“ARRESTED ADOLESCENCE IN PRE-APATOW AMERICA” (the silent era – 1996) By Professor Daniel Barnes Dub challenged me to create a course on “films about overgrown adolescents that don’t involve Judd Apatow.” Although Apatow got his start on TV in the early 1990s, his first film credits were on […]
CHINESE ROULETTE (1976; Rainer Werner Fassbinder) GRADE: A- By Mike Dub A precocious adolescent concocts an elaborate plan to expose the secrets of her family in Chinese Roulette. It sounds like it could be the plotline of a heartwarming Christopher Columbus movie, but this is a film by […]
The Big Wedding (2013; Justin Zackham) GRADE: F By Daniel Barnes It is important to note that I was dared to watch The Big Wedding by my father, Walter Barnes, Jr. Besides being a wonderful Dad, my father is a huge movie fan, and his early influence is […]
