Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2019; Bi Gan) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, May 3, at the Landmark Embarcadero in San Francisco and the Landmark California in Berkeley. “Tedious Wonderland” “A watch is a symbol of eternity. And it’s broken.” Dreams, memories and hallucinations get stacked […]
Shoplifters (2018; Hirokazu Koreeda) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes When the domestic drama Shoplifters won the Palme d’Or last Summer at Cannes, right on the heels of a string of solid but same-ish domestic dramas from Japanese filmmaker Koreeda (including Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister and After the Storm), it seemed possible […]
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 Mariko Tsutsui stars as Akié, unsatisfied small-town wife of a withdrawn machinist named Toshio (Kanji […]
The Measure of a Man (2016; Stéphane Brizé) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Impotent resistance versus soul-sucking compliance in the bloody coliseum of capitalism. Human dignity loses either way. Vincent Lindon won the Best Actor prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival for his work here as Thierry, […]
By Daniel Barnes and Mike Dub DANIEL: First of all, Dub, I want to thank you for honoring my “no flats” policy for this festival wrap-up – I feel like the Palme d’Or calls for a little old-school glamour. As I wrote in my review of When Father […]
When Father Was Away on Business (1985; Emir Kusturica) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes If you look at the recent history of the Cannes Film Festival, it’s pretty clear that for all of their emphasis on unique cinematic voices, there is a certain type of film that tends […]
