The First Legion (1951; Douglas Sirk) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes A real curiosity from Douglas Sirk, a black-and-white B-production about Jesuit priests “in one small corner of the modern world,” and an unexpectedly complex examination of faith and doubt. Restored last year by the UCLA Film & […]
Neon Bull (2016; Gabriel Mascaro) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes A documentary filmmaker making only his second narrative feature, writer-director Mascaro invests the entrancing and upsetting Neon Bull with equal parts lived-in authenticity and dreamlike beauty. Neon Bull follows a surrogate family of cowhands and entertainers at the […]
My Golden Days (2016; Arnaud Desplechin) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes My somewhat embarrassing admission: My Golden Days is my first Desplechin film, so I’m no position to judge whether it’s a good, bad or mediocre version of the French auteur’s work. I just know that I loved […]
Mountains May Depart (2016; Jia Zhangke) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes An alternately rapturous and ponderous story of Chinese tradition resisting the eraser of progress, Mountains May Depart stars Zhangke muse (and wife) Tao Zhao as Tao, a small-town girl whose flirtation with a “true capitalist” and rejection […]
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 […]
By Daniel Barnes All hail, Awards Season! Tyrant of all she surveys! Oppressor of cinephiles! Scourge of the pudgy and bespectacled! Obvious Ben Whishaw fan! Long may her tastefully bland mediocrities inexplicably occupy our otherwise intelligent thoughts! SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29 Victor Frankenstein (Dir.: Paul McGuigan; GRADE: C+) Not […]
