A Poem is a Naked Person (1974/2015; Les Blank) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Documentarian Les Blank (Burden of Dreams) started shooting A Poem is a Naked Person in 1972 and completed it in 1974. However, the film was held up for decades by legal issues, and it’s […]
Rebels of the Neon God (1992: Tsai Ming-liang) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Festival circuit cinephiles revere Taiwanese auteur Tsai Ming-liang for films like Goodbye Dragon Inn, What Time is It There?, last year’s Stray Dogs, and Journey to the West (the slow-walking monk one, not the kung […]
When Marnie Was There (2015; Hiromasa Yonebayashi) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes Hand-drawn animation stalwarts Studio Ghibli shut down production late August following the retirement of guiding light Hiyao Miyazaki. Therefore, When Marnie Was There may be the last feature film we see under the Ghibli label in […]
Jauja (2015; Lisandro Alonso) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes More adventures in aspect ratios. Mommy director Xavier Dolan, Argentinean auteur Lisandro Alonso sees your 1:1 frame and raises you the rounded corners and stiff compositions of a 19th-century photograph. Viggo Mortensen stars as Gunnar Denisen, a Danish surveyor […]
The Wrecking Crew (1996/2008/2015; Denny Tedesco) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes In case you didn’t know a loosely knit group of roughly two dozen Southern California session musicians played on almost every classic pop song and TV theme you ever loved. Dubbed The Wrecking Crew, they were Phil […]
The Duke of Burgundy (2015; Peter Strickland) GRADE: A- By Daniel Barnes “Luxurious and Layered” This luxurious and layered psycho-sexual drama is director Peter Strickland’s follow-up to his hypnotically stylish 2012 mind-fuck Berberian Sound Studio, which followed the breakdown of a mousy sound engineer working on a gory […]
