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 […]
The Zero Theorem (2014; Terry Gilliam) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes In the opening shots of Terry Gilliam’s cheeky sci-fi dystopia The Zero Theorem, a bald, naked, future man studies the churning menace of a black hole on a large computer screen in an abandoned church. All the […]
Little Richard (2000; Robert Townsend) GRADE: D By Daniel Barnes *NOTE: This review was originally published on The Barnesyard in 2006. “Gentile, Quasi-Inspiring Treatment” Hollywood biopics are less filmed biographies than they are hagiographies. There is an assumption that every story should be “inspiring”, even if the subject […]
Capricious Summer (1968; Jiri Menzel) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes For some reason, I watched Capricious Summer thinking it was the predecessor to writer-director-actor Jiri Menzel’s more polished Closely Watched Trains. Instead, this bawdy and cluttered but raggedly beautiful comedy was Menzel’s follow-up to Closely Watched Trains, which […]
Kapo (1960; Gillo Pontecorvo) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes At the age of 17, I saw Schindler’s List in the movie theater along with everyone else and loved it along with everyone else. I never revisited the Spielberg film, but I remain somewhat suspicious of my affection for […]
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 […]
