Tag: documentaries

“Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World” Movie Review by Daniel Barnes

Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World (2015; Belinda Sallin) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens today in San Francisco and Berkeley. Belinda Sallin’s skimpy Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World, a look inside the home of the Swiss artist H.R. Giger in the final months of his life, would have […]

MVFF37, Days 4 and 5 – “We’re a Happy Family”

Monday saw me back in Sacramento, taking an off day from live screenings and spending some quality time with the wife and pets.  However, I did manage to polish off a couple of screeners for films that played at Mill Valley this year, and my plan is to […]

MVFF37, Day 3 – “Landscapes and Mindscapes”

Sunday morning in San Rafael started with Weaver’s Coffee, Theresa-and-Joe’s Comfort Food, a frantic last-minute switch out of Eric Decker from my fantasy lineup, and my first screening at the Christopher B. Smith Film Center.  Pascal Plisson’s documentary On the Way to School follows four groups of children […]

Rich Hill

“Rich Hill” Movie Review by Daniel Barnes

Rich Hill (2014; Andrew Droz Palermo and Tracy Droz Tragos) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes *Now playing at the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. “Seething and Scowling” Rich Hill is a poor Missouri town about 75 minutes south of Kansas City, population […]

“Let the Fire Burn” Movie Review by Daniel Barnes

Let the Fire Burn (2013; Jason Osder) GRADE: A- By Daniel Barnes Jason Osder’s powerful and disturbing Let the Fire Burn is part of a new wave of media collage documentaries that also includes Brett Morgen’s July 17, 1994 and Penny Lane’s Our Nixon. Rather than offer comforting […]