The summer movie season is traditionally a time for blockbuster fluff. However, with a bevy of superhero movies (Shazam!; Avengers: Endgame), sequels (John Wick: Chapter 3) and feature-length brand marketing campaigns (Aladdin; Pokemon Detective Pikachu) hitting theaters in the last couple months, you have to wonder whether there […]
Walking on Water (2019; Andrey Paounov) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, May 24, at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. “Industrial-Scale Whimsy” I started this blog over five years ago, and in that time, I penned and published over […]
Pasolini (2019; Abel Ferrara) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, May 10, in New York City, and expands to other select theaters in the following weeks. “Obsessed with Banality” After playing Vincent van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate, Willem Dafoe continues his biopic tour of tragic artists with […]
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 […]
3 Faces (2019; Jafar Panahi) GRADE: B- By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, March 29, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. 3 Faces is the fourth feature film from Iranian writer-director Jafar Panahi since 2010, the year that the Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced him to house arrest and imposed […]
Birds of Passage (2019; Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, March 1, at the Opera Plaza 4 in San Francisco. Embrace of the Serpent director Guerra and first-timer Gallego deliver this strangely static but wholly unexpected and unusual gangster saga, purportedly “inspired by […]
