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 […]
By Daniel Barnes This is the ballot that I submitted for this year’s San Francisco Film Critics Circle awards. It should be noted that Madeline’s Madeline was nominated for our Special Citation Award, so I left it out of consideration for other awards. I also did not consider Mandy, which I […]
The Song of Sway Lake (2018; Ari Gold) GRADE: C+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, September 21, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Rory Culkin stars in this impressionistic but inconsistent drama as Ollie Sway, a disaffected disc jockey who returns to his family home on Sway […]
Blaze (2018: Ethan Hawke) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, September 21, at the. Landmark Embarcadero and Sundance Kabuki in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. Ethan Hawke gives the best performance of the year so far in my favorite film of 2018 so far […]
Madeline’s Madeline (2018; Josephine Decker) GRADE: B+ By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, August 24, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Finally, something with some fucking guts! This is my first experience with the cinema of Josephine Decker (although I hear good things about Butter on the Latch and Thou Wast […]
Support the Girls (2018; Andrew Bujalski) GRADE: B By Daniel Barnes *Opens Friday, August 24, at the Landmark Opera Plaza in San Francisco and the Landmark Shattuck in Berkeley. Coyote Ugly meets Clerks by way of Linklater and Lizzie Borden, as the put-upon manager and waitresses at a second-rate Hooter’s knockoff […]
