Berkeley Barb

Michael Reynolds Berkeley Barb Apr 6, 2024 Pacino is immediately riveting. Go to Full Review Dog Day Afternoon (1975) 94% 90%

Pam and Michael Rosenthal Berkeley Barb Apr 4, 2024 It isn't Billie Holiday, and that's a pity, but there are a whole lot of worse ways they could have gone about it. As Saturday night entertainment, it can't be beat. Go to Full Review Lady Sings the Blues (1972) 73% 86%

Len Lyons Berkeley Barb Mar 8, 2024 Though Chinatown is not Polanski at his best, it will keep you up for several paranoid, early-morning hours after the rude awakening of its conclusion. Go to Full Review Chinatown (1974) 98% 93%

Gar Smith Berkeley Barb Feb 8, 2024 Grease is a true product of American genius: objectionable material you can dance to. Go to Full Review Grease (1978) 65% 87%

Bill Wallace Berkeley Barb Nov 16, 2023 Despite the $9 million worth of surrealistic sets, special effects and gadgetry, Alien succeeds on a level that other recent high-budget space operas can't approach: as a compelling, gripping drama. Go to Full Review Alien (1979) 93% 94%

Tom Zimberoff Berkeley Barb Nov 10, 2023 Penn has managed to show us a bit of authentic Indian existence and also give us a funny film. Go to Full Review Little Big Man (1970) 91% 87%

Cynthia Genser Berkeley Barb Oct 6, 2023 Scorsese has spit all his disgust right in our faces. Well, you don't have to like it. But when the doors of the [theater] opened to let us out, there was New York and I knew, I knew it was no longer possible to avoid the horror. Go to Full Review Taxi Driver (1976) 89% 93%

Charlie Davis Berkeley Barb Sep 21, 2022 Trash is Warhol's most entertaining movie to date. It's funny and sad all the way through. It has a kind of Huckleberry Finn mood to it. Go to Full Review Andy Warhol's Trash (1970) 80% 71%

Marina Hirsch Berkeley Barb Aug 26, 2022 Annie Hall is a wonderful riposte to the question, "can you translate your own life into a creative medium and not bore the hell out of everybody?" Go to Full Review Annie Hall (1977) 97% 92%

Lenny Lipton Berkeley Barb May 9, 2022 What does this film of his tour of Britain, this journey with Bob to and from concerts, tell us about him? Do I have to tell you, do I need to explain, that it's so very little, but so very much. Go to Full Review Dont Look Back (1967) 92% 92%

Tom Luddy Berkeley Barb Jan 31, 2022 It is a powerful and moving film, despite one or two dramatic flaws. Go to Full Review Nothing But a Man (1964) 98% 88%

Marina Hirsch Berkeley Barb May 13, 2021 A lovingly produced parody of all shoot-em-ups, of tight-lipped Western men and camisoled, fluttery Western women. Go to Full Review Goin' South (1978) 69% 49%

Marina Hirsch Berkeley Barb May 13, 2021 Bergman's faith in his characters' capabilities is a calming finish to an otherwise searing portrait. Go to Full Review Autumn Sonata (1978) 85% 92%

Marina Hirsch Berkeley Barb May 12, 2021 [Keaton's] vulnerability, cynically expressive eyebrows, constantly reassessing eyes, give Looking for Mr. Goodbar an immediacy it doesn't deserve. Go to Full Review Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) 63% 74%

J.N. Thomas Berkeley Barb May 12, 2021 Vertov brought the camera itself into the action, pulling out all the technical stops in probably the most exhausting, extravagant and dazzling "documentary" ever made. Go to Full Review The Man With a Movie Camera (1929) 98% 88%

J.N. Thomas Berkeley Barb May 12, 2021 Dovzhenko was a poet of nature, a radical mystic more akin to Blake than Marx, and in this film this love is dramatized in images of tremendous power. Go to Full Review Earth (1930) 75% 71%

Gar Smith Berkeley Barb May 12, 2021 Fellini's Casanova is a cold, lugubrious film. A chilling undressing of myth. But at a cost of $7 million, four years and several lawsuits, it is still spectacular cinema. It is Fellini, which is to say this film is an opera for the eyes. Go to Full Review Fellini's Casanova (1976) 58% 80%

Marina Hirsch Berkeley Barb May 12, 2021 The cinematographer is Haskell Wexler, and his scenes are still paintings, glowing at the edges, awash in muted and glowing light. Every scene looks hand-tinted, like old postcards. I wish they'd shot the movie in black and white. Go to Full Review Bound for Glory (1976) 80% 76%

J.N. Thomas Berkeley Barb May 12, 2021 Each and every worker is faultlessly heroic. Their solidarity is absolute, their ideology perfect. Go to Full Review - - - -

J.N. Thomas Berkeley Barb May 12, 2021 One Way or Another is an amazingly honest look at the "pre-revolutionary hangovers" of racism, sexism, and religious fanaticism among these people. Go to Full Review One Way or Another (1977) - - 43%