Robert Daniels

Tomatometer-approved critic

Publications: ThatShelf.com, 812filmreviews

movie Reviews Only

Movies

	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
2.5/4	93%	How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)	There are enough endearing aspects to enjoy a sincere and delightful film like How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 20, 2019
3/4	100%	Clemency (2019)	As a character study, [Clemency] is incredible. As a study of death row, it's necessary. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 14, 2019
2.5/4	71%	Troop Zero (2019)	Troop Zero is a film made for the misfits, the outcasts, and the dreamers - and will leave you floating to the stars. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 13, 2019
3/4	89%	Brittany Runs a Marathon (2019)	Brittany Runs a Marathon is a sincere and delightful pep-talk for the soul. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 13, 2019
2/4	69%	Isn't It Romantic (2019)	Isn't it Romantic: a meta-deconstructionist romantic comedy, feels five years too late to be of any consequence. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 13, 2019
3/4	92%	Blinded by the Light (2019)	Blinded By the Light is one of the most flawed films that still manages to be a great feel-good musical. - ThatShelf.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 12, 2019
3.5/4	92%	Monos (2019)	Monos is a Lord of the Flies/Heart of Darkness allegorical epic navigating mountains and jungles to bring a tale of disintegrating alliances and violent upheaval. - ThatShelf.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 12, 2019
3.5/4	100%	Rendezvous in Chicago (2018)	Rendezvous in Chicago is a set of unique Chicago stories, acted, written, and directed with spontaneity and sincerity. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 12, 2019
3/4	94%	Fighting with My Family (2019)	Fighting with My Family is a defining wrestling film wrapped in feel-good vibes. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 10, 2019
3.5/4	93%	Luce (2019)	Luce is one of the most searing and honest examinations of race, tokenism, and the "Exceptional Negro trope" in recent memory. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 7, 2019
3.5/4	93%	The Report (2019)	Scott Z. Burn's The Report is a taut political procedural...which will inspire anger and solace at the U.S. government. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 7, 2019
	88%	The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019)	The Last Black Man in San Francisco is an ambitious, jubilant work that portrays the brutal community disintegration caused by gentrification. - ThatShelf.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 7, 2019
3/4	100%	Ms. Purple (2018)	Chon's newest film is a tribute to familial responsibility, told from a female perspective. - ThatShelf.com EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 7, 2019
3/4	86%	The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)	Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is built for laughs, questions aggressive masculinity, and is a worthy successor to its predecessor - even if the story becomes too convoluted at points. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 6, 2019
3/4	83%	Hala (2019)	Baig provides a Muslim perspective, fitted in a touching coming-of-age story, that balances the familiar with the foreign to pull for a girl whose strength of freedom is at once powerful and quiet. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 5, 2019
3.5/4	79%	We Are Little Zombies (2019)	We Are Little Zombies is as addictive as the pop-music it creates, and as strong as the camaraderie it evokes: a joyous and adventurous story of a four-piece confronted with tragedy and morbid apathy. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 5, 2019
3/4	100%	Honey Boy (2019)	Honey Boy an example of the therapy art offers within the confines of the screen. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 5, 2019
2/4	88%	Fyre (2019)	If the Hulu-produced [Fyre Fraud] didn't exist, Netflix's [FYRE] would be a fully worthwhile presentation. But Hulu's [Fire Fraud] does exist, and it is decidedly better. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 18, 2019
3/4	76%	Fyre Fraud (2019)	McFarland, like most scammers, is a wellspring of genius misused for perilous ends...Fyre Fraud is a story of an all-time swindle... - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 18, 2019
1.5/4	37%	Glass (2019)	Glass is the most Shyamalan film the director has ever made: only in the sense that you wonder - what could have been. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 16, 2019
1.5/4	40%	The Upside (2019)	The Upside - a tone deaf, ill timed, and messy comedy - is a film no one: not even Hart, wants right now. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 10, 2019
3/4	93%	Stan & Ollie (2019)	Stan & Ollie is a touching tribute to a love that endured through disagreements and has survived through time. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 9, 2019
3.5/4	93%	The Endless (2018)	The biggest lesson of The Endless is how we can allow our lives to loop around in one crappy cycle until we cop out. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 30, 2018
2.5/4	62%	Bird Box (2018)	Director Susanne Bier's perilous post-apocalyptic film, Bird Box, straddles the line between rudimentary and riveting. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 20, 2018
3/4	93%	Bumblebee (2018)	[With Bumblebee] Travis Knight...finds the honey suckle sweet spot in a John Hughes/Steven Spielberg-inspired coming-of-age blockbuster. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 20, 2018
0/4	45%	Second Act (2018)	Second Act should invite a script-burning party. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 20, 2018
1.5/4	66%	Vice (2018)	Adam McKay's film shoves information down our throats like a Wikipedia breathing tube. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 17, 2018
3/4	63%	Mary Queen of Scots (2018)	From the moment Saoirse Ronan's Mary Stuart washes ashore, us and everyone on that craggy balmy Scottish beach innately know her as royalty. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 14, 2018
3.5/4	99%	They Shall Not Grow Old (2019)	They Shall Not Grow Old is a fascinating exposition, told with reverence and stunning colorization, of these men who fought the war they thought would end all wars. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 14, 2018
1.5/4	70%	The Mule (2018)	With basic directing and shot selection, and a troubling script, the only saving grace of The Mule is Eastwood's performance. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 12, 2018
2/4	78%	Mary Poppins Returns (2018)	Though the film will have mass appeal, and audiences will faun over these familiar characters, its bloated makeup ultimately makes Mary Poppins Returns into the glitzy, bombastic, hollow mess that Travers always feared. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 12, 2018
3/4	65%	Aquaman (2018)	Bloated and overcooked, yes those two things are possible, the film somehow succeeds in its own zany weird way. Aquaman should be seen on the biggest screen possible with the least pretentiousness given. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 11, 2018
2/4	60%	Vox Lux (2018)	Vox Lux is a film without the hooks to deliver its meaning. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 6, 2018
2/4	52%	Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)	"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." Ian Malcolm's words have never rung so true as with Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 5, 2018
3.5/4	97%	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)	Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse breathes new life into the Marvel film genre. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 4, 2018
3.5/4	99%	Shoplifters (Manbiki kazoku) (2018)	Though we never untangle the difference between right and wrong in Shoplifters, we find ourselves emotionally invested in this inescapable work of art. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 23, 2018
3/4	80%	At Eternity's Gate (2018)	At Eternity's Gate favors beauty in the extreme. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 22, 2018
3.5/4	94%	The Favourite (2018)	Witty and dramatic, The Favourite offers the path of least resistance for anyone not swooned by Lathimos's brand of filmmaking. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2018
0/4	15%	Robin Hood (2018)	Despite Robin Hood boasting a talented cast, the cheesiness of their script would blunt the sharpest of performances. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 20, 2018
3/4	84%	Creed II (2018)	Creed II may not advance Adonis' story, but it's still a good Rocky film nonetheless. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 19, 2018
4/4	94%	Burning (Beoning) (2018)	Burning is an intriguing dramatic mystery that rarely bequeaths answers, usurping the male gaze and dichotomy between the well-meaning creep and madman. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 19, 2018
2.5/4	59%	The Front Runner (2018)	Reitman is very close to making The Front Runner into a clear winner, but like Hart, he falls just short. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 16, 2018
3.5/4	88%	Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)	Ralph Breaks the Internet: A film that mixes every property within the Disney universe, and some that aren't, while finding roots in existentialism... - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 14, 2018
4/4	91%	Widows (2018)	It's rare to see a director of McQueen's pedigree working on a heist film, and even rarer for a popcorn flick to work on the intricate and stratifying levels that Widowsgrants us. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 13, 2018
3/4	79%	Green Book (2018)	Green Book feels like a relic, a film snatched from the 90's... In 2018, the film shouldn't work... yet, it does "succeed." - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 13, 2018
	100%	General Magic (2017)	It'll make you dream big. It'll transfix you with wonder. It'll make you worship the magic of technology. General Magic is also one of the best documentaries of the year. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 11, 2018
4/4	91%	The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)	The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is reliant on life and fate's brutal eccentricities...while incorporating and morphing the reverberations of the Western genre with the Coen brothers' oddball humor. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 11, 2018
2/4	81%	Boy Erased (2018)	Edgerton is a fine director and actor, but his adaptive writing is bland. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 8, 2018
2.5/4	37%	Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)	Much like Ron's broken wand, Rowling's enchantment is becoming less-and-less dependable by the film. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 8, 2018
1.5/4	40%	The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)	The Girl in the Spider's Web is a generic cash grab that lacks the unique artistry required for a strong female lead. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 7, 2018