Robert Daniels

Tomatometer-approved critic

Publications: RogerEbert.com, The Playlist, Consequence of Sound, That Shelf, 812filmreviews, Mediaversity Reviews

Movie Reviews Only

Movies
TV

	T-Meter	Title \| Year	Review
C+	72%	The Call of the Wild (2020)	While The Call of the Wild is silly, and never completely pulls the wool over the eyes with respect to the CGI, there's enough meat on the bone to gnaw on before burying it in the backyard. - Consequence of Sound EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 18, 2020
1.5/4	40%	Downhill (2020)	Downhill never sticks the landing as a couple's comedy nor as a marriage in crisis. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 14, 2020
2.5/4	78%	Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)	It's a collage of glitter-packed fun. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 6, 2020
3.5/4	88%	Zola (2020)	In marrying the language of social media with cinema, Zola is a blinding success - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 5, 2020
3/4	91%	Whirlybird (2020)	Whirlybird is a brutal and compelling portrait with regards to ambition and scope, and empathy. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 5, 2020
C-	53%	Falling (2020)	Falling ultimately crashes into a heap due to a host of rambling non-connective ideas and tonally grating dialogue. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Feb 1, 2020
C	No Score Yet	Sergio (2020)	Baker takes his initially enthralling documentary and dilutes the story with this new feature, creating melodramatic lightness due to the tepid tone and wheezing tempo. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 29, 2020
A	86%	Charm City Kings (2020)	Charm City Kings is a powerful coming of age story expressing freedom and danger, love and grief, and the pitfalls of childhood heroes. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 28, 2020
A	100%	Palm Springs (2020)	Max Barbakow's raunchy rom-com, Palm Springs, adds meaning to the seeming meaninglessness of life, with infectious fun and introspective pleasure to boot. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 27, 2020
3/4	75%	Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story (2020)	Happy Happy Joy Joy - The Ren & Stimpy Story is engrossing and gutsy, and tactfully executed, but could be more combative. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 26, 2020
2.5/4	100%	The Go-Go's (2020)	The Go-Go's sometimes lacks a personal touch, and too often waltzes through as a by-the-numbers music documentary, but certainly serves as a monument to a seminal group. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 26, 2020
A-	88%	Black Bear (2020)	Unique and unfazed, hilarious yet philosophical, "Black Bear" is the comedic form reinvented and re-conformed to mad and intoxicating ends. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 26, 2020
B+	92%	Possessor (2020)	"Possessor" is an exhilarating fever dream body horror and existentialist assassin movie about parasitic relationships. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 26, 2020
B+	78%	Wander Darkly (2020)	"Wander Darkly" will emotionally devastate anyone who believes in soulmates, leaving them in a gulf of tears. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 26, 2020
B-	70%	Scare Me (2020)	Scare Me deconstructs the horror comedy to mostly successful results. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 25, 2020
3.5/4	100%	This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2020)	Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese's This is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection urgently intertwines magical realism in a parable of grief and resilience... - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 25, 2020
2/4	14%	Dolittle (2020)	DOLITTLE: I literally don't care enough to think up a good pun. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 15, 2020
3.5/4	76%	Bad Boys for Life (2020)	With both characters parsing through the consequences of their cavalier actions.... comes Lawrence and Smith's best acting in years. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 15, 2020
2/4	84%	Les Misérables (2020)	While Ly's narrative of class and racial tensions between Black Muslim project dwellers and the abusive cops who patrol their streets offers stressfully stitched periods of suspense, the portrayal of the Black victims lack depth. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 12, 2020
2/4	47%	Underwater (2020)	Eubank is close to a B-movie classic, but instead devolves into D-movie status. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 9, 2020
2/4	20%	Like a Boss (2020)	Like a Boss could be a good uplifting film, a narrative about independence and beauty in the face of misunderstanding. Instead, it buckles and falls into the uglier portions of what's inside. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Jan 8, 2020
B+	89%	The Two Popes (2019)	A tightly constructed narrative, which examines the role of forgiveness, The Two Popes is a lowkey buddy comedy that simply follows two actors at the top of their game. - Consequence of Sound EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 23, 2019
3/4	20%	Cats (2019)	Cats succeeds on its own terms. Its own harebrained, roller coaster, what did we do last night that has me waking up in a temple in Kyoto wearing someone else's pants way. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 18, 2019
1.5/4	52%	Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)	The Rise of Skywalker eases its viewers into comfortable resignation and uncomplicated callbacks meant to pacify and not injure. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 18, 2019
3.5/4	97%	Booksmart (2019)	Booksmart is a loving and endearing piece of filmmaking - wickedly funny and adventurous - and a jaw dropping directorial debut from Wilde. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 16, 2019
3/4	75%	Spies in Disguise (2019)	Spies in Disguise is an overdue and welcomed return to form for Will Smith. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 16, 2019
3/4	89%	1917 (2020)	Emotionally hollow, 1917 is the big what if of 2019. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 16, 2019
2.5/4	71%	Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)	Jumanji: The Next Level possesses enough laughs and a few heartwarming moments toward its conclusion to fulfill some need for extra game play. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 11, 2019
2.5/4	70%	Bombshell (2019)	Much like Vice, Roach's [Bombshell] is a display of fantastic acting and hilarious comedy, but doesn't pass as the historical documentary it wishes to be. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Dec 11, 2019
	80%	Desert One (2019)	Desert One is a fitting memorial of courage, even in the face of insurmountable odds. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 27, 2019
	97%	The Cave (2019)	The Cave like the region, shouldn't be ignored. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 27, 2019
A-	95%	Little Women (2019)	Greta Gerwig's Little Women is ambitious and enchanting, refreshingly rendering a classic tale in non-linear fashion for a new generation of young girls everywhere. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 25, 2019
C-	92%	Ford v Ferrari (2019)	While Ford v. Ferrari finishes first on a technical level, it serves as a myopic altar to a sport and era of white-male dominance. - Mediaversity Reviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 23, 2019
B	76%	Richard Jewell (2019)	Richard Jewell doesn't always get it right, but it very well might be Clint Eastwood's best film of the last decade. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 21, 2019
A-	83%	Queen & Slim (2019)	Melina Matsoukas' powerful debut feature is a meditation and celebration of the Black experience and an at-times searing condemnation of an apathetic white America. - The Playlist EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 15, 2019
3/4	77%	Doctor Sleep (2019)	Mike Flanagan's Doctor Sleep: the eponymous Stephen King written sequel to The Shining, radiates as a singular vision when Flanagan follows his style, yet dims in a disjointed third act... - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 7, 2019
1.5/4	42%	Midway (2019)	Though Emmerich delivers sharply constructed battles, the sprawling 138-minute epic: in its sporadic focus, makes Michael Bay's slightly underrated thirst trap Pearl Harbor look like a masterpiece. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 6, 2019
3/4	70%	Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)	When Miller's picture allows Hamilton and Schwarzenegger to handle characters they're more familiar with than anyone, the film hits its stride like a tremendous machine... - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 4, 2019
2/4	62%	Motherless Brooklyn (2019)	Motherless Brooklyn [is] a noble failure, but a failure nonetheless. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Nov 1, 2019
	100%	Vitalina Varela (2020)	Masters of the elegiac need not measure every somber sigh. In this Portuguese drama, Costa proves his immense talent for matching the esoteric with the human. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 29, 2019
	96%	Atlantics (2019)	Mati Diop's Atlantics: which in its wake leaves a ghost story enlivened by love and economic instability. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 29, 2019
	93%	Invisible Life (A vida invisível de Eurídice Gusmão) (2019)	[A] wilderness of life and oppressive gender roles... - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 29, 2019
4/4	97%	Knives Out (2019)	What's that I hear? It's 'as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.' The sound of deflated haters never sounded so sweet as seeing Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi followup, the wildly hilarious whodunit Knives Out. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 28, 2019
	100%	La Llorona (2019)	Bustamante thoughtfully takes the phantasmagorical to inform the myriad of ways we shouldn't just forget, for fear of letting down the victims who came before. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 25, 2019
	80%	Jojo Rabbit (2019)	Jojo Rabbit is deeply flawed, the narrative sags too often through its 108 minutes, but in its final forty-five Waititi discovers a deeply endearing relationship that makes the whole journey worth it. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 25, 2019
	No Score Yet	Once Upon a River (2019)	Once Upon a River-with a tremendous performance from Kenadi DelaCerna as Margo-enchants us in this simple but evocative coming-of-age tale. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 25, 2019
	100%	Sole (2019)	Sironi's paired character study leaves one imaginative of the life the two could lead if they only had the ability to seize it. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 25, 2019
	No Score Yet	Forman vs. Forman (2019)	Forman v. Forman, much like the director's life, seems short, even in its thoughtful tribute. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 24, 2019
2.5/4	40%	Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)	There's enough magic dust made of sass and a decent amount of political relevance for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil to fancy the imagination - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 15, 2019
1/4	26%	Gemini Man (2019)	While there's a melancholy in seeing supremely talented individuals whiff so badly on a creative project, it's never been so funny as in Gemini Man. - 812filmreviews EDIT Read More \| Posted Oct 9, 2019