Daniel Schindel

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Paste Magazine, The Film Stage
For 107 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 19% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 79% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 9.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Daniel Schindel's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 56
Highest review score: 100 Kate Plays Christine
Lowest review score: 0 Southbound
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 107
  2. Mixed: 58 out of 107
  3. Negative: 9 out of 107
107 movie reviews
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    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Daniel Schindel
    Hooligan Sparrow
    Hooligan Sparrow struggles with the entrenchment of injustice both thematically and narratively, as it can’t quite find a way to cohere its story beyond sticking to the time Wang was with Ye. But that doesn’t diminish the courage of either filmmaker or subject.
    • 88 Metascore
    • 67 Daniel Schindel
    The Death of Stalin
    This may be Iannucci’s weakest-written film, but it’s by far his best-directed one.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Daniel Schindel
    Thirst Street
    Vivid and mordant, Thirst Street imperfectly defines its lead, but makes her journey distinct.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Daniel Schindel
    Unlocking the Cage
    This film is especially good at making courtroom scenes engaging, where many would hurry through the choicest soundbites before moving on to the next part.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 67 Daniel Schindel
    306 Hollywood
    When it works, the movie strongly evokes the feeling of sorting through a loved one’s possessions after their death.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Daniel Schindel
    Mary and The Witch's Flower
    Mary and the Witch’s Flower is safe, containing no assertion of Ponoc as an artistic force beyond its overall technical accomplishment.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Daniel Schindel
    Split
    The problem with its mystery setup is that, since we’re simply waiting for The Beast to show up, the revelations are less driving plot progression than they are filling time, and that “ticking clock” is arbitrary
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Daniel Schindel
    The Challenge
    With this raw animal rush, you can understand the appeal of the sport, and how one might deign to spend part of a fortune on vicariously experiencing it. But it also demonstrates the ultimate hollowness of extreme consumption.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 67 Daniel Schindel
    Moana
    This is one of the better-directed CG films in the Disney canon. But next to all the solid noisy bits, Disney still demonstrates trouble in slowing down properly.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 65 Daniel Schindel
    After Love
    Despite these sharp moments, there’s a frustrating looseness to Lafosse’s narrative, feeling as though many of After Love’s scenes could be rearranged without changing the film’s flow. In turn, a slackness undercuts the tension the film is otherwise trying to build.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    I Love You Both
    I Love You Both perhaps would have been best imagined as a short, but it makes for a breezy watch.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    The 15:17 to Paris
    The 15:17 to Paris is a long stretch of boredom culminating in one jolt of interest.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    Tickled
    Tickled too often gets in its own way.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    Pacific Rim: Uprising
    Pacific Rim Uprising is a mess, but when it gets to the business of robots beating up monsters (or sometimes other robots), it’s a blast.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    Spa Night
    It’s nice that Spa Night has a story with a different kind of protagonist than what we’re used to, but it tells that story with all the lackluster waffling of any other shaky indie drama.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    Don't Breathe
    Don’t Breathe makes for a very fun little thriller, though it also veers into being exceptionally stupid or eye-rollingly gross (although admittedly, it is sometimes more than one of these things simultaneously)
    • 32 Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    Independence Day: Resurgence
    Despite all this, Independence Day: Resurgence still emerges as one of the better blockbusters of this summer, and that’s only halfway damning with faint praise. It’s a mess, but I grinned a good portion of the way through.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    The Cleaners
    The Cleaners ably raises questions around the issue without following through on tying them together, often seeming like it’s simply bouncing around to cover all the relevant topics until it’s time to wrap up. That’s a letdown, but it gives us some noteworthy moments along its way.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    Thoroughbreds
    Taylor-Joy and Cooke have a weird, comedic dynamic that could have put them in the canon of cinematic duos if the movie had been braver in pushing their relationship to darker territory. Ultimately, Thoroughbreds is a lot of potential with an anticlimactic payoff.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 58 Daniel Schindel
    Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
    Action is Rogue One’s strongest suit, and what makes all the faffing about bearable.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    Headshot
    The Raid star Iko Uwais deserves to silat his way through a million hapless evil men, but here’s hoping that, going forward, he picks better cinematic vehicles for his frighteningly fast feet and fists.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    Beatriz at Dinner
    White and Arteta have a solid foundation but seemingly no idea of where it could go.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    Transformers: The Last Knight
    This film’s sense of action geography and tactics is atrocious.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    Chronic
    Roth interacts well with Michael Cristofer and Robin Bartlett, who play David’s two primary patients in the story. But outside of their performances and Franco’s ever-tasteful approach to the subject matter, Chronic is frustrated either by convention or its own coldness.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    The Witness
    Rather than intelligently grapple with the complexities, the filmmakers let various people have their say and then call the whole thing done.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    This Is Home: A Refugee Story
    Where it could do more to work inside its characters’ heads, it pulls back.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
    It’s surprisingly enjoyable even if you aren’t already in the bag for the turtles.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    Their Finest
    The movie makes a game attempt to resonate as something stronger than a typical period romance, wringing its wartime setting for all the pathos it can manage. But even the horrors of the Blitz feel too gentle here.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    Kiki
    The love these characters have for their lifestyle is obvious, as is their reasons for rejecting mainstream society for it, but the joy they receive from it is not conveyed to the viewer. Without that, Kiki is a decent survey of its chosen topic, but rarely anything more.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 Daniel Schindel
    Hidden Figures
    Hidden Figures is a nice movie. At its head is a trio of good performances from Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae. But it is in essence a feature-length version of an inspiring social media image macro, or perhaps a Google Doodle. “Did you know that black women were important at NASA?” It has little else to offer.
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