Robert Daniels

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Consequence, IGN, IndieWire, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine (Vulture), Polygon, RogerEbert.com, Screen Daily, The New York Times, The Playlist
For 424 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 47% higher than the average critic
  • 4% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Robert Daniels' Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 65
Highest review score: 100 The Annihilation of Fish
Lowest review score: 0 The Instigators
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 256 out of 424
  2. Mixed: 98 out of 424
  3. Negative: 70 out of 424
424 movie reviews
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    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    The Alto Knights
    As a gangster film, “The Alto Knights” does little more than putter along, taking in very few new or interesting sights along the way.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Last Ride
    There is a good movie lurking within writer/director Cinqué Lee’s survivalist coming-of-age thriller “Last Ride.” It’s just suspended between two half-told stories.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 58 Robert Daniels
    You Won't Be Alone
    Stolevski aims for a life-affirming treatise on the poetics of human existence but strains to be more than a pretty copy of his well-known influences.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Pain Hustlers
    By playing with formalism, using faux documentary, and cranking out hedonistic scenes of excessive drug taking and partying, Yates aims to blend “Erin Brockovich” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But the director’s filmic language never offers quite enough sex, quite enough excess, quite enough of capitalism’s depravity. Pain Hustlers just doesn’t know how to commit.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Tina
    Martin and Lindsay’s Tina all too often struggles to show Turner as a three-dimensional person — her wants, her beliefs, her passions — in lieu of her being a product of the abuse she withstood from Ike. As a tribute, it’s a disappointing slog for an always-vibrant legend.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    The Humans
    As a film, The Humans provides serrated frights and big challenges for its actors, but ultimately, it is too cold and never believable enough to immerse one in its purported dread.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 42 Robert Daniels
    A Love Song
    Both Dickey and Studi shoulder the lesser material through a charming naturalism that papers over the script’s artificiality.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 58 Robert Daniels
    The Personal History of David Copperfield
    Unfortunately, Iannucci and Blackwell are so intent on making every quip funny, they lose the story.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 55 Robert Daniels
    Nope
    Nope is an idea more than a story. It’s a collection of individually captivating scenes, as opposed to an intriguing whole. It’s a handsome picture, but Peele is far too impressed with its handsomeness to work on populating it with fully felt characters.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 42 Robert Daniels
    Malcolm & Marie
    Sam Levinson’s Malcolm & Marie is a purposely self-absorbed meta-narrative about a navel-gazing director at odds with his muse—an enticing premise on paper—that too often obscures its heart in lieu of tedious diatribes.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant
    If The Covenant were only an interrogation of the hollowness of American exceptionalism, as its first hour suggests, it’d be among the most honest portrayals of the country’s role in the region. But Ritchie eventually awakens from his stupor, pushing this combat-action flick to gonzo territory.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 58 Robert Daniels
    Small Axe: Alex Wheatle
    Alex Wheatle combines the relevant themes that guide the prior “Small Axe” installments: music as an escape from one’s environment, police brutality, and a character adrift from his community — yet the writing struggles to connect the major plot points for big picture interpretations of Alex’s cultural self-education.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Sergio
    Barker takes his initially enthralling documentary and dilutes the story with this new feature, creating melodramatic lightness without an affectingly heavy touch due to the tepid tone and wheezing tempo. In short, it snoozes.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 42 Robert Daniels
    Reptile
    Singer’s Reptile, distributed by Netflix, wants to be a David Fincher procedural with Steven Soderbergh’s paranoia, but it’s a fangless homage without suspense, logic, or shame.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Robert Daniels
    The French Dispatch
    The French Dispatch is probably the worst film of the director’s career. But even his worst effort is worth biting the bullet for.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 60 Robert Daniels
    Civil War
    Even for Garland’s adept visual storytelling, supported by daring cuts by Jake Roberts and offbeat needledrops, the core of Civil War feels hollow.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 42 Robert Daniels
    On the Count of Three
    A good movie exists in On the Count of Three. But a film with such challenging subject matter needed a more experienced director capable of shading the dark comedy and the heartfelt spirit with an assured visual hand.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Robert Daniels
    Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
    Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is the kind of bold swing with difficult material that does manage to earn your respect.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    The Inspection
    The Inspection isn’t a bad movie. Rather it’s a disappointing slog because the arduous journey it sets up should have offered greater returns.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 40 Robert Daniels
    Candyman
    The film is missing out on a cohesive vision, to the point where the audience will spend the entire film waiting for the flashbacks and summaries to end, and for DaCosta’s movie to finally begin. But by the end, she’s only offered a visually stunning homage to the original film. For a director of her talent, that isn’t enough.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 45 Robert Daniels
    Encounter
    If Pearce weren’t so heavy-handed, if were just self-aware enough to know how to connect character with metaphor, then Encounter, a flawed sci-fi flick with a simple premise, could be a great adventure fit for the stars.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    The Gates
    While “The Gates” itself isn’t a total smash, it’s a more than sturdy final effort from a beloved actor.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    The Bikeriders
    It becomes empty, artificial scenes of actors playing dress-up.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Sidney
    Sidney functions as a loving memorial to the pioneering Black movie star who passed earlier this year, but it never suffices as more than a tepid first draft of his life. And it is never as groundbreaking as Poitier’s best work.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Summertime
    The sunny, diverse musical delivers sugary messages of self-affirmation with the shine of a lollipop and the stickiness of a half-eaten sucker. It’s a bold attempt, putting a neo-realist spotlight on a bevvy of first-time and nascent actors, but presented under an obnoxious treacle banner.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Cha Cha Real Smooth
    This is a story written and directed by a 23-year-old. That reality defines Cha Cha Real Smooth’s truest virtue (blissful naïveté) and its grandest flaw — a blithering unawareness of reality. It’s a film defined by its myopic, narrow bandwidth.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 58 Robert Daniels
    I'm Fine (Thanks for Asking)
    Kali and Molina’s I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) frustratingly struggles to find its way, but when it does, this story of houselessness, grief, and motherhood blossoms like a sunflower in a rich field of pathos. And offers a very brief balm to these heady times.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 58 Robert Daniels
    Concrete Cowboy
    Concrete Cowboy breathes new life into the western genre and sheds a brighter light on a faction of Black culture that was largely unknown by white audiences until today.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 40 Robert Daniels
    Blink Twice
    Blink Twice is haunted by lost opportunities. As a woman and survivor, Frida feels ignored. But Kravitz leaves the erasure that Black women feel untapped.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 42 Robert Daniels
    Breaking
    The star-studded cast does good, dependable work. There are visual flairs that linger in the mind: For all its faults, this movie has a striking look to it. And Corbin’s best intentions are genuine. The ending comes with a startling bang. But what remains when the dust settles? By the end of the over-tightened 892, unfortunately, a memorialization to Brown-Easley’s plight, we know little about the actual man.
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