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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    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Robert Daniels
    Raya and the Last Dragon
    For all the enchanting elements, the kooky lovable sidekicks, and spirited voice performances from Awkwafina and Tran — the warmth shaking the ash from this well-worn story is the gift of family. The family we are born with. The family we make. The Southeast Asian-inspired “Raya and the Last Dragon” conjures some much-needed magic for a modicum of fun.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Cherry
    There’s a great film waiting to be made about the opioid crisis. But much like “Hillbilly Elegy,” “Cherry” can’t conjure up the cause and the toll of the devastation without relying on pastiche. Even the ending, meant to be a moment of healing, reduces Cherry’s concluding journey to a mere saccharine montage.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    First Date
    The entire ensemble rolls with the fast punches. And Crosby and Knapp show real comedic potential. But First Date takes too many big bites without the ability to digest any of its gummy sweets. Crosby and Knapp’s First Date, an at-times hilarious California pleasure trip, dissolves under the weight of its self-evident ambition.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 75 Robert Daniels
    Passing
    With an incredible ensemble and an elegant eye, Hall’s Passing is a high-wire act of a debut that tackles its several thorny issues with nary a scratch.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 75 Robert Daniels
    Judas and the Black Messiah
    King comes so close to rendering Hampton’s life and legacy anew for a younger generation. But for all of the film’s eloquent crafts and the audacious performances from a deep ensemble, which includes an under-sung Dominique Thorne as Black Panther member Judy Harmon, Judas And The Black Messiah doesn’t fully encapsulate either its Judas or its messiah.
    • 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.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 65 Robert Daniels
    The Little Things
    Hancock, in what might be his best film, grazes with greatness by constructing an enthralling thriller that relies on the talent of its three leading men to mine regret for mystery. But the mawkish little habits, the slow start, and the timid finale just barely get Hancock caught. It’s the little things that tear The Little Things apart.
    • 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.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 30 Robert Daniels
    Outside the Wire
    Grainy establishing shots of the skirmish offer little visual information other than its location on an expressway. Without viewers knowing where, and at whom, the soldiers are firing, the onscreen action is rendered indecipherable. Mackie’s quirky performance — Leo ends every order to Harp with an uncomfortable smile — is likewise baffling.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 100 Robert Daniels
    Night of the Kings
    With Night of the Kings Lacôte collapses the bounds between eras, and dissolves myth and reality, performance and remembrance, into one whole. It’s an assured, energetic piece of epic filmmaking, one that celebrates how storytelling, oration, and folklore teach us about our past so we might change our present.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 83 Robert Daniels
    Wander Darkly
    Chemistry wise, Miller and Luna work wonders together. Miller’s intense dynamic range: from impassioned to ebullient and afraid, plays well off of Luna’s boyish charm. They imbue these characters with troves of insecurities and mountains of love.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    The Midnight Sky
    The ticking clock makes The Midnight Sky a post-apocalyptic survivalist space film whose narrative is so overloaded that the emotional weight offers zero gravity.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 83 Robert Daniels
    The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart
    With a jukebox parade that will invite viewers to inevitably sing-along to classic earworms, How Can You Mend a Broken Heart is the Bee Gees documentary you’ve been waiting for. It’s a fitting tribute to their unending love for each other.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 91 Robert Daniels
    Small Axe: Education
    Education ends “Small Axe” on unsuspectingly grand terms. Yet the compact 63-minute coming-of-age film never loses its soft devoted touch. And McQueen, already an incredible filmmaker, shows another facet to his immense range.
    • 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.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Black Beauty
    Avis loses the novel’s sincerity by watering down Sewell’s animal welfare plea. In this update, the humans are not as villainous. Beauty is not as prominent. And the novel’s mustang spirit diminishes into a ho-hum horse movie.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 90 Robert Daniels
    Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
    While the film boasts a strong ensemble, all of whom give fantastic performances, especially Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is Boseman’s movie from beginning to end. He shows his full range. All the tools, from his charm to piques of anger, that fated him for stardom.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Embattled
    The father-son drama in Embattled might win some rounds, but the abundance of clichés leads to a loss overall.
    • 38 Metascore
    • 20 Robert Daniels
    Hillbilly Elegy
    Hillbilly Elegy is a prime example of a systemic failure, from script to craft to acting.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 Robert Daniels
    His House
    Remi Weekes’ feature directorial debut not only exposes the horrors of the immigration system, but mines survivor guilt for a clever, bone-chilling thriller.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 Robert Daniels
    Us Kids
    Like the limited legislative change that has occurred due to the underappreciated efforts of these valiant activists, I wish Snyder’s Us Kids resulted in more.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 83 Robert Daniels
    Really Love
    Featuring a breakout performance from an enrapturing Wong-Loi-Sing, and a beguiling turn from Siriboe, Really Love is a timeless black romance. Kristi Williams is an assured new voice already nestling herself inside audiences’ hearts.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 83 Robert Daniels
    Small Axe: Red, White and Blue
    Boyega is superhuman here. Because no matter the decade, Logan isn’t an easy character to understand with regards to decision making. Yet Boyega’s sincerity holds us in this story, even when we can’t fully understand the why behind Logan.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 91 Robert Daniels
    Small Axe: Mangrove
    Mangrove is rebellion. Mangrove is liberation. McQueen’s Mangrove, in its every personal minute, is love and devotion, not just to the now, or even the past, but for the progress of Black generations yet to come.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Robert Daniels
    The Trial of the Chicago 7
    While many will draw parallels between scenes involving civil unrest to the events of 2020, the philosophical differences between Hayden and Abbie — cultural versus electoral revolution, respectively — ring closely to the debates raging within progressive politics today, and actually prove more interesting.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 42 Robert Daniels
    Joe Bell
    A brisk film that could do with twenty more minutes, Green’s “Good Joe Bell” has its heart in the right place, but the limited gaze the writers and director offer withholds this redemptive tale from being the uplifting critique of homophobia and bullying that it needs to be.
    • 95 Metascore
    • 83 Robert Daniels
    Small Axe: Lovers Rock
    Lover’s Rock is a personal love note, not only to an era and a culture, but to the days of youth and all-night parties.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 91 Robert Daniels
    MLK/FBI
    Pollards’ MLK/FBI is more than an eye-opening look at an icon, and the evil forces working to tear him apart, it’s a critical chapter that should be imprinted inside every white American’s heart. Especially right now.
    • 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.
    • 93 Metascore
    • 100 Robert Daniels
    David Byrne’s American Utopia
    David Byrne’s American Utopia is an ideal world; it’s exhilarating and joyful; and Byrne and Lee actually do make a perfect pair.
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