Robert Daniels

2 months ago | rogerebert.com | Robert Daniels

By the end of its first episode, NBC's "The Americas," the 10-part Tom Hanks-narrated wildlife docuseries, already feels like a missed opportunity. A co-production between NBCUniversal and the BBC, the series bills itself as the first nature documentary to specifically highlight North and South America, the largest, most diverse accumulation of life on the planet.

2 months ago | rogerebert.com | Robert Daniels

Unlike the rest of the dispatches I've written out of Sundance, the selections here are not defined by their competitive category. This one is a little bit more of a hodgepodge. "Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)" and "DJ Ahmet," for instance, are from the World Dramatic section, while "André Is an Idiot" premiered as part of the US Documentary competition. I should've been mixing it up from the beginning because, in my opinion, the trio of films here are the strongest I've written about all fest.

2 months ago | rogerebert.com | Robert Daniels

No Sundance isn't complete without a trip through the Midnight programming. And very few films playing at Sundance are as creative and, ahem, as lively, as Grace Glowicki's exquisitely crafted Gothic comedy-horror " Dead Lover." The writer/director's second feature is a resourceful and theatrical take on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

2 months ago | rogerebert.com | Robert Daniels

The NEXT category at Sundance is always the place to go if you want to see a big swing, and, in this dispatch, there are three major ones. Two of the films take different routes to analyze men battling their anxiety about their impending fatherhood. One film is a modern adaptation of Dante's Inferno. So, in a way, they're all about a personal hell. From the first minute until its sobering end, writer/director Joel Alfonso Vargas knows exactly what his debut film should be.

2 months ago | rogerebert.com | Robert Daniels

There's no program I love at Sundance more than NEXT. Not only does it treat us to new, exhilarating voices, we're also often granted the most audacious filmmaking at the festival. In this dispatch are two films with a spunky spirit and proudly independent verve that compassionately look at fractured individuals working to rediscover their connection to the world.