John DeFore

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The Hollywood Reporter
For 1,483 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 50% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 5.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

John DeFore's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Mandy
Lowest review score: 0 The Trouble with Terkel
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 703 out of 1483
  2. Mixed: 632 out of 1483
  3. Negative: 148 out of 1483
1483 movie reviews
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Creep
    Knowing and funny without straining to be clever, the found-footage-style pic works better than the Duplass Brothers' 2008 Baghead, with which it has some elements in common.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Little Woods
    Less relentlessly bleak than Winter's Bone, which along with Frozen River is an obvious inspiration here, the life-on-the-margins drama makes a fine, tense vehicle for Tessa Thompson, who in the last few years has stood out in a variety of genres.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Jay Myself
    A fascinating look at an artist's life.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Older Than Ireland
    Though never managing to surprise us much, this brisk encounter with the living past has moments of charm and the occasional fresh perspective.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Decade of Fire
    Irizarry sees locals who survived these challenges acquiring new layers of toughness and pride, increasingly ready to fight for their communities.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Among the Believers
    Among the Believers is a step toward understanding how such a man can be entrusted with such a large percentage of a nation's children.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    (T)error
    The filmmakers' access is remarkable, and they eventually compound the film's novelty in an exciting way (spoilers below). But claims that this film opens our eyes to unknown practices are exaggerated.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    God of War
    Competent on all fronts but never dazzling, it should please genre devotees.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Keep the Change
    Keep the Change acknowledges that people with disabilities can sometimes be largely responsible for the biggest problems they face, just like the rest of us — and it doesn't need to be Pollyannaish to believe those problems are solvable.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    Emperor
    Emperor has difficulty mustering a seriousness to match its subject.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Eye in the Sky
    This picture satisfies fully on entertainment terms without cheapening its real-world concerns.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Ramen Heads
    A good-looking debut that's as obsessive as it sounds, Koki Shigeno's Ramen Heads celebrates those for whom Japan's famous dish is anything but a simple bowl of noodles and broth.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Bayou Maharajah
    A textbook case in which personal eccentricities and addictions collide with musical brilliance, the story of New Orleans pianist James Booker is so colorful it's hard to believe nobody has made a biopic yet
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    1971
    Exciting and enlightening, the still-timely film ranks with docs like The Weather Underground in its evocation of a more politically engaged era.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 90 John DeFore
    Not Going Quietly
    Barkan proves a highly engaging man, impassioned but funnier than a terminally ill man should be. Intimate scenes with his young family are essential to the appeal of a film whose big issues remain as pressing now as they were during filming in 2018.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Arbitrage
    Nothing about the plot is novel, but the film easily maintains a low simmer that picks up in the final act, as Miller has to fight to keep his sinking ship staffed.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery
    A highly enjoyable look at a career spent duping the art world.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    No Stone Unturned
    Though we care for those who lost loved ones, and root for them as they pursue a decades-long hunt for the killers, No Stone Unturned plays like a very well made piece of true-crime television.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
    An epic of choreographed mayhem that expands the Wickiverse in mostly pleasing ways, it is destined to satisfy fans of this surprise-hit franchise: If its ludicrous aspects bug you, what the hell are you doing here?
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    United in Anger: A History of ACT UP
    Though the film sets out only to chronicle the group's life, not the history of the disease, some viewers will wish for a parting message making sense of where things stand today, with the disease mostly vanished from headlines but still destroying lives around the world.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Gilbert
    Gilbert is less interested in the ups and downs of Gottfried's public life than in showing what we've never seen.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Something, Anything
    The plot reversals of the third act happen rather abruptly, perhaps unbelievably, in comparison to what precedes them. But those who've been in Margaret's shoes may find this appropriate — an honest acknowledgement of the false starts that can result when a newly hatched idealist tries to apply abstract principles to messy human emotions.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 John DeFore
    Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements
    The documentary plays like a home movie that snowballed, causing its maker to overestimate her subject's relevance to the outside world. Though parts of it will certainly resonate within the deaf community (assuming it is made available with closed captioning), the film has little of the philosophical appeal of other documentaries on this topic, and sometimes seems willfully solipsistic.
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