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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    • 66 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    Under the Influence
    Viewers who’ve never seen a Dobrik video and have only cursory (if any) knowledge of the allegations that briefly interrupted his career will come away feeling they understand the buoyant, boyish 25 year-old’s appeal — but they may be frustrated by the film’s less-than-probing look at behavior that should have caused him much more trouble than he endured.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Spin Me Round
    Amusing but the most lightweight of the five diverse features he’s made so far, it finds other members of the Baena gang (Aubrey Plaza, Molly Shannon) fleshing out an eccentric ensemble, many playing characters as unpredictable as Brie’s is straight-laced.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Master of Light
    Much is left unsaid in the beautifully shot doc, which will leave inquisitive viewers wanting many more specifics on both the family front and the artistic one. But sacrificing such detail allows Boesten to develop a more intimate emotional portrait of Morton, a subject whose thoughtful self-invention is affecting practically from the first scene.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    I Love My Dad
    Gently funny and much more forgiving than viewers might expect, the picture plays to Oswalt’s strengths and may resonate uncomfortably for parents worried about protecting their digital-native children without suffocating them or, worse, creating entirely new problems.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    The Lost City
    While the dialogue rarely crackles the way the original screwball films did, the Nees and their two co-writers find some pleasing little bits of action to demonstrate how the heroes’ increasing reliance on each other is destined to grow into love.
    • 45 Metascore
    • 40 John DeFore
    Butter
    While it may resonate for some young viewers, anyone whose reality really resembles that of the film’s protagonist should probably look elsewhere.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    I Didn't See You There
    Viewed on its own, it communicates much less than its maker seems to intend, hovering in a not-very-satisfying zone between advocacy doc, first-person impressionism, and (very) tentative essay film about the world’s tendency to view difference as freakishness.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    The Exiles
    Though a mixed bag as a piece of storytelling, the film’s greatest value for American viewers in 2022 is the truth it conveys to those hoping to preserve (or, let’s dare to dream, improve) a democracy facing immediate and very grave threats.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Emily the Criminal
    A cool, confident debut whose steady build mirrors the increasing stakes faced by its namesake, John Patton Ford’s Emily the Criminal is a nail-biter that makes the most of the tough side Aubrey Plaza has shown in even her most comic performances.
    • 47 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Alice
    The queasy mix of realism and wish-fulfillment will set many viewers’ heads spinning, or at least shaking with disappointment, in this well-intentioned but unpromising debut.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Dual
    Stearns’ third feature (following Faults and The Art of Self-Defense) is his least satisfying so far; as visually drab as its predecessors, it has more difficulty mining its off-kilter aesthetic for nervous laughter and conceptual provocation.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Cha Cha Real Smooth
    Building on the strengths of his justly celebrated debut, maintaining its distinctive point-of-view while broadening the scope of its sympathy, Cooper Raiff‘s Cha Cha Real Smooth is a more mainstream film than 2020’s Shithouse without feeling the least bit generic.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    When You Finish Saving the World
    [A] bitterly funny, clear-eyed debut.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
    Transformania remains sufficiently goofy-sweet to please its target demo; those who find the humor toothless should at least appreciate the distinctive animation, which can be as energetically wacky as classic Looney Tunes.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    The Matrix Resurrections
    If you loved The Matrix and hated the sequels (or simply found them unsatisfying), go see this one. Have a blast. (But wear a mask.)
    • 71 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Spider-Man: No Way Home
    This is the least fun of the Watts/Holland pictures by a wide margin (intentionally so, to some extent), but it’s a hell of a lot better than the last Spidey threequel, Sam Raimi’s overstuffed and ill-conceived Spider-Man 3.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    The Beta Test
    Cummings works the same muscles that attracted attention in the festival darling Thunder Road and its follow-up, The Wolf of Snow Hollow: Exploring the varieties of volatile awkwardness and desperation, he plays a well-known type (the showbiz ladder-climber who’s nothing but a smile) while making the character unlike any we’ve seen.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 90 John DeFore
    Antlers
    Thoroughly successful both as icky art house horror and as an allegory of generational trauma, Scott Cooper’s Antlers continues the director’s hot streak while bearing the unmistakable mark of one of its producers, Guillermo del Toro.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Madame X
    Wherever one draws the line between supporting a group and co-opting it, X captures a night of solid performances and top-notch stagecraft. Just don’t show up if you’re looking to hear the old stuff.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    The Black Phone
    The story’s final third works even better than the buildup would suggest, shrugging off some of the atmospherics and, with a clever nod to a classic in the serial-killer genre, focusing all the movie’s energies on a sequence that delivers
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Venom: Let There Be Carnage
    The film does develop the chemistry between the titular alien and the human he’s forced to inhabit while inside Earth’s atmosphere. But the distinctiveness of this buddy-movie bond is often drowned out by giant set pieces of CG mayhem that feel exactly like those found in the good guys’ movies.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 40 John DeFore
    A Banquet
    Justin Bull’s screenplay comes up short, failing to adequately capture the depth of its teen’s encounter with the abyss — her anorexia is the aftermath of an apocalyptic revelation — and to integrate it into the more comprehensible domestic tensions that serve as the plotless film’s only framework.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    The Survivor
    Ben Foster goes through more than one striking transformation here, changing body and soul while neither shying away from nor overdramatizing the uglier aspects of the man’s life.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 90 John DeFore
    The Forgiven
    Scripted, directed and acted with intelligence and panache, it’s a very grown-up film but never a bore, a morally alert drama that leaves the scolding to us.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Becoming Led Zeppelin
    For a casual fan who knows the band largely for swagger and self-indulgence, Bernard MacMahon’s Becoming Led Zeppelin is an eye-opening delight — a visit with charming old men who modestly recall the music-drunk paths they took to forming the defining band of the classic-rock ’70s.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    The Protégé
    Sans a compelling marriage of danger and eroticism, much of the third-act suspense fails to captivate
    • 46 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Don't Breathe 2
    Where the first film offered genuine scares, this one is suspenseful at best, snicker-worthy at worst, and will beg viewers to recall the time Fonzie got on water skis and tried not to get eaten by a shark.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    The Suicide Squad
    Not only does it find the nastily enjoyable vibe that eluded its predecessor, but it also tells a story worth following — while balancing its most appealing character with others whose disposability (they aren’t sent on suicide missions for nothin’) doesn’t prevent them from being good company onscreen.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Old
    Viewers who can take it at face value may find a chill or two here, but ultimately Old can’t escape the goofiness of its premise long enough to put its more poetic possibilities across successfully.
    • 43 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins
    As shamelessly corporate popcorn movies go, Snake Eyes is better than most. That’s not high praise, but considering the film’s dopey pedigree, it’s not nothing.
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