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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    • 64 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    All Together Now
    The picture wallows for a bit, having deprived itself of the teen cheer that was its main driver. Of course the sun will come out again, after those Amber has given so much to eventually find a way to force her into the role of gracious recipient. The fact that the way they do this is entirely appropriate to the character doesn't keep the film's feel-good climax from feeling very, very familiar.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin
    Not intended by any stretch as a proper biography, the film is also not one of Herzog's more mainstream efforts. But admirers of either artist will find it very worthwhile, as will viewers who need the occasional reminder that the world still contains wild places to explore.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    The Sleepover
    Design values and Conrad W. Hall's photography are as flatly unimaginative as the rest of the film, which, in its avoidance of distinguishing features, would make a better candidate for witness-relocation anonymity than Margot does.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Words on Bathroom Walls
    The movie has built up enough genuine warmth and displayed enough sensitivity that even the formulaic nature of its resolution does little to dull its impact.
    • 39 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    Emperor
    Emperor has difficulty mustering a seriousness to match its subject.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 20 John DeFore
    Endless
    Several people get wrongly accused of being responsible for somebody's death — there's as much undeserved guilt floating around in this picture as in a Fundamentalist kid's puberty years — and all three of our aforementioned protagonists find they have family issues that need working out. All are broadly drawn and unconvincing, like everything else in this pandering supernatural romance.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Sputnik
    Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev's script neither brings it to life nor quite has us rooting for its destruction.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    A Thousand Cuts
    The film is an essential character-driven document of a moment in the history of a country facing some challenges that are disturbingly familiar and others, thank goodness, that Americans will find very foreign.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 0 John DeFore
    Paydirt
    Numbingly dumb and impersonally executed, you'd call it derivative if only it managed to steal anything worth using from the many movies it apes.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    The Stand: How One Gesture Shook the World
    The filmmakers might've provided us with more of the specific complaints these men had; instead, their assessment of "The Struggle" relies on very familiar images of police brutality and general observations about how much remained unfixed after the Civil Rights movement's legal successes.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Black Is King
    Artistically, King is less persuasive as a coherent statement than "Lemonade." But Black Is King may live its ideals more successfully than it preaches them.
    • 52 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    A Girl Missing
    This would be a very different movie in most other hands, and in many cases, a worse one. Still, there's something missing in this look at a happy life's destruction.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 90 John DeFore
    She Dies Tomorrow
    Movies like this are why arthouses exist, and why we'll seek them out again as soon as it's safe to breathe near our fellow humans.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful
    Never intending to rationalize away the seedier aspects of Newton's work, the film hopes instead to make us recognize the humor and inventiveness lurking there as well — and to persuade us that an artist's unruly erotic imagination doesn't necessarily tell us much about what he thinks of women.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Most Wanted
    Quick and pretty constant cutting between different threads of this story keep Most Wanted from feeling as long as it actually is, but it also keeps us from committing fully to any one story, all of which feel slightly underwritten.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Spree
    To the extent that it works, much credit goes to Keery, for finding the real human need inside this twentysomething cipher.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Above Suspicion
    Though tech values and supporting performances (especially Knoxville's) are unimpeachable, Suspicion doesn't conjure its setting as persuasively as some of the other drug-centric rural dramas we've seen lately.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Archive
    The feature writing/directing debut for a man whose history is in art departments, it should be no surprise that the pic looks wonderful, with distinctive design and lush settings; but Rothery also fares well with the human element, helped by a mature lead performance by Theo James, best known for the YA Divergent franchise.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    Viena and the Fantomes
    A dispiriting film that has languished on the shelf since 2014, it stars Dakota Fanning but is likely being released now with the hope that small appearances by Evan Rachel Wood and Zoe Kravitz will add commercial appeal. Fans of the latter thesps will likely feel cheated.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    No Small Matter
    Threaded between all these daunting messages is a vision of how things can be: Rachel Giannini is one of a few instantly-lovable teachers we meet who work in the kind of preschool parents must dream of.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    My Spy
    The pedestrian script inevitably gets sidetracked into a possible romance between JJ and Kate, keeping the film from building much real chemistry between Bautista and Coleman. (It's easy to imagine replacing this subplot with more scenes of JJ helping put middle-school meanies in their places.) But at least this angle keeps the pic's save-the-world storyline from getting too bloated.
    • 46 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    You Should Have Left
    Koepp and his cast successfully convey how afraid the family becomes once it's clear they're being supernaturally prevented from leaving the house. But that's not the most original idea upon which to build a franchise, and it's clear from both third-act exposition and the pic's final scene that the filmmakers want just that.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    The Pollinators
    Sober but accessible, it's a fine primer for those unaware of bees' crucial role in our food system.
    • 15 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    The Last Days of American Crime
    A poorly imagined crime flick that comes nowhere near justifying its 2.5-hour running time.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Feral
    Pairing professional and untrained actors to very good effect, the film rises above miserable subject matter largely through the sense of mystery it builds around its complicated protagonist, played brilliantly by Sriram.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    I Will Make You Mine
    The easygoing drama points its ensemble toward domesticity, watching as each character flirts with nostalgia and questions the wisdom of settled-down relationships.
    • 48 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Stage: The Culinary Internship
    If Ainsworth is ever turned off, you won't know it: She and DP Ben Ainsworth make everything look interesting, if not necessarily appetizing.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    The Man Standing Next
    Though touching on a le Carre-like web of loyalties, ambition and hidden agendas, the film is generally less engrossing than that might suggest, only coming to life in the sweaty hours leading up to that murder.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 40 John DeFore
    The Trip to Greece
    This is a lazy feature with few laughs and fewer vicarious travel thrills, despite some nice photography of craggy coastlines and ancient villages.
    • 40 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Blood and Money
    A solid B movie whose pleasures aren't diminished much by the screenplay's dicey dialogue — plenty of the film has no dialogue at all — it's a welcome vehicle for its star, who has been underused by filmmakers for decades.
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