John DeFore

Select another critic »
The Hollywood Reporter
For 1,308 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 45% higher than the average critic
  • 6% same as the average critic
  • 49% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 4.2 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

John DeFore's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 60
Highest review score: 100 Before Midnight
Lowest review score: 0 The Trouble with Terkel
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 621 out of 1308
  2. Mixed: 553 out of 1308
  3. Negative: 134 out of 1308
1308 movie reviews
view
per page
    • 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.
    • tbd 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.
    • 37 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.
    • 33 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    The Wrong Missy
    Even with locked-down consumers scraping the bottom of the Netflix content trough, this new addition to the lineup is pretty dreary.
    • 87 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Rewind
    Though difficult to watch, it's a film that helps outsiders confront the horrifying ways such events can cause damage for decades after the fact.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 John DeFore
    Arkansas
    Despite some promising moments, the project never quite takes flight, partly thanks to mismatched performances that don't seem to agree on how quirky this film intends to be.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    James vs. His Future Self
    Amusing but off-key in some unhelpful ways, it's a dorky time-killer that doesn't suffer too much for its familiar vibe.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Capital in the Twenty-First Century
    The film's timing is fortuitous, as a worldwide calamity might conceivably make governments more receptive to Piketty's proposals for redistribution and reform. But it leaves one wishing for a longer-form project.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    The Fate of Lee Khan (1973)
    More exciting is Hu's handling of the minutes before violence erupts: His staging and editing pinballs our attention back and forth around the small inn, as conspirators furtively communicate with each other or gauge how to respond to the suspicions of Khan and his underlings. These masterful sequences are a delight.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Eating Up Easter
    Rapu's film is still somewhat scattered; its Earth Day release date only serves as a reminder of the many superior eco-docs one has seen about remote paradises threatened or destroyed by encroaching forces.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Sergio
    This portrait of influential U.N. diplomat Sergio Vieira de Mello benefits immensely from two magnetic leads, Wagner Moura and Ana de Armas, whose onscreen chemistry is undeniable; but its deft sense of structure is of equal importance, making it an engrossing picture even for those who know next to nothing about its subject or settings.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 90 John DeFore
    The Infiltrators
    Ibarra and Rivera maintain an effortless balance between genre-rooted entertainment and concern for real human suffering caused by governmental policies. They get viewers wrapped up enough in the narrative that it takes a while to appreciate the courage required to set it in motion.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    Butt Boy
    Less outrageous or provocative than puzzling, it will appeal to a very specific sort of irony-hungry moviegoer and leave most others shrugging.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 90 John DeFore
    Other Music
    In their wonderful documentary Other Music, Puloma Basu and Rob Hatch-Miller come to both celebrate a place and lament its passing.
    • 53 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    The Quarry
    Sensitive performances only go so far toward generating sparks in the slow-moving film, which never becomes the crime-and-punishment nail-biter it might've been.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    1BR
    Taken on its own terms, it's a solid if hardly revolutionary thriller that bodes well for the filmmaker's future in genre films.
    • 27 Metascore
    • 40 John DeFore
    Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind
    The pic's claims grow wilder by the minute, and its power to persuade is undercut by narration scripted like a YouTube conspiracy film. For this skeptical but totally willing-to-believe viewer, Fifth Kind doesn't move the needle even a smidge.
    • 35 Metascore
    • 30 John DeFore
    Coffee & Kareem
    Making a film that feels two days long is not the same thing as making 48 Hrs.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Uncorked
    The film has a solid feel for family dynamics and local color.
    • 55 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Resistance
    Though Marceau's artistic ideals are central to the film, Resistance happily avoids novelty, making its hero one credible human among many in a wartime tale that, though largely familiar in its feel, dramatizes a question that has become urgent for many in recent years: How does one best resist hatred — by fighting its proponents, or rushing to assist its targets?
    • 45 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Phoenix, Oregon
    Well cast with actors who help the film overcome an obviously meager budget, Phoenix is as rough at the edges as its protagonist, and will inspire a similar kind of sympathetic response — especially among viewers who've been through a few reversals and know not every rebound has to take the form of a glorious firebird to be worthwhile.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 60 John DeFore
    Slay the Dragon
    Most will learn something here, in a film that both follows the practice to its natural, dire conclusions and champions the ordinary citizens who have stepped up to fight against it.
    • 49 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Inside the Rain
    The untrained actor is the weakest link in an already hit-and-miss cast, and few viewers will respond to Ben's unearned bravado.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    The Misogynists
    It's a tour-de-force for an actor who's more than willing to be loathsome and will be welcomed by both Baker's fans and those of writer/director/provocateur Onur Tukel. But casual moviegoers may not find it as revelatory as comparisons to early Neil LaBute films suggest.
    • 44 Metascore
    • 50 John DeFore
    Ride Like a Girl
    Making her debut as director with a true story from her native Australia, actor Rachel Griffiths gives the pic a workmanlike, generic feel that would play well on family-centric cable channels. Horse lovers will be the moviegoers most vulnerable to its modest charms.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 80 John DeFore
    Human Nature
    A cogent, wide-ranging look at both the discovery and the nascent, soon-to-be-giant fights humans are having over it.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 70 John DeFore
    Run This Town
    An involving and ambitious fictionalized look at Rob Ford's downfall that is far from satisfied with gawking at that Toronto trainwreck, Ricky Tollman's Run This Town also intends to make points about racism and sexual harassment; to lament the slow-motion death of journalism; and to give voice to a generation of young adults who've been maligned by the oldsters who, as the movie sees it, made them the way they are.
prev
Page:

Top Trailers

See all »
See all trailers »