Trevor Johnston

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Little White Lies, Time Out, Time Out London
For 138 reviews, this critic has graded:
  • 48% higher than the average critic
  • 5% same as the average critic
  • 47% lower than the average critic
On average, this critic grades 0.8 points lower than other critics. (0-100 point scale)

Trevor Johnston's Scores

  • Movies
  • TV
Average review score: 64
Highest review score: 100 Home from Home: Chronicle of a Vision
Lowest review score: 20 Clue
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 61 out of 138
  2. Mixed: 70 out of 138
  3. Negative: 7 out of 138
138 movie reviews
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    • 74 Metascore
    • 60 Trevor Johnston
    Catherine Called Birdy
    Occasionally flummoxed by the scale of the period canvas, [Dunham] slathers too many somewhat shapeless scenes in Carter Burwell’s incessantly cheery a capella score, and gets stuck in a plodding pace that makes the movie seem longer than it actually is. The flaws though, don’t stop us getting caught up in Catherine’s world, and it’s refreshing to encounter a medieval story which eschews savagery for a humane generosity sure to spur many useful parent-child conversations.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 90 Trevor Johnston
    In Front of Your Face
    This is another subtle jewel, wise and charming, insouciant yet measured, and somehow squaring the circle between the overwhelming sadness of lost time and the glint of eternity in a passing instant.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Trevor Johnston
    The Forgiven
    The Forgiven takes the harder road, and actually proves more engrossing and haunting in retrospect than when you’re actually watching it. In an era of instant gratification, that, for all the film’s evident flaws, is still worth chin-stroking respect.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 60 Trevor Johnston
    Thirteen Lives
    You can appreciate the effort, but this falls just short of doing justice to the emotional stakes and claustrophobic terror of the traumatic events themselves.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 70 Trevor Johnston
    Futura
    Too often here it’s the mouthy ones who get to hold court, which is to be expected, yet the Genoa sequence shows the dramatic dividends from a more focused approach.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 60 Trevor Johnston
    Tigers
    Tigers is a vivid, chastening look inside the ruthless promised land that is top-level sport.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 60 Trevor Johnston
    Il Buco
    Il Buco is certainly thoughtful and worthwhile, but perhaps just short of the revelation we were hoping for.
    • 42 Metascore
    • 40 Trevor Johnston
    Three Floors
    There’s a lot going on, then, but the three stories don’t really mesh to significant effect, though what does bind them is that the menfolk are stuck in their ways, rightly but mostly wrongly, and the stoic women have to make the best of it.
    • 90 Metascore
    • 100 Trevor Johnston
    Burning
    It’s gripping in the moment, but with plenty to take away for afterwards. Genius really isn’t too strong a word.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 70 Trevor Johnston
    3 Faces
    Perhaps a little slacker than some of his previous outings, but Panahi’s commitment and courage shine through.
    • 85 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    Ash Is Purest White
    Fascinating in its balance between microcosm and aerial view, but the performances definitely raise more emotional heat.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 90 Trevor Johnston
    Transit
    With so many layers to unpack, this one stays with you.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
    There are a few moments of strain and not every gag is comedy gold, yet overall it certainly tickles the cross-generational funny bone and Shaun himself, irrepressibly naughty yet affectingly open-hearted, remains a fluffy icon for young and old alike.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    Mystify: Michael Hutchence
    There’s a cumulative emotional impact, generated by the fond recollections of everyone who loved him but couldn’t save him from what he was going through, and marked by the extent to which so many of them are willing to share precious private moments.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 100 Trevor Johnston
    A White, White Day
    What’s remarkable about Hlynur Pálmason’s drama is the way its elemental settings lend everything an oneiric quality. Yet the scenes play out with a very real, visceral intensity, especially once Ingimundur uncovers an uncomfortable secret about his marriage and seeks an outlet for his anger.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    Notturno
    It’s about the steps towards healing, challenging Western viewers to allow images of beauty and normalcy to play a part in that journey.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 70 Trevor Johnston
    New Order
    If you believe cinema’s job is to ask the questions rather than offer the answers, then this will usefully challenge you. A dirty fingernail stuck right into the open wound of our unspoken social anxieties.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
    An absorbing set of vignettes, though the third section definitely ups the emotional ante.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    Pasolini
    To be fair, the full impact probably depends on some prior Pasolini knowledge, but even those coming in fresh will appreciate a haunting portrait of an artist destroyed by the anticommunist prejudices he fought to tear down.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    Western
    The slowest of slow burns, requiring adjusting to its careful pacing. There’s no instant gratification on offer, but the second half will draw you into its bristling power games.
    • 57 Metascore
    • 60 Trevor Johnston
    The Ritual
    If it lacks the originality and sheer muscle of the best horror fare, this does offer an astute take on fragile thirtysomething machismo, and Spall treads a convincingly anguished path towards potential redemption.
    • 56 Metascore
    • 40 Trevor Johnston
    The Commuter
    It’s a zingy set-up but just as quickly, it hits the skids.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    Trophy
    The film has no easy answers, but it does strenuously challenge all sides of the argument. Which is exactly what you want from a great documentary.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    The Limehouse Golem
    Nighy gives another suave masterclass, and the whole thing positively burns with passionate advocacy for the artists, free-thinkers and social outsiders who’ve been the making of modern London.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    Machines
    Some accuse the filmmaker of being just like the politicians who turn up, look around and do nothing. It adds a confrontational edge to the film’s already startling combination of immersive aesthetics and humane empathy.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    Water and Sugar: Carlo Di Palma, the Colours of Life
    A pleasure and an education.
    • tbd Metascore
    • 60 Trevor Johnston
    Genocidal Organ
    The film is let down by thin characterisation, struggling to generate much empathy with its square-jawed, tough-yet-troubled special-forces warrior heroes.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    The Death of Louis XIV
    The painterly camerawork shows the sheer sophistication possible these days with digital technology. The only conventional note in a highly distinctive film touched with wry humour is the too-safe choice of a Mozart music cue.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    I Am Not Madame Bovary
    All in all, ‘Madame Bovary’ is quite something, gradually building to a jawdropping final scene. Anyone with an interest in Chinese arthouse cinema really needs to see this.
    • 81 Metascore
    • 80 Trevor Johnston
    The Levelling
    A somewhat dour, slightly clenched viewing experience perhaps, but delivered with admirable insight, control, and nuanced subtlety by all concerned. It stays in the mind long afterwards.
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