Deep Focus Review

The CineFiles – Ep. 6

Brian Eggert — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:29:21 +0000

Dear readers, On the latest episode of The CineFiles, host Chris Hrapsky (KARE 11), critic Jamie Rogers (The Playlist), and I cover two new releases from A24 that are bound to spark debate and interesting conversations. First up, we tackle Eddington, Ari Aster’s divisive new film about a small town in New Mexico fighting the culture war during the COVID-19 pandemic. It stars Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler, among others, and it’s bound to get under your skin one way or the other. The second A24 title is Sorry, Baby, the directorial debut of Ava Victor, a promising new talent with a moving story about feeling stuck after experiencing a trauma. Jamie also interviews Victor for the show, and it’s a must-see discussion. Finally, we talk about Jamie’s “CineGift” of 2016’s Miss Stevens, the first feature by Julia Hart, starring Lily Rabe and Timothée Chalamet. Follow the show by subscribing to the KARE 11+ app (available on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, etc.) or watch on YouTube. Happy viewing! Brian Eggert Critic, Essayist, Founder Deep Focus Review

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Brian Eggert — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 18:24:40 +0000

Listen to the audio version of this review. The Fantastic Four: First Steps comes as close to greatness as MCU movies get. Accented by a dazzling retro-futurist style and strong characters played by a pitch-perfect cast, it adheres to the save-the-world formula found in many superhero movies: Planet Earth faces an impossible threat from outer space, and only the titular heroes can save us. However, instead of the flat digital environments and lack of distinct visual flair found in most movies of this ilk, there’s a wonderful alternate reality for audiences to explore, set in a version of the 1960s replete with spaceships, robots, and flying cars. The movie instills an instant desire to investigate this familiar yet unique world, something most MCU movies cannot claim. Rather than feeling like The Fantastic Four is more of the same, it feels alive and new—an inspired variation on a theme that, admittedly, has already been tackled onscreen but to subpar effect. With a terrific cast who embody their iconic characters and a visual energy that presents a refreshing alternative to the Marvel house style, The Fantastic Four is not only immediately engaging but also one of the MCU’s most satisfying offerings yet. […]

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Oh, Hi!

Brian Eggert — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 21:17:54 +0000

“I did a thing,” confesses Molly Gordon’s Iris, the sympathetic if somewhat unhinged protagonist of Oh, Hi!, a familiar, convoluted rom-com that escalates into bad-sitcom level absurdity. When Iris and Isaac (Logan Lerman) escape to a picturesque farmhouse—singing the Dolly Parton-Kenny Rogers duet “Islands in the Stream” in the car like an old married couple—their weekend trip brings some details about their relationship status to light. The “thing” she admits to over the phone, speaking to her best friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan), is that she has chained Isaac to the headboard and refuses to release him. It started as playful bondage and good sex, until he remarked that he didn’t consider them boyfriend-girlfriend. “I’m not really looking for a relationship,” he says, after four months of dating. And so, Iris has resolved to leave him there, hoping that he might come around after twelve hours or so. This twisted look at modern dating from writer-director Sophie Brooks is the kind of insufferable movie where, if the characters just had a quick conversation to clarify their feelings, they could have avoided everything that follows. But then, of course, there wouldn’t be a movie—meaning Oh, Hi! exists to perpetuate itself. Brooks lays […]

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Sorry, Baby

Brian Eggert — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 14:42:16 +0000

Listen to the audio version of this review. With Sorry, Baby, writer-director-star Eva Victor rethinks how cinema portrays and processes trauma, and it’s not with sensationalism or buzzy terminology, but with restraint, humor, and compassion. Victor stars as Agnes, a literature professor working at the same New England college where she once attended grad school and survived a sexual assault. The film explores what it means to feel stuck and unable to see a path forward. Victor acknowledges that it’s impossible to anticipate or shield against every terrible thing that might happen, and when something does occur, how one responds is often an unconscious reaction. Some people repress the experience, only for the feelings to return with a vengeance, while others try to confront it directly and endure the psychological collision. Regardless, trauma reframes self-image, raising introspective questions: Agnes wonders how she would have been different had this never happened to her. Should she mourn the version of her that might have been? Sorry, Baby doesn’t pretend to offer answers. Instead, it gently observes how healing can emerge out of supportive friendships, empathetic strangers, plenty of time, and perhaps also a kitten. Sorry, Baby is structured into chapters, each covering […]

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Cloud

Brian Eggert — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 19:09:44 +0000

Note: Janus Films and Sideshow will distribute Cloud in limited release, starting on July 18, 2025. It will expand to other markets, including Minnesota, in the coming weeks. Listen to the audio version of this review. Kiyoshi Kurosawa warns that something dreadful awaits those who prey on thrifty, unassuming online shoppers in Cloud, an unpredictable thriller about a shady reseller whose minor crimes come back to haunt him. Kurosawa, the Japanese director whose approach to genre adheres to no rulebook except his own, navigates a predatory capitalist underworld with a masterful control of tone. What begins as a portrait of a small-time grifter unravels into a study of how even the most modest offenses accumulate into something more nefarious—a transformation from petty transgressions into an all-consuming and inescapable criminal enterprise. Kurosawa considers how the desire for profit—or on a much more basic level, survival—instills a rampant need to exploit bargain shoppers for everything they’re worth. Cloud dissects how a world in which income means life gives way to opportunistic self-preservation. And yet, the corruptive nature of capitalism, and those caught in its wake, perpetuate a system of irresistible deals and prospective dividends. From this framework, where Kurosawa crafts both an […]

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Eddington

Brian Eggert — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:53:21 +0000

Listen to the audio version of this review. Ari Aster dissects the culture war with Eddington, a portrait of how COVID-19 irrevocably tore America apart at its already frayed seams. The pandemic intensified partisan rancor, social fragmentation, and reactionary behavior—conditions that enabled opportunists to seize power amid the chaos and, ultimately, profit from it. Set in late May 2020, the film looks back five years at the titular New Mexico town, seemingly in an attempt to understand what led to the erosion of democracy in Trump’s America today. Described as a Western in the promotional materials, it’s also a period piece, though the time hardly feels that long ago, much to the film’s detriment. Still, Aster captures the uncertainty, paranoia, and desperate search for answers that drove people to rely on the worst possible source: social media. Rather than offering clarity, it only deepened the divide between the right and left, as both sides leaned into their worst impulses and most extreme reactions. Fortunately, Eddington boasts an excellent cast, led by another tour-de-force performance by Joaquin Phoenix under Aster’s direction. It’s unquestionably well-crafted and brimming with the director’s anxiety-ridden style. But the question remains: Is now the right time for […]

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Classical Hollywood Cinema

Brian Eggert — Sun, 13 Jul 2025 15:28:52 +0000

As countless other film historians have observed, classical Hollywood cinema exists as a theory to be argued about and debated. It has no universally accepted start and end date, and a film’s worthiness of inclusion under this umbrella term varies amid critics, commentators, and scholars. Some define a Hollywood classic as a product of the Dream Factory, where the modes of production and distribution were standardized, along with formal, narrative, and stylistic guidelines. Others define it in terms of the film’s release, usually in the first half of the twentieth century; historian Richard Jewell puts forth a rather narrow timeline from 1929 to 1949. A few might characterize such films by their use of black-and-white celluloid; they might even use the dreaded term old to describe them. For the sake of this collection of reviews and essays on classic Hollywood motion pictures, I have included films produced in the studio system in the period between the late 1920s to the early 1960s. They have been shot in monochrome, Technicolor, the Academy ratio, CinemaScope, and many other photographic processes of the era. Their use of sound extends from silents to musicals. They feature icons of the screen such as Humphrey Bogart, […]

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Another Round

Brian Eggert — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 14:56:24 +0000

Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round dances on the ledge between tragedy and comedy, chaos and clarity. The Danish filmmaker fortifies his 2020 release, winner of the Oscar for Best International Feature and many other awards, not only with a superb ensemble cast headlined by Mads Mikkelsen’s outstanding performance, but also with a balance of puckish energy and philosophical depth. He opens the film with a quote from Kierkegaard: “What is youth? A dream. What is love? The content of the dream.” Vinterberg frames youth as a fleeting time of passion that becomes muted as one grows older. From there, he thoughtfully explores the midlife crises among men who run an impulsive experiment involving alcohol—a somewhat ill-advised attempt to recapture the dream of youth and renew their dispirited lives. Their reckless revival efforts put their careers and personal lives at risk for an experiment that awakens some and sends others further into a downward spiral. Just like the characters, the film, too, alternates between high and low, playful and sobering, pickled and profound. The full review is currently exclusive to Patreon subscribers. To read it, you can purchase individual access. Or you can join Deep Focus Review’s Patron community, where you’ll receive […]

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Support Independent Film Criticism

Brian Eggert — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 06:57:44 +0000

Dear readers, On Deep Focus Review, I write award-winning film criticism and analysis. For the past 17 years, I’ve pursued that mission independently, supported by ad revenue and, most importantly, by readers like you on Patreon. Patreon allows me to remain fully independent. It allows me to invest in research materials and website upgrades, so I can dedicate more time to my writing. If you’re a regular reader and want to support the continued growth of independent film criticism, I’d love for you to join our Patreon community. BENEFITS: Unlock your weekly posts, including: • Weekly Updates: I share a recap of recent reviews and a preview of upcoming projects every Monday. • Polls: Patrons can vote on what I’ll review next, including new releases, Patreon-exclusive reviews, and essays in The Definitives. • Streaming Recommendations: Every Friday, I post hand-picked streaming recommendations from platforms like Netflix, The Criterion Channel, Max, Prime Video, Shudder, and Hulu. • Exclusive Writing: Several Patreon-exclusive works (reviews or essays) are posted each month. • Ask Me Anything: The AMA is always open in the community chats. • Top Picks & Lists: Each month, I share my favorite films of the year so far and physical media […]

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The CineFiles – Ep. 5

Brian Eggert — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 22:52:03 +0000

Dear readers, On episode 5 of The CineFiles, host Chris Hrapsky (KARE 11), critic Jamie Rogers (The Playlist), and I cover two of the biggest movies in theaters this summer. First, we discuss James Gunn’s Superman, a movie that Jamie and I were initially skeptical about, but we both recommend. We weren’t quite as aligned about Jurassic World Rebirth, but we agreed that it’s worth checking out. Then, Jamie and I share our lists of the Top 5 Films of 2025 so far, as well as our picks for who should play the new James Bond. Finally, we discuss my “CineGift” of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 kidnapping thriller High and Low, starring Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, and Tatsuya Nakadai. If you want to learn more about the film, read my essay in The Definitives. Follow the show by subscribing to the KARE 11+ app (available on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, etc.) or watch on YouTube. Happy viewing! Brian Eggert Critic, Essayist, Founder Deep Focus Review

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