Vanessa Kirby Archives | Deep Focus Review

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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Napoleon

Brian Eggert — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 15:59:26 +0000

A decisive moment in Ridley Scott’s Napoleon finds the French Emperor, played by Joaquin Phoenix, examining an Egyptian sarcophagus and the pharaoh inside. Bonaparte approaches the mummy, who stands taller than he does, so he uses a stool to meet the preserved ruler eye-to-eye—or, in the mummy’s case, eye holes. The scene gives a telling assessment of a man desperate to make his mark on history, to leave a legacy worthy of a god-king’s pyramid. Napoleon aspired to become one of the great leaders from antiquity, such as Julius Caesar or Alexander the Great—inspired by his fervent study of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, a book about prominent figures from Greek and Roman history. And at his height, Napoleon conquered much of Europe. But his rule was neither noble nor admirable in Scott’s film. “He can’t help himself,” observes one opponent, who cannily sizes up Napoleon’s fragile ego. Rather, the film portrays a despot with an inferiority complex, one of history’s most iconic figures brought to life by Scott and Phoenix. A classical production where historical inaccuracies run rampant, the cast speaks in primarily British accents, and the production spared no expense, Napoleon is a true Hollywood epic. The film falls into […]

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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Brian Eggert — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 17:23:20 +0000

As a critic, it’s sometimes difficult to separate my critical mindset from my fandom for a series. Although I consider myself a critic first and a fan second, certain movies challenge that order. This is especially true of the Mission: Impossible franchise, which started with my favorite of the bunch, Brian DePalma’s 1996 original, dipped near to oblivion with John Woo’s maligned 2000 sequel, and has been steadily terrific since J.J. Abrams revived the franchise in 2006. Tom Cruise’s longtime collaborator Christopher McQuarrie wrote and directed the last two superb installments, Rogue Nation (2015) and Fallout (2018), but his work on Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One can’t help but feel disappointing compared to the last four sequels. It’s not a bad film by any stretch; rather, it’s quite good, full of impressive action sequences and memorable stunts by Cruise. Still, as the critical part of me recognizes a worthy film but questions many of McQuarrie’s choices, which aren’t quite up to the series’ standards, my disappointment as a fan can’t help but accentuate its faults. Collaborating on a Mission: Impossible script for the first time, McQuarrie co-wrote Dead Reckoning with Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers). Their screenplay adopts […]

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The World to Come

Brian Eggert — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 18:16:27 +0000

In the realm of LGBTQ+ romances set in a distinct place and time, recent examples from Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) to Francis Lee’s Ammonite (2020) fare better than Mona Fastvold’s The World to Come. In these films and others, including Todd Haynes’ Carol (2015), women’s requisite interiority in patriarchal societies, particularly queer women, becomes a wellspring for repressed emotions and doomed romances. It’s inherently dramatic material often accompanied by formal choices that both reflect the crushing cultural oppression and reticence experienced by their characters. Dour and drained of vivid colors, Fastvold’s film takes place in the journals of Abigail (Katherine Waterston), an unhappily married woman grieving the loss of her daughter to diphtheria a few months earlier. She confines her expressions to journal entries, which she reads aloud in the film’s voiceover. The first entry on January 1 reflects her luminous internal life circumscribed by loss and a loveless companionship: “This morning, ice in our bedroom for the first time all winter,” she acknowledges in one of her many weather reports that doubles as a description of her life’s passion or lack thereof. “With little pride, and less hope, we begin the new year.” Set […]

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