Ebon Moss-Bachrach 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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Hold Your Breath

Brian Eggert — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 18:54:33 +0000

Sarah Paulson captivates as usual, but this psychological thriller falls short.

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No Hard Feelings

Brian Eggert — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 02:16:22 +0000

In today’s hypersensitive social climate, a raunchy, foul-mouthed summer comedy in the vein of There’s Something About Mary (1998), American Pie (1999), or The Wedding Crashers (2005) is a risky prospect. Offend anyone, and the repercussions could be disastrous. Perhaps that’s why the R-rated summer comedy has been all but absent from movie theaters in recent years. What once saturated the marketplace has been relegated to the ether of streaming services, unable to tap into the zeitgeist as such comedies once did. No Hard Feelings attempts to correct that right down to the logline: Jennifer Lawrence stars as a down-and-out Uber driver who, desperate to save her house, agrees to help a 19-year-old man-boy out of his shell (i.e. sleep with him) as part of her deal with his parents to acquire a new car. Inappropriate humor ensues. But it’s not so inappropriate that it will offend anyone. It pushes no boundaries. It takes no risks. And in its attempts to be a crude comedy, it serves only an audience looking for safe entertainment. Sometimes, a moviegoer wants to be scandalized, but No Hard Feelings isn’t that kind of movie. Oh, sure, the movie boasts a few bawdy moments. At […]

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Tesla

Brian Eggert — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 22:50:11 +0000

In Michael Almereyda’s Tesla, two nineteenth-century inventors confront each other with ice cream cones. The older, brasher Thomas Edison, played by Kyle MacLachlan, questions the safety of alternating current, licking his dessert as though it were an insult. Ethan Hawke’s Nikola Tesla, the practitioner of alternating current, born in what is today Croatia in 1856, tongues his vanilla treat in defiance. Tesla believes Edison owes him money for his work, and the two men use their cones like swords to stab their opponent. They spar until Tesla smashes his cone onto Edison’s face. The frame freezes. “This is pretty surely not how it happened,” says a woman’s voice. That would be Anne Morgan (Eve Hewson), daughter of J.P. Morgan, who finds herself drawn to the central character. He thinks too much, has no business savvy, and has no interest in self-promotion, but there’s something magnetic about him. Anne frequently breaks into the picture, sometimes addressing the audience directly and sometimes using Google image results to prove a point. She tells Tesla’s story because the inward inventor would never be so self-obsessed as Edison, who, by contrast, would have gladly narrated his own biographical film. That’s part of Tesla’s charm. He’s […]

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