Rachel Brosnahan Archives | Deep Focus Review

Superman

Brian Eggert — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 00:25:30 +0000

Listen to the audio version of this review. Punk rock may seem loud and nihilistic to some, but when it emerged in the 1970s, its performers aimed their angry sound at tyrannical mainstream ideologies. In particular, Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, The Clash, and others sought independence from the traditionalism, religious dogma, and social norms reinforced by popular culture. Their aggressive sound and lyrics condemned authoritarian politics, questioning the systems of power that keep people under control. They sang about the oppressed rising up against—or at least flipping off—their oppressors. By now, you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about punk music in this review of Superman, writer-director James Gunn’s new feature about Krypton’s last son. Gunn’s highly entertaining summer release, which might just be my favorite Superman movie yet, looks at our world and considers where a morally upright hero like Superman would fit. Would humanity embrace him as a beacon of hope? Would his presence become politicized? In the end, Gunn acknowledges that, sadly, believing in the value of all life, regardless of politics or personal motivation, as Superman does, represents a rather punkish, outsider point of view, and he weaves that concept into his film. Along […]

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The Amateur

Brian Eggert — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 02:43:33 +0000

The Amateur adopts a surefire way to engage moviegoers: It presents a character who’s smarter than everyone else onscreen. He’s always a few steps ahead of the bad guys, not to mention the audience. It helps that he’s also out for revenge; people love a good revenge story. Rami Malek brings his weird, compelling energy to the spy genre, playing Charles Heller, a CIA analyst who can access any system anywhere in the world. The movie pits Heller against a cadre of spies and mercenaries in the tradition of Tom Clancy or Robert Ludlum novels. However, he’s no Jason Bourne or Jack Ryan, and he’s certainly no James Bond. Heller doesn’t get into the field much. He’s more accustomed to working five levels underground in a CIA building, hacking into security systems, decoding encrypted files, and accessing surveillance networks from a laptop. Yet, like many in the cloak-and-dagger world he inhabits, I, too, kept underestimating Heller and the movie. And just as he keeps the other characters on their toes, The Amateur kept surprising me. The movie is based on a 1981 book by spy novelist Robert Littell, which was adapted that same year into a watchable if unexceptional Canadian […]

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Patriots Day

Brian Eggert — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 01:33:46 +0000

In the early scenes of Patriots Day, a detailed recreation of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, director Peter Berg shows Jessica Kensky (Rachel Brosnahan) waking up early on April 15 to greet her husband, Patrick Downes (Christopher O’Shea). As the couple rolls around in their bedsheets, drenched in idyllic morning light, Berg pans over their legs and lingers there. And when Jessica gets up and walks by, she runs her hand over Patrick’s foot. Hours later during the bombing, Jessica loses both of her legs and Patrick loses his left leg. Berg treats several bombing victims with similar touches of dramatic irony, each more glaringly unsubtle than the last. Such moments are meant to be poetic and tragic, but their obviousness tarnishes the director’s latest docubuster, even as his film proves well-meaning and, elsewhere, demonstrates the utmost respect for those depicted. Berg’s second film of 2016 after Deepwater Horizon and his third docu-drama in as many years, Patriots Day draws from alarmingly recent headlines to lure its audience. Viewers have flocked to theaters recently to find real American heroes, and Hollywood has responded with the real-life stories of Desmond Doss (Hacksaw Ridge), Captain Chesley Sullenberger (Sully), and Marcus Luttrell (Berg’s […]

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