Brian Eggert
Tomatometer-approved critic
Brian Eggert is the owner and film critic of Deep Focus Review. He has been writing movie reviews, in-depth essays, histories, and critical analyses since 2007. His tastes range from Andrei Tarkovsky to Psycho Goreman.
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) |
Setting aside its predictable sequel structure and tired multiverse milieu, Across the Spider-Verse offers a wealth of energy, humor, well-drawn characters, and inspired animation. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Jun 01, 2023
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The Boogeyman (2023) |
One of those horror movies where characters seem allergic to light, even though it should be a protective shield. Assuming you can accept that the movie requires the characters to behave irrationally, you’re bound to have a spooky good time. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 29, 2023
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The Little Mermaid (2023) |
It’s better than most of these Disney cash grabs and worth seeing to witness the emergence of Bailey as a new star. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 26, 2023
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You Hurt My Feelings (2023) |
Holofcener accesses moving material that will make you laugh, possibly cry, and come away feeling a little wiser for it. Such modest pleasures at the cinema feel rare but vital. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 20, 2023
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White Men Can't Jump (2023) |
Shelton’s original was hardly perfect, but comparing the 1992 movie with the remake leaves the viewer with a sense of the new version’s empty, commercial artlessness. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 18, 2023
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Sisu (2022) |
The heightened quality of everything onscreen hopes to evoke gleeful and shocked laughter over the nonstop procession of stabbings, explosions, and dismemberments. And it mostly works. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 18, 2023
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Master Gardener (2022) |
Although one might wish the narrative were as passionate, it’s easy to admire Schrader’s thematic concerns and see him working through his own obsessions to a rare, hopeful conclusion. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 16, 2023
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Carmen (2022) |
Millepied’s thin narrative lining makes Carmen feel like an extended music video, which is not to disparage music videos but to stress the lingering desire for more than Millepied has given us. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 13, 2023
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Hypnotic (2023) |
Despite its overly familiar story, Hypnotic could have been an entertaining B-grade movie with an A-list star; instead, it’s a forgettable, flat experience that lost its fizz at the scripting stage. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 11, 2023
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BlackBerry (2023) |
While all of these brand biopics have an underdog quality to them, only Johnson’s film has a handmade appeal to the proceedings that remind us these people started from nothing, made millions, and then faded into obscurity. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 10, 2023
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Peter Pan & Wendy (2023) |
There’s not much here besides something to keep the kids out of your hair for a couple of hours.
- Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 10, 2023
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A Life on the Farm (2022) |
The experience is sort of like opening someone else’s diary and recoiling over what they’ve written, before ultimately recognizing that a fellow human being put their heart into this. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 06, 2023
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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) |
Gunn’s work registers as that of a filmmaker with a personal vision for his comic book universe and the freedom to explore it. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 05, 2023
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The Devil's Advocate (1997) |
Although Pacino’s wily and delicious performance eventually leads to an over-the-top climax that threatens to derail the entire picture, The Devil’s Advocate develops patiently and effectively over 143 minutes. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 04, 2023
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Beau Is Afraid (2023) |
Whatever he’s working through with Beau Is Afraid, Aster’s unmistakable personal vision is on display and, refreshingly, leaves much to interpretation and much to be appreciated/ - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted May 04, 2023
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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (2023) |
Unlike so much teenage fare, it never talks down to its audience, young or old; it never resorts to schmaltz or an unearned emotional payoff; it never takes the easy way out. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 28, 2023
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Millennium Mambo (2001) |
Hou’s poetic style registers as a glossy, alluring daze upon first look, yet the film's temporal conceit and states of reflection remark on the then-present Taipei from a fictional but optimistic tomorrow. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 26, 2023
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R.M.N. (2022) |
With discerning observations and intricately conceived analogies involving atoms and Animalia, R.M.N., one of the year’s best films, uses specific ethnic divides to expose raw and universal truths about humanity. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 26, 2023
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Polite Society (2023) |
Here’s a film about a distinct culture that, while supplying an uproariously fun time, manages to comment on women having control of their bodies and futures in a terrifically accessible and unpreachy way. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 23, 2023
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Evil Dead Rise (2023) |
Evil Dead Rise is a movie made by someone who grew up watching Evil Dead movies and not the Three Stooges. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 23, 2023
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Ghosted (2023) |
The kind of empty Hollywood product that makes you wonder whether screenwriters are already using artificial intelligence to write their scripts. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 21, 2023
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Chevalier (2022) |
However heavy-handed the film can be about characters who telegraph its themes through their overstated dialogue, the sense of revolution and inclusive history remains impassioned. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 18, 2023
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Dreamin' Wild (2022) |
Dreamin’ Wild avoids the typical musician biopic structure that has grown so tiresome in recent years, as seen recently in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) and I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022). For that, we should be thankful. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 18, 2023
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Judy Blume Forever (2023) |
If you love her books, it reminds you what you love about them. And though it’s a basic approach, the difference is that Blume is an earnest interviewee, speaking from 83 years of life experience from a place of honesty and openness, just like her fiction - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 18, 2023
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The Tank (2023) |
There’s enough to be savored in Walker’s modest, hand-crafted execution to earn a mild recommendation as late-night fare. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 17, 2023
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The Fall (2006) |
Mostly eschewing the digital effects that most filmmakers rely on today, The Fall presents a love letter to visual storytelling and, in its use of a stuntman as a protagonist, the tactile potential of cinema in the hands of dreamers and fabulists. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 13, 2023
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Renfield (2023) |
Unsatisfying as a whole and downright disappointing for wasting a terrific Cage performance on a lackluster movie. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 13, 2023
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How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022) |
An exceptional thriller—fast-paced and burning with the fire of revolution. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 06, 2023
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Showing Up (2022) |
Some might call the story slow, except those who can relate to Lizzy’s fixation on her artwork might find the proceedings urgent and comically nerve-racking—Reichardt’s equivalent to the tortured anxiety seen in Joel and Ethan Coen’s A Serious Man (2009). - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 06, 2023
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The Princess Bride (1987) |
Few films have ever walked the thin line between earnestness and irony so flawlessly. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 06, 2023
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Air (2023) |
Affleck’s film enlivens what could have been a series of dry marketing pitch conferences into a high-stakes affair performed by a terrific cast. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 03, 2023
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Gone Baby Gone (2007) |
An affecting morality play that leaves us pondering the movie for days. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 02, 2023
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Children of the Corn (2020) |
Aside from Moyer’s presence, every intentionally scary flourish proves unintentionally funny. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Apr 02, 2023
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A Thousand and One (2023) |
A Thousand and One portrays motherhood, family, and home as complex and uneasy concepts, and it’s told with such authenticity and passion that the film’s power is impossible to deny. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 30, 2023
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Green Lantern (2011) |
Overcoming a personal tragedy, defeating various villains, and discovering his powers with a trendy soundtrack to guide his way, Reynolds’ Hal Jordan is plain as can be, even offensive in an age where this genre has elevated itself with dynamic films... - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 29, 2023
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Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011) |
Worth a casual viewing for horror fans looking for a mindless diversion. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 29, 2023
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Cars (2006) |
This is a very good piece of animation, but given the source, it’s not unreasonable to expect better. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 29, 2023
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Rye Lane (2023) |
Although the story goes exactly where one might expect, Allen-Miller’s direction makes her film feel like something altogether new. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 26, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023) |
Goldstein and Daley are gifted filmmakers and imbue this well-worn genre material with the same energy and spirit that makes their Game Night such a joy to revisit. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 26, 2023
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Tetris (2023) |
Even though the film remains simplemindedly capitalistic and limited in its characters’ ambitions, Tetris is fast-paced and deliriously watchable. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 26, 2023
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A Good Person (2023) |
For most of the film, I watched with a lump in my throat and tears welling up in my eyes—largely despite my awareness of Braff’s manipulations—because Pugh and Freeman make every dramatic beat more compelling than it might be with other actors. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 23, 2023
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The Lost King (2022) |
It’s a story about an average woman finding her passion and happiness, all while overcoming prejudices and long-held assumptions until she literally changes history. What could be more thrilling? - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 21, 2023
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Missing (2023) |
An offshoot of found footage, the setup feels less spontaneous and more manufactured by comparison, leaving the viewer to feel pushed and pulled through the ensuing suspense by the editing, sometimes in clumsy ways. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 21, 2023
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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) |
It’s a long and exhausting—but refreshingly never dull—spectacle of violence that’s easily the most ambitious and visually accomplished entry yet. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Boston Strangler (2023) |
Whether viewed as a serial killer yarn or an inspirational story about women overcoming gender biases, the film remains close to its antecedents but delivers a solid drama that will appeal to today’s amateur sleuths and true crime enthusiasts. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Inside (2023) |
Few actors have the presence to command an entire film on their own like this, and Dafoe is uniquely suited to stories about isolation, interiority, and psychological decline. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) |
It continues to be a telling historical marker and evidence of a Hollywood studio taking a moral and political stance when it was unpopular to do so. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Cars 2 (2011) |
It may not live up to the usual sophistication associated with the animation studio, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad film. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Bad Teacher (2011) |
The filmmakers play it safe, which is exactly what anyone seeing this movie doesn’t want. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 11, 2023
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The Trip (2010) |
A showcase for two performers who bring a sense of humor and rumination to the gorgeous scenery on display, the outcome proves deceivingly simple and yet one of the funniest films of recent memory. - Deep Focus Review
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| Posted Mar 11, 2023
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