On November 7, an ordinary Friday, "Focus" appeared in a total of ten theaters including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston. Because the film had received huge praise at the Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival, it attracted a large number of viewers to watch it.

Especially Murphy's fans and some former Catholic victims have long been looking forward to the film.

During the day on Friday, all theaters that show "Focus" have attended more than 90%. This is a count of the statistics of professional film critics and members of the School of Film Arts and Sciences who can be viewed for free.

Professional critics have long been ready to do this film and are ready to do something big.

For films like this that are related to current hot topics, their comments will naturally attract more fans, not to mention that one of the main characters or villains in the film is still the Catholic.

Just like Hollywood in the past, professional film critics are also cautious in their religious subjects, for fear of causing unnecessary trouble for you, but now it is different. From last winter to now, Catholicism has been exposed by the media for countless scandals, and criticizing Catholicism can be said to be completely correct in value orientation and political correctness.

Perhaps many film critics couldn't wait to watch the film at the beginning of the preview. By Friday afternoon, comments about "Focus" appeared on the Internet or social platform columns of many well-known film critics.

"In "Focus", Murphy Stanton expanded from a scandal to a criticism of the system, just like a powerful narrative of heavy documentary literature, which was stripped down and advanced layer by layer, in a straightforward manner, clear, rigorous, neat, and neat, and neat, and neat edited neatly, thus perfectly restoring a media person's journey of reporting. At the end of the office, he answered the phone at the end of the office and said: "Focus." This wonderful ending was extremely shocking. Murphy completely brought this "top-down institutional ugliness" to the screen, not only digging out the roots of the Catholic scandal, but also pointing to the indifference deep in human nature, which attracted deep thought."

Kenneth Tulan

"Murphy Stanton's new film is a real reproduction of the report team's investigation into the critical process of a large number of Catholic priests' sexual assault scandals. The real event itself is attractive enough, not to mention that there is a very neat and solid script and production, and controls the speed and rhythm of similar thrillers. The film also seems to deliberately downplay the characterization and drama, but it is fascinating with a calm and steady pace and a slight plot. The soundtrack, photography and editing play an excellent auxiliary role. The performances of several starring actors are just right, and everyone has superb performance. The most successful thing about the film is to cut off the childish and sexual orientation, pointing out that this is the top-down institutional ugliness of the church, the most filthy organization in the world. After watching it, people will lose all their awe of religion. Although the content is cruel, they can watch it very comfortably."

Todd McCarthy

Almost all reviews of film critics appearing on the Internet are positive.

In addition, the Boston Globe, which is closely related to the incident, also opened a column on the front page headlines and published comments on the video.

"Under the control of Murphy Stanton, who is the screenwriter and director of the film, "Focus" has an extremely cold image style. On the one hand, the cold and dark tones of the film successfully create the painful and depressing atmosphere before the scandal is revealed; on the other hand, in order to highlight the authenticity and objectivity, the film uses bystander-style cameras and relatively neutral mid-scene shots in most scenes."

"At the same time, "Focus" also shows amazing maturity in narratives. Looking at the whole film, the film neither amplifies the pain of the victims in order to win the sympathy of the audience, does not deliberately vilify specific clergy to establish a villain, nor does it deliberately raise the news practitioners of the "Focus" column group. The film always focuses on the case and the truth. When the report is completed, the case is revealed and the film comes to an abrupt end, which is really memorable."

"The technique used in "Focus" is very restrained and restrained. It neither deliberately makes moral judgments, preaches deliberately, nor deliberately shapes the character's character. However, after the end of the film, its values, emotions and characters are all extremely vivid, which reflects the skills of director Murphy Stanton."

"In the process of progressing the plot, the film truly achieved silent and natural results in the character creation and final presentation of the film's motif. In other words, this is a serious film similar to a documentary, which achieved the most sensational effect with the least sensational method."

"In general, the film "Focus" has a calm and restrained camera, clean and neat editing, the plot is compelling and the emotions are compelling. I believe that all viewers who have watched the end will have the same feeling, that is, under the seemingly peaceful image, director Murphy Stanton gives the film the power that is enough to shake the soul!"

Various media praises were like they didn't have money to throw them on "Focus" and Murphy's heads, as if this film was the best Hollywood movie this year.

On the one hand, Murphy and the film have a huge influence and are also a masterpiece in themselves; on the other hand, this is also a continuation of the media's exposure of the Catholic scandal last year.

Of course, most people prefer to do the pain of knocking down dogs.

After the first day of the preview, Rotten Tomatoes collected 55 reviews about "Focus" on the website, with a positive review rate of 97%, with an average score of 8.8 points; the authoritative media comprehensive evaluation of metacriti included 45 media scores, with an average score of 8.6 points!

It would be fine if it was just the media and film critics, but the reputation of the fans of the film was also explosive.

Cinemasore Cinema audience scored "a+" on the spot, imdb included 6876 user ratings, and "Focus" averaged 9.1 points.

For ordinary movie fans who are like imdb and social platforms, there are endless praises about "Focus".

"Focusing on sexual assault itself is not the focus of the film "Focus" because it is easy to fall into a negative energy overload and topical sales gimmick. Murphy puts most of his pen and ink in the process of exposing the scandal. The most rare thing is that the film does not deliberately "focus on" creating gods. And every character is full and real, which makes the audience feel empathy and can't help but examine it. Perhaps the bigger the screen, the more front the row, the more you can feel the charm of the performance and the play. This is also a shocking force that is not available in front of the small screen. The list of blockbusters produced by the subtitles in the end is quite shocking, so the ending subtitles were played, and the whole audience was silent. After a long time, the applause was fresh enough!"

Although the film cannot be as popular as "Dark City" because of its theme, a considerable number of people still gave "Focus" a full score!

"After watching "Focus" in Toronto, I watched it twice today. Every time I walked out of the cinema, I felt very moved. On the one hand, I was moved by the journalist's pursuit of the truth and the spirit of self-restraint in the face of the truth. On the other hand, I was moved by the ugliness under the protection of power and the excitement brought by the world."

In today's Internet era, although professional film critics still exist and have a certain influence, various social platforms also provide channels for some professional film fans to express their opinions.

"Director Murphy Stanton did not show off his suspense or create gimmicks in the movie, nor did he use any scars and privacy of the victims in this scandal to attract attention. On the contrary, his confident, low-key and simple narrative technique, sharp and seamless, and his superb editing won respect and unique energy for the movie; with a clear backbone close to documentary literature, he carried the whole story and controlled the balance between the performances of many celebrities. Multiple factors intertwined and subtle connections, leading the audience step by step, tirelessly towards the end."

"The rhythm of this film is tense and rigorous, and the narrative is calm and complete. What is commendable is that even though Murphy Stanton advocates the concise and efficient storytelling this time, he still successfully puts the detailed description and emotional capture of each character into every detail. Every line shows the highest grasp of using the language of the movie and the camera.

Someone else turned his eyes to the entire event reflected in the video.

"In essence, faith is not a worship of a God or a doctrine, but a belief in people and the world; trusting us to overcome our own limitations, transcend our self-desire, and save ourselves and others. To quote Richard Cyp, one of the witnesses in the movie, the church is established by people, and it will eventually pass with time; and my faith will remain in my heart forever."

In the eyes of the audience, "Focus" does not reach the height of "Dark City", but its reputation is also very good. Such reputation is enough for the preview of a film.

On this second weekend of November, after three days of pre-screening on the weekend, "Focus" won a pre-screening box office of more than 700,000 US dollars from North American theaters, with a single box office of 70,000 US dollars!

Such film achievements and preview reputation gave Twentieth Century Fox great confidence. They decided to change their strategy slightly and expand the screening theaters of "Focus" on a large scale starting next weekend, and quickly reached an agreement with the North American theater alliance.

North American theater companies are also happy to screen Murphy's videos. Countless facts in the past have proved that Murphy's videos can bring them huge profits.
Chapter completed!