The Substance

THE SUBSTANCE
2024 | Dir. Coralie Fargeat | 141 Minutes

"Remember you are one."


Unceremoniously let go by the producer of her television show, aging celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle uses a mysterious drug to create a younger version of herself to begin her career anew. However, the youthful copy callously saps away at Elisabeth at an alarming rate.

Writer/director Coralie Fargeat's The Substance is an instant horror classic. The film is a stylish, surreal, provocative, and intensely furious satire unfolding in an aggressively heightened world taking one woman's feelings of inadequacy, in large part imparted upon her by unrealistic societal beauty standards, to birth a superficially enticing self-destructive monster. When one considers the very last instruction card enclosed within the package of the titular substance printed in bold capitalized letters, a reminder to the user that they and their counterpart "are one," the most direct reading of the increasingly antagonistic push-and-pull relationship between Elisabeth and Sue is Elisabeth expressing the hate she has for herself, an internal conflict that's externalized and transmuted into a visceral interpersonal struggle. Sue stealing time away from Elisabeth is in reality Elisabeth refusing to accept the current natural state of her aging body and a life away from the spotlight. It's telling that despite her reactive desperation to put an end to Sue when her body deteriorates to an unrecognizable state, Elisabeth is ultimately unable to let go of the Sue aspect of herself.

The hilariously sharp dialogue and frantically rapid pace of The Substance, along with outlandish creature effects of its final act, take the already excellent dramatic conflict over-the-top. On a technical level, the picture is absolutely phenomenal. The masterful editing by Fargeat, Jérôme Eltabet, Valentin Feron combined with the pulsating electronic score by Raffertie create a tense and breathless audio visual experience with propulsive energy. The practical make-up effects by Pop FX are brilliantly inventive, culminating in the bloody finale with one of the most convincingly rendered fascinatingly disgusting movie monsters in cinema history.

Stars Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are nothing short of perfect, particularly impressive as the narrative spirals into absolute chaotic and revolting weirdness. Alone without a single word of spoken dialogue in some scenes, Moore gives an exceptionally natural performance portraying a fading star refusing to give up her fame at any cost, remaining consistently engaging even as heavier and heavier prosthetics are applied to her as Elisabeth's body rapidly degenerates. Qualley also gives it her all in the physically demanding role of Sue, totally captivating whether she's mugging for the cameras or literally fighting for her borrowed life. Dennis Quaid is horrifyingly convincing as the blustering slimy television producer all-too-aptly named Harvey.

Incredibly daring and delightfully grotesque, The Substance is a cautionary tale body horror film with unforgettable inventively disgusting imagery. The picture stylishly and mercilessly confronts and subverts the absurdly high value society places on youth and surface-level beauty. Most provocatively, the most terrifying aspect of this feature is arguably its depiction of one woman's self-loathing mutating into full-blown self-destruction.


FRAGMENTS
- The brief introductory sequence elegantly showing without verbal explanation how the titular substance works on an egg is pure genius, as are the bookend sequences of Elisabeth's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

- The moment the "Monstro Elisasue" title card appears is one of my favorite cinematic experiences of 2024
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Nickel Boys

NICKEL BOYS
2025 | Dir. RaMell Ross | 140 Minutes

"In here and out there are the same, but in here no one has to act fake anymore."


In 1962, black teenager Elwood Curtis is wrongfully arrested in Florida as an accomplice to a criminal. Imprisoned at the Nickel Academy reform school, Elwood quickly befriends the pessimistic Turner while both boys witness and endure horrible abuse. Years later, an adult Elwood confronts his past as authorities discover unmarked graves at site of the defunct campus.

Director RaMell Ross' adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-winning novel is visually captivating, frequently distressing, and even occasionally suffocating, however appropriate. Filmed primarily from a first-person perspective without ever coming off like a cheap gimmick, Nickel Boys fully immerses its audience in the journey of its pair of main characters, from moments of peaceful serene stillness to intense sequences of pure anxiety. As horrific events gradually unfold at the reform school, the dramatic tension never feels manufactured and never truly lets up. Even as the narrative segues away from Elwood's time Nickel, these flash forward scenes exclusively address the left over trauma.

The work of cinematographer Jomo Fray is exceptionally inspired, both in how it brilliantly captures Elwood and Turner's respective points of views but also in how it conveys deeper meaning whenever the camera shifts out of first-person view. Replaying the moment Elwood meets Turner from Turner's perspective is a clever way to clue the audience in on the fact that the picture will also follow the story of a secondary main character. A dreadful moment when Elwood suffers horrific physical abuse, the perspective shifts to third-person to depict his mental dissociation in a way that's both incredibly artistic and incredibly harrowing. At first viewing, it may be somewhat curious how scenes interspersed through the picture featuring an adult Elwood are exclusively shot from behind his head and shoulders, but it's a particularly profound creative choice in hindsight considering the concluding revelation that the grown man is in actuality Turner, having taken on both Elwood's name and aspects of Elwood's idealistically headstrong perspective.

Leads Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson both deliver engaging, incredibly moving performances. As Elwood, Herisse is the ideal audience surrogate, an intelligent young man rallying against the injustices inflicted upon him, while Wilson is rather charming and convincingly cynical as Turner, a child world-weary beyond his years. The cast also features Daveed Diggs who is heartbreaking as the adult Elwood/Turner, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor embodying love turned to helpless sorrow as Elwood's grandmother Hattie, and a believably detestable Hamish Linklater serving as the face of Nickel Academy's hateful draconian practices.

Nickel Boys is an emotionally devastating experience, one that is equally captivating and challenging. Through outstanding cinematography, the picture drops its audience directly into the perspective of its central characters as they are subjected to one of the most notorious forms of institutionalized oppression that thrived in Jim Crow-era America. The filmmakers present the narrative in a way that, ingeniously only possible through the medium of motion pictures, directly requests empathy from the viewer.


FRAGMENTS
- Just when I was starting to enjoy seeing Hamish Linklater since watching him play the morally conflicted lead on Mike Flanagan's Midnight Mass -- his performance is good in this film, but what an evil, evil character

- I simply do not understand why this film wasn't nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography
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Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here)

AINDA ESTOU AQUI (I'M STILL HERE)
2024 | Dir. Walter Salles | 137 Minutes

"It's absolutely necessary to compensate the families and do the most important thing: clarify and judge all crimes committed during the dictatorship. Otherwise, they will continue to be committed with impunity."


In 1971, operatives of Brazil's military dictatorship take former congressman Rubens Paiva away from his home in Rio de Janeiro. In the aftermath, Rubens' wife Eunice does what she can to protect her children while investigating what happened to her husband.

Adapted from Marcelo Rubens Paiva's memoir of the same name, Walter Salles' I'm Still Here is a moving chronicle of one family's harrowing experiences under authoritarian oppression. The events of the film unfold naturally without obvious dramatic embellishment, presenting an unsettling narrative of a good husband and father abducted by unidentified men never to be seen in public again, a loving mother and her young daughter imprisoned and relentlessly questioned without just cause, a nurturing family doing everything in their power to somehow carry on. Salles' direction is outstanding, as is Fernanda Torres's performance as Eunice, portraying the true story as well as the hardships of a remarkable woman with care and nuance.

For its rather heavy subject matter, I'm Still Here is exceptionally well-paced. Early scenes before Rubens' disappearance convincingly convey joy, if not a sense of security, showing the idyllic day-to-day lives of the Paiva family enjoying the beach near their home and celebrating birthdays with friends set to Brazilian pop-rock. Vera's "sensory experience" letter from London with accompanying 8mm film and vinyl record is particularly fun. As Rubens is taken from his family by a squad of inconspicuously terrifying people, Torres work as Eunice make her the prefect audience surrogate as the tension and fear ramp up to a visceral level, particularly during Eunice's imprisonment while she, along with the viewer, is still kept in the dark about Rubens' fate. Torres' deftly delivers her most powerful moment of the film when Eunice openly confronts the men observing her home sitting in a car across the street, after their carelessness brings tragedy upon the family dog. The final sequences of the picture set in 1996 and 2014 serve to demonstrate that life moves on and may even flourish, but the scars left upon the victims of a fascist regime never fully heal.

As much an account of personal hardship as it is a cautionary reminder of the horrors endured by a country ruled by a military dictatorship, I'm Still Here is an uncompromising picture that authentically portrays dark times without sensationalism. It's a solid film, superbly directed and featuring excellent performances, particularly from its leading lady. The story is one of hope, of life persevering against cold and uncaring forces, of fighting for and disseminating the truth long after the transgression so that it is never forgotten, and it is one that will always be worth telling.


FRAGMENTS
- Pimpão the dog is truly adorable, and I was justifiably worried form him since the film's opening moments

- The soldier overseeing Eunice during her imprisonment letting her know he "doesn't think it's right" is just slightly endearing but infuriatingly frustrating
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Emilia Pérez

EMILIA PÉREZ
2024 | Dir. Jacques Audiard | 132 Minutes

"Changing the soul changes society, changing society changes it all."


A Mexican cartel boss coerces struggling lawyer Rita Mora Castro for assistance to secretly arrange gender-affirming surgery and begin a new life. Years later, the former kingpin Emilia Pérez needs Rita's help again, requesting to reconnect with her family while taking on the false identity of an estranged relative. Returning to Mexico, Emilia uses the her wealth to help families victimized by gang violence, but the sins of her vicious past inevitably collide with her altruistic present.

Adapted from a portion of Boris Razon's 2018 novel Écoute, writer/director Jacques Audiard's Emilia Pérez is ostensibly a bold and daring musical about how the transformation of one person may change the world, but the evident lack of care the film has for handling its subject matter destroys any sense of emotional earnestness that's essential for this type of story to work. Centered around a transgender protagonist, the narrative leans hard into tired outdated plot tropes for queer people, the worst of which is the character's nonsensical decision to totally abandon her family as a part of her transition only for her to reconnect with them through underhanded deceptive means. The narrative seemingly takes on more poignant aspects in the second act as Emilia establishes a nonprofit organization to help bring closure to families who had fallen victim to cartel violence, but things quickly go off the rails and the film turns into a clumsy pseudo-telenovela pastiche involving romantic affairs and custody battles, offering little in the way of either amusement or catharsis. The feature comes off as cheap and disingenuous, stripping away any meaning from the marginalized peoples it chooses to focus on, rendering them mere aesthetic choices utilized in questionable taste.

Stylistically on an overall level, Emilia Pérez is more visually garish than appealing. The elaborate dance choreography is consistently hamstrung by some truly off-putting lyrics in the featured songs, making many of the musical numbers a real chore to sit through save for a handful of highlights. "La Vaginoplastia" with its lyrics listing away various gender-affirming surgical procedures kicks off amusingly enough but quickly overstays its welcome, and "El Amor" with Emilia contemplating how she is "half him, half her, half kingpin, half queen" before segueing into a poorly-written ballad about "making love with love" is confounding bad. "Para," highlighting the good work of Emilia's nonprofit through the point of view of the families and its ex-criminal volunteers seeking redemption is one of the few songs with genuinely poignant moments, while the rap-rock number "El Mal" with Rita expressing her anger over the misdeeds of the nonprofit's most prominent donors is the only sequence that somewhat convincingly strikes an engaging defiant punk rock tone.

As the titular lead, Karla Sofía Gascón delivers a serviceably compelling performance despite the shortcomings of the screenplay. Zoe Saldaña demonstrates maximum effort as Emilia's put-upon lawyer Rita, showing off impressive skills in the most physically demanding role of the film. The supporting cast includes Selena Gomez looking and sounding out-of-place as Emilia's ex-wife Jessi, Adriana Paz in a mostly thankless part of Emilia's love interest Epifanía, and Édgar Ramírez as Jessi's lover Gustavo who hardly registers as a character until the plot calls for an unimaginative car crash finale.

On paper, Emilia Pérez is a rather simplistic tale of change, love, and redemption. In execution, the film is a bafflingly misguided movie musical that fumbles its depiction of transgender people and the plight of the victims of cartel violence. The picture is a bizarre curiosity at best, a harmfully inauthentic representation of real world struggles at worst. Principal players Gascón and Saldaña show impressive commitment to their respective roles, but the dialogue and the musical numbers, ranging in quality and tone from awkwardly campy to downright awful, all but undermine their work. The topical issues the production utilizes as set dressing deserve much more thoughtful treatment than this.


FRAGMENTS
- Props to the filmmakers for casting a trans woman to play a trans woman, but not like this, not like this

- The comparisons between this and Mrs. Doubtfire are hilarious, but also sadly quite accurate

- I found the way the dialogue casually deadnames and misgenders Emilia particularly jarring

- Much has been said by others more qualified than I am regarding the mish-mash of the cast's non-Mexican accents, with particular criticism directed towards Selena Gomez's Spanish -- as a Cantonese-speaker subjected to all manner of bad Chinese in American and European cinema, I totally empathize


MCU CONNECTIONS
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Dune: Part Two

DUNE: PART TWO
2024 | Dir. Denis Villeneuve | 166 Minutes

"Lead them to Paradise."


Paul Atreides and Lady Jessica, the last survivors of House Atreides, join the Fremen resistance against their sworn enemies, the ruthless House Harkonnen. Through his resourcefulness in combat, his willingness to learn, and his seemingly supernatural talent, Paul quickly earns the respect of the Fremen and finds love with the fierce warrior Chani. However, as the war against the oppressors reaches a key turning point, forces beyond Paul's control force him to choose between assured victory and his own humanity.

Completing his ambitious adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel, writer/director Denis Villeneuve delivers a powerful tragedy that works remarkably well as both an intimate drama and a sprawling space opera with romance, thrilling action, and awesome spectacle. Dune: Part Two chronicles the end of Paul's journey as he accepts his destiny despite his rational reservations. It's incredibly exciting to see him become a Fremen warrior, fighting back against those who decimated his family, but it's equally upsetting to see him ultimately embrace his role as a religious leader, a part he never wanted to play but he must in the interest of protecting the ones he love. The depiction of Paul and Chani's relationship, the earnest heart of the picture, is exceptionally well-written, well-acted, and well-paced, making the inevitable change in Paul all the more heartbreaking, giving the film a level of poignancy that few big budget blockbusters possess. Dune: Part Two is a superb film with a highly engaging narrative, and Villeneuve's Dune as a whole, in combination with his first part, is a monumental cinematic achievement, bringing a famously complex novel to the screen as an emotionally gripping and easily accessible saga.

The aesthetic of Dune: Part Two is simply stunning starting with the visually striking opening gravity-defying skirmish in the Arrakian desert. Several set pieces feature instantly iconic imagery, particularly the astounding feat of visual effects storytelling that is Paul's first worm ride, and the introduction of Feyd-Rautha on Giedi Prime presented eerie disquieting monochrome filmed on infrared cameras. The explosive battle sequences are impressive, but on a smaller scale, the fight choreography for the knife duel sequences is also incredibly inventive. Perfectly complementing every scene is Hans Zimmer's incredible musical score, his stirring love theme for Paul and Chani is arguably the prolific composer's best work to date.

Timothée Chalamet demonstrates the depth he brings to the role of Paul Atreides more prominently in this film than in the first installment, convincingly conveying affection, anguish, and ultimately a terrifying detachment. Zendaya delivers an equally strong performance as Chani, able to communicate deep admiration with a warm smile and stark disapproval with a soul-piercing glance. Standing out among the massive supporting cast is Austin Butler as the sadistic Feyd-Rauth, taking what is essentially an exaggerated impression of Stellan Skarsgård and giving it a fascinating life of its own. Javier Bardem also provides a surprisingly moving performance as the Fremen leader Stilgar, playing up the humor of the man's devoted reverence for Paul until it transforms entirely into a devastating illustration of blind faith.

Dune: Part Two is, in one word, epic. Satisfyingly paying off every narrative thread established in first installment to complete a magnificent thematically rich five-hour sci-fi picture charting the subtle descent of a reluctant hero, this second half absolutely delivers on every level. The acting, the writing, the production design, the set pieces, the visual effects, the musical score, all aspects of the picture across the board set a new standard for big budget genre filmmaking.


FRAGMENTS
- Timothée Chalamet also stars in 2025 Best Picture Academy Award Nominee A Complete Unknown

- Hans Zimmer's score for Dune: Part Two is even better than his Oscar-winning score for Villeneuve's first Dune film, but it is puzzlingly ineligible for an Oscar nomination due to the Academy's questionable rule against soundtracks for sequels and franchises featuring more than 20% of pre-existing music

- Stephen McKinley Henderson's Thufir Hawat is sorely missed, the scenes he shot for Dune: Part Two did not make it into the final cut

- Geidi Prime, the black sunbathed homeworld of the House Harkonnen, looks like a dark, cold, vaguely sexually suggestive H.R. Giger paradise -- even their fireworks look disgusting


007 CONNECTIONS
- Javier Bardem (Raoul Silva in Skyfall)

- Léa Seydoux (Madeleine Swan in Spectre and No Time To Die)

- Dave Bautista (Mr. Hinx in Spectre)


MCU CONNECTIONS

- Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova in Black Widow, Thunderbolts*, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day)
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