The Substance (2024)

 

THE SUBSTANCE  (2024)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Coralie Fargeat

    Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid,

    Gore Abams. Oscar Lesage, Edward Hamilton Clark

"The Substance" is where David Cronenberg meets "Sunset Blvd." Or "Barbie" on real bad drugs. Demi Moore gives an audacious performance s Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading movie star clinging to a piece of the spotlight as the host of an aerobics workout show on television. When she's fired on her 50th birthday, she's at loose ends, until a lucky accident - and it's literally a lucky accident - leads her to The Substance, an injection designed to produce a newer, better, younger you. Before long, a new version of Elisabeth has emerged, named Sue and played by Margaret Qualley, but there's a protocol that must be followed to the letter, or bad things will happen, and they do. There's an element of exhibitionism to much of Moore's career, from her start as a nude model to her pregnant Vanity Fair cover to her leads in "Striptease" and "G.I. Jane", and her casting here is perfect. It's hard to imagine any other 60-year-old actress using her face and body to depict the kind of physical disintegration you see here. It's off the charts. 

Yellow & Blue (2022)

 

YELLOW & BLUE  (2022)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Amit Bar

    Dulcamara

A woman who looks vaguely amphibious dances for a couple of minutes wearing nothing but body paint. Her colors are yellow and blue. Video and body-paint artist Amit Bar has made a bunch of these short pieces, that are like a throwback to the earliest days of film: movement captured by a camera. In some the women are painted and in some they're not. You can look for them on YouTube if you want to watch. 

Ten Cents a Dance (1931)

TEN CENTS A DANCE  (1931)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Lionel Barrymore 

    Barbara Stanwyck, Ricardo Cortez, Monroe Owsley,

    Sally Blane, Blanche Friderici, Martha Sleeper

Barbara Stanwyck plays a taxi dancer who catches the eye of a wealthy businessman but she falls for a cad and quits her job and they get married and the cad goes to work in the businessman's office but he goes into debt gambling and playing the stock market and embezzles a bunch of money from the office safe and he'll go to jail unless he can get his hands on $5,000 so the once and future taxi dancer goes to the businessman who's still crazy about her to get the money to bail out the cad and she gets it which makes the cad all pissed off and by now she's tired of him acting like an asshole so she dumps him and goes back to the dancehall where the businessman tracks her down and they make up and there they are kissing in closeup which the dancehall matron says is against the rules but they don't care because they're going to be married fade out the end. Barbara Stanwyck. What a dame.

The Asphalt Jungle (1950)

THE ASPHALT JUNGLE  (1950)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: John Huston

    Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Sam Jaffe,

    James Whitmore, Marc Lawrence, John McIntire,

    Brad Dexter, Anthony Caruso, Marilyn Monroe

A classic noir caper about a jewel heist gone wrong. Sam Jaffe play the mastermind, just out of prison. Sterling Hayden plays a hooligan with a gambling habit. Louis Calhern plays the bankrupt financier. James Whitmore plays the getaway driver who runs the cafe. A young Marilyn Monroe plays Calhern's mistress and alibi. All are tripped up by their faults and doomed by their dreams. It's a John Huston movie, after all.

Strange Darling (2023)

 

STRANGE DARLING (2023) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: JT Mollner

    Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, 

    Barbara Hershey, Ed Begley Jr.

This movie follows Jean-Luc Godard's notion that a film should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order. It's a horror/suspense tale told in six chapters and an epilogue, but the chapters do not play out in numerical or chronological order. It's about a serial killer on the loose out around Hood River, Oregon, and it's got a doozy of a switcheroo that you might see coming, or maybe not. Willa Fitzgerald ("The Lady") and Kyle Gallner ("The Demon") are disturbingly good as a couple who embark on the hookup from hell, and Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr. get a nice moment or two as a pair of old hippies living out in the woods. (You won't believe what they eat for breakfast.) The music is alternately dreamy and pulverizing, and Giovanni Ribisi, who's better known for his acting work, did the cinematography. Writer/director JT Mollner doesn't waste any time on backstories or subplots. He cuts to the chase immediately. Buckle up. This one's intense.

The 400 Tricks of the Devil (1906)

 

THE 400 TRICKS OF THE DEVIL  (1906)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Georges Méliès

A pair of explorers encounter an alchemist who turns out to be Satan, and embark on a journey that takes them to London, Vesuvius, hell and outer space. Crazy storytelling, elaborate production design, longer than a lot of Méliès' films (at 17 minutes) and at times visually spectacular. (Watch for the skeleton horse and the coach ride to the stars.) Alternate title: "The Merry Frolics of Satan". 

The Devil In a Convent (1899)

 

THE DEVIL IN A CONVENT  (1899)  ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Georges Méliès

The devil, up to his old tricks. Méliès, up to a few new ones. 

The Black Imp (1905)

 

THE BLACK IMP  (1905)  ¢ ¢ 1/2

    D: Georges Méliès

A demon, a man with a beard and some disappearing furniture. 

Victor/Victoria (1982)

 

VICTOR/VICTORIA  (1982)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢

    D: Blake Edwards

    Julie Andrews, James Garner, Robert Preston,

    Leslie Ann Warren, Alex Karras, John Rhys-Davies

A musical gender-blender set in 1934, with Julie Andrews as a starving singer who becomes the toast of Paris by pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman. James Garner plays a Chicago gangster who falls for him/her while trying to make sense of the ambiguity. Robert Preston plays a gay nightclub performer and Julie's partner/mentor/pal. Andrews makes a cute girl-boy, and the gay humor holds up better than you might expect. One of Blake Edwards' best movies.

Spring Break Massacre (2008)

 

SPRING BREAK MASSACRE  (2008)  ¢

    D: Rex Kramer

    Reggie Bannister, Sarah Minnic, John Shumski,

    Linnea Quigley, Renee Darmiento, Erin Meyers,

    Aly Hartman, Bob Farster, Toni Buena, Sue Willett

Horny, empty-headed twenty-somethings spend spring break hanging out in Illinois (?!?) in a movie called "Spring Break Massacre". See if you can guess what happens to them. 

Vanishing Point (1997)

 

VANISHING POINT  (1997)  ¢ ¢

    D: Charles Robert Carner

    Viggo Mortensen, Christine Elise, Steve Railsback, 

    Jason Priestley, Keith David, Rodney A. Grant,

    Paul Benjamin, John Doe, Peta Wilson

A television remake of the 1971 car-chase classic, with Viggo Mortensen in the old Barry Newman role as Kowalski, a hero of the highway driving a souped-up Dodge Challenger from New Mexico to Idaho at decidedly unsafe speeds, while an army of cops try to take him in or bring him down. The original movie was primal and existential. This one has backstories and religion. The tire-squealing, gravel-spewing stuntwork is all right, but by the time the asshole lawman played by Steve Railsback throws his badge in the dirt, you know the filmmakers are running out of gas.