SYNOPSIS: In “The Substance,” a new splatter film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, and now playing in theatres, Hollywood actress Elisabeth Sparkle is willing to do anything to be younger, more beautiful, more perfect, including using a new, black-market drug that promises to create “the best version” of herself. The cell-replicating substance does indeed create a new, younger version of Elisabeth, but youth comes with a price and some potentially horrifying side-effects.
CAST: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid. Written and directed by Coralie Fargeat.
REVIEW: In its willingness to push buttons, “The Substance” is quite unlike any other movie you’ll see this year.
Violent and gory, and culminating in uncontrolled chaos, it’s a horror film about the downside of selfishness and the virtue of playing by the rules. It’s a showbiz cautionary tale, à la “Sunset Boulevard” by way of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and it allows Demi Moore to let her freak flag fly.
The dual quest for youth and fame is front and center. Both subjects have been essayed before in film, but never with such squirm inducing intensity. It’s outlandish, unrealistic and over-all rather silly, and yet, the idea of using some sort of substance to change your body seems less outlandish, unrealistic and not quite as silly in the age of Ozempic usage and plastic surgery ads beamed into our homes via TV and the internet.
The question at the heart of the film, “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? Younger? More beautiful?” isn’t some wild horror premise. It’s a common notion, pushed to an extreme. Because it is a question thrown at us daily through advertising, the action becomes wretchedly relatable, even if the exact situation isn’t.
As a faded Oscar winner who takes an opportunity to literally shed her old skin, Demi Moore is perfectly and ingeniously cast. She is obviously a successful movie star in real life, so when we see her wracked by insecurity when she overhears obnoxious studio head Harvey (Dennis Quaid), in full-on Hollywood a-hole mode, bellow, “Find me somebody new, now!” it packs a punch. It may be a career best performance for Moore. At any rate, it is certainly unlike anything she has ever done before.
As Moore’s younger, “best” self, Qualley shines. Moore undergoes the broadest physical change, but, as Sue, Qualley takes the character on a journey from naïve and sweet to calculating and disturbing.
“The Substance” has a lot on its mind. Writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s infuses the story with her thoughts on youth, beauty, fame and Hollywood’s unrealistic beauty standards, and uses body horror coupled with the bonkers, Grand Guignol ending to make her points. It goes on a bit too long, but Fargeat’s gruesome vision, and the finale’s ankle-deep bloodbath, is a thing of terrible beauty.
SYNOPSIS: In “The Invisibles,” a new fantasy family drama starring Tim Blake Nelson and Gretchen Mol, and now playing in theatres, Charlie is feeling invisible. Ignored at work and having trouble at home, he leads a life of quiet desperation. As his troubles mount, he slowly disappears; literally unseen by everyone except those in a parallel universe who have also vanished from real life.
CAST: Tim Blake Nelson, Gretchen Mol, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Webster, Rachel Wilson, Tennille Read, Laura de Carteret, Juno Rinaldi, Courtenay J. Stevens, Rob Ramsay, Vinson Tran, Golden Madison, Jean-Michel Le Gal, Tal Gottfried, Elina Miyake Jackson, Nathan Alexis, Philip Van Martin, Grace Loewen. Written and directed by Andrew Currie.
REVIEW: Charlie’s (Nelson) trip into a new dimension isn’t so much an exploration of the hereafter as it is a journey of self-discovery. Charlie isn’t dead, he is simply absent from his life, watching his old reality from another point of view. It’s a little bit “It’s a Wonderful Life,” (with a charming Nathan Alexis subbing in for Clarence), and part low-key “Interstellar” rumination on human agency and what it means to be alive.
At the heart of it all is Nelson who gives Charlie a world weariness born of trauma, disappointment and apathy. He’s a “don’t know what you have till it’s gone guy,” forced to fight for his place in the world, and to accept that disappointment, frustration and loss are equal threads in the great human tapestry alongside love and joy.
The secret to the performance is in his eyes, as we see him processing whether to return to the unpredictable real world or stay in the relative emotional stasis of the invisible world. It’s lovely work, vulnerable but determined, imbued with both bliss and the blues.
As otherworld bartender Carl, Bruce Greenwood makes a convincing argument for sidestepping the pains of real life, but writer/director Andrew Currie chooses to dive deep, examining how and why emotional tumult shapes us.
“The Invisibles” is thoughtful, provocative filmmaking that asks fundamental questions about life, love and trauma is an entertaining, and often funny, way.
I join NewsTalk 1010 host John Moore of Moore in the Morning to talk about the big winners at the Emmys and why “Hacks” beat “The Bear” for best comedy.
On the Saturday September 14, 2024 edition of the Richard Crouse Show we’ll meet Mike Ayley, bass player from the multi-platinum bland Marianas Trench. The band’s sixth studio album, “Haven,” is available now wherever you legally buy and download music. They are also launching their North American “Force of Nature” this month, which will make stops across the US and Canada, culminating with the tour’s final stop in the band’s hometown, Vancouver, BC.
Then, we’ll meet actor, author and musician Paul Spence. Best known for his portrayal of hard-luck metalhead Dean Murdoch in the 2002 mockumentary film “FUBAR: The Movie,” which he co-wrote with friends Dave Lawrence and Michael Dowse. He also reprised the character in the sequel film FUBAR 2, and the television series Fubar Age of Computer. In a new stand-alone movie called “Deaner ‘89” he revisits the character, uncovers his Métis heritage, starts listening to his father’s heavy metal albums, dressing in his clothes, angers a biker gang, steals a bus – and much more.
Listen to the whole thing HERE! (Link coming soon)
Here’s some info on The Richard Crouse Show!
Each week on the nationally syndicated Richard Crouse Show, Canada’s most recognized movie critic brings together some of the most interesting and opinionated people from the movies, television and music to put a fresh spin on news from the world of lifestyle and pop-culture. Tune into this show to hear in-depth interviews with actors and directors, to find out what’s going on behind the scenes of your favourite shows and movies and get a new take on current trends. Recent guests include Chris Pratt, Elvis Costello, Baz Luhrmann, Martin Freeman, David Cronenberg, Mayim Bialik, The Kids in the Hall and many more!
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Part screwball comedy, part fight for survival, “Anora” is a triumph of controlled chaos. As in his earlier films, “Tangerine,” “The Florida Project” and “Red Rocket,” director Sean Baker keenly observes his characters with empathy and emotion in stories that examine money, class, and power. Mikey Madison, best known to date as the oldest sibling on the sit com “Better Things” and being burned alive in both “Scream (5)” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” hands in a career re-defining performance as sex worker Anora a.k.a. Ani. An electric combination of tough-as-nails ferocity, self-assurance, desperation and poignant vulnerability, she is as compelling and charismatic a lead as we’ll see at the movies this year.
A story of sexual power, control and humiliation, “Babygirl” is risky and frisky with a fearless performance from Nicole Kidman.
“Better Man,” the biopic of Take That singer-turned-solo superstar Robbie Williams is a sex, drugs and British Pop story given an audacious treatment by “The Greatest Showman” director Michael Gracey. A surreal mix of “Behind the Music” and “Planet of the Apes,” it is a raw portrayal of the singer’s vulnerabilities and foibles in which he’s rendered throughout as a CGI monkey. No explanations are offered, and none are needed. Whether it’s a comment on the performing monkey nature of his work, or his ever-evolving emotional state, or whatever, it’s a startling and surprisingly effective gimmick in a wildly entertaining film.
“Conclave,” the story of the ritual to elect a new Pope, reflects a spiritual process marred by very human foibles. It’s a very timely study of the quest for power which seems even more relevant in a US election year. “The men who are dangerous are the men who want the power.”
Ron Howard’s “Eden” is a star-studded—Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law and Daniel Brühl— story of backstabbing, ego and survival set against the unforgiving landscape of a deserted Galápagos Island. Based on a true story, it’s a heart of darkness tale done on an operatic level.
Hugh Grant delivers a career redefining performance as the charming face of theological curiosity in “Heretic.” A two-hour doctrinal cat-and-mouse game with two Mormon missionaries (Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher), the movie digs deep, gets dark but never forgets to have fun.
As idiosyncratic movie as we’re likely to see this year, “Megalopolis” is a forty-years-in-the-making passion project from Francis Ford Coppola that brims with imagination, ambition and, unfortunately, self-indulgence. Equal parts hammy and hopeful, dense and dazzling, it’s the work of a filmmaker with nothing left to prove.
Told from the point of view of the ghost, the scares in “Presence” are muted and not particularly supernatural. The horror here is the carefully observed, callous behavior between several of the characters. It’s a stylish, visually interesting twist on a ghost story that entertains the eye but may not move the spirit.
An intense look at the chaotic ninety minutes before the first broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” on October 11, 1975, “Saturday Night” captures the anxiety, the humour and the sheer nerve it took to get the show off the ground. We know how it ends—“SNL” celebrates 50 seasons this year—but a great ensemble cast brings this love letter to show business, tenacity and Lorne Michaels to vivid life.
A revenge drama about legacy, genetic memory, social media and a cat named Potato, “Seeds” is a tense thriller that delivers its message with plenty of humor before the going gets gory. At a quick 85 minutes “Seeds” features great performances— Graham Greene, as the host of a television true crime show who speaks to Ziggy in her dreams and Goldtooth are standouts—and succeeds both as a revenge drama and an expression of Indigenous legacy and power.
“The Shrouds” revisits David Cronenberg’s go-to themes of body horror, invasive technology and paranoia in a film that promises to be a provocative and empathetic study of grief.
“The Substance” has a lot on its mind. Writer/director Coralie Fargeat infuses the story with her thoughts on youth, beauty, fame and Hollywood’s unrealistic beauty standards, and uses body horror coupled with the bonkers, Grand Guignol ending to make her points. It goes on a bit too long, but Fargeat’s gruesome vision, and the finale’s ankle-deep bloodbath, is a thing of terrible beauty.
Part rom com and part essay on what lingers after we’re gone, “We Live in Time” is a five-hankie tear-jerker fueled by the intimate and charismatic performances of its leads Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield.
Based on Peter Brown’s award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller of the same name, the animated “The Wild Robot” will put you in the mind of “The Iron Giant,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “WALL-E,” but carves out its own, unique, rewarding space. Brimming with compassion, humor and kindness, it has the makings of a classic.
A modern riff on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s 18th-century novella “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” “Young Werther,” takes a love-at-first-sight premise, the stuff of rom coms, and uses that as a springboard to examine self-absorbed youth, unrequited love, rejection and the true nature of love.
Had a lovely interview during the Toronto International Film Festival with Robbie Williams about his upcoming biopic “Better Man.” In the full interview we talked about the movie’s themes of insecurity, coping with success and more. Here’s a taste… (full interview coming on the movie’s release in December)
SYNOPSIS: In “Speak No Evil,” a new psychological horror thriller movie starring James McAvoy and now playing in theatres, a dream holiday turns into a nightmare when an American couple and their daughter spend an eventful weekend at a British family’s scenic country estate.
CAST: James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Aisling Franciosi, Alix West Lefler, Dan Hough and Scoot McNairy. Directed by James Watkins.
REVIEW: Spending time with people you barely know can be great for a change of pace or scenery, or it can be like the events “Speak No Evil,” a cautionary tale about taking strangers up on offers of weekend getaways.
A slightly tweaked remake of the 2022 Danish film of the same name, this one sees McAvoy in malevolent mischievous mode as the reckless, pushy and overly familiar Paddy, husband to the free-spirited Ciara (Aisling Franciosi). After a quick Italian vacation get-to-know-ya with Americans Ben and Louise Dalton (Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis) and their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler), the gregarious couple invite their new friends to their rambling English country house for a weekend of fun.
The house is not what Ben and Louise expected. The stained bedsheets are a problem and the bad electrical makes their hairdryer shoot sparks. Worse, Louise doesn’t like her hosts. “I don’t find them that pleasant to be around,” she says.
Turns out, her instincts are right. Over the weekend Paddy and Ciara prove to not be as free spirited as they first appeared, and it’s possible their hospitality could land the Daltons in the hospital… or worse.
“Speak No Evil” is a simple, character-based thriller with a slow build to an explosive finale. It does not offer up the bleak exercise in trauma of the Danish film. Instead, it’s a social satire, pitting an uptight city couple against the seemingly unfettered country home dwellers. A violent comedy of manners, it explores where civility ends, and survival begins.
As for the horror, it’s a standard slice of city folks making all the wrong decisions, digging deep and defending themselves. By the time the action begins, writer/director James Watkins replaces the terrors of the Danish original with an extended traditional, but cathartic, good vs. evil set piece. It’s a crowd-pleasing good time, with high stakes, that had the audience I saw this with cheering.
“Speak No Evil” benefits greatly from McAvoy’s performance. It’s a nasty turn, that takes allows the actor’s innate charm disguise the character’s menace. Funny and disturbing, brutish and over-the-top, he’s a throbbing bundle of microaggressions and madness that caps off an enjoyable, if toned down version of the Danish film.
