Toronto-based boutique production company Someplace Nice has added director Scott Pickett to its roster for representation in Canada. (In the U.S. he recently joined production house Bunker). Born in Australia, Pickett is well versed in multiple genres. Recent years have seen him craft a short supernatural thriller in the U.S., a fashion film in France, and a 360 degree VR action comedy in Australia. Throughout his career, Pickett has moved between TV series and commercials, shooting campaigns in 17 different countries and picking up various advertising awards including the Gold Clio and a Bronze Cannes Lion. His work spans international brands such as Apple, Google, IKEA, Coke, Nestle, McDonald’s, Ford, Toyota, and VW. Pickett has also continued his long form work, with funding support from Screen Australia for short films and feature development. He’s directed drama for Channel 7 Australia, and has worked on TV comedies The Elegant Gentleman’s Guide to Knife Fighting (screened on Netflix, Hulu, and ABC Australia) and The Moody’s (ABC Australia, Hulu, Sky TV). Scott’s 2017 short film, The Doppel Chain, was also screened at Sydney International Film Festival and picked up by streaming channel Alter….
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More