Nonfiction Unlimited, a commercial production company that represents select documentary filmmakers, has signed John S. Park, a director who's made his mark in Korea with documentary-style ad fare.
Originally raised in Los Angeles, Park moved to Seoul to pursue a commercial directing career after attending Art Center, Pasadena. He recently returned, setting up shop to work on commercials for the U.S. market. His portfolio includes international spots and more than 25 awards including Cannes Gold Lions for a Samsung documentary short What Does Your Mind See? about 11 blind students shooting photographs using all of their senses but sight to guide them; and The True Origins of Pizza, a mockumentary for Mr. Pizza, the Korean fast food chain.
Loretta Jeneski, partner/executive producer at Nonfiction, said that Park “brings such a beautiful eye to documentary style commercials-very refined. And he is equally at home with actors and dramatic scripted content. He brings such versatility to his work.”
Park noted that before signing with Nonfiction, he worked with the company on a Ford campaign, which proved to be a positive experience. “My recent work tends to focus on documentary,” he said. “Commercials are often based on what people want to be rather than who they are, so they often go over the top, making things more fancy and attractive. I want to make it more real. Truthful storytelling is the most effective type of storytelling.”
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.
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