Nathan Skillicorn of Chicago-based commercial, advertising, and entertainment representation company Heart, Brains & Nerve is now handling the Midwest for 8th Street Productions, a shop headed by partner/executive producer Steve DeVore and partner/director Jonathan Nowak….
Amy Grgich has joined ICM Partners in the motion picture production department as a commercials agent. Prior to ICM Partners, Grgich worked at Ring of Fire, a visual effects and animation company, and Young + Rubicam, where she produced commercials….
Scott Kelley is joining Remote Technologies Incorporated (RTI), a control systems manufacturer, as VP of sales and marketing. In his new position, Kelley will be responsible for RTI’s global sales and marketing organization, with a focus on growing RTI to the next level and driving increased brand awareness in the consumer and commercial markets. His extensive background in technology and engineering, coupled with his sales and marketing expertise, will allow Kelley to optimize the value chain by connecting with RTI’s distributors, dealers, and end users, and incorporating their valuable feedback into the company’s product roadmap. Kelley previously held senior management positions in sales and marketing at 3M and Bose Corporation. His background in global sales management, strategic marketing, and business development includes international experience in Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Kelley will be based at RTI’s Minnesota headquarters….
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