Director Benji Weinstein has joined production company Smuggler. He had previously been handled by Tool of North America for commercials and branded content.
Among Weinstein’s notable credits is REI’s “#OptOutside” campaign from Venables Bell & Partners, San Francisco, produced by Tool and earning Cannes Lion Grand Prix distinction in both Promo & Activation and Titanium in 2016. Per the campaign, REI closed its retail stores on Black Friday so that their employees and customers could instead enjoy the great outdoors, spending the time around Thanksgiving to be with family and friends. “#OptOutside” also garnered two Direct Gold Lions, a Promo & Activation Gold Lion, a Cyber Gold Lion, an Integrated Gold Lion, a Design Silver Lion, a PR Silver Lion, a Mobile Silver Lion, a PR Bronze Lion and a Mobile Bronze Lion.
“#OptOutside” additionally scored top honors at the 2016 One Show, winning the Gold Pencil for Best in Show, along with Gold Pencils in six other categories, and three Silver Pencils. The REI campaign was also honored in the AICP Next Awards’ Integrated Campaign category.
Weinstein’s commercial endeavors span such clients as Diet Dr Pepper for Deutsch, Lowes for BBDO NY, Experian out of The Martin Agency, Xfinity for Goodby Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, and Mentos for BBH London.
Brian Carmody, co-founder and managing director of Smuggler, said of Weinstein, “This lad is a class act. No airs and graces, just the pure desire to be great at his craft. For me, he’s not just a comedy director–he’s a performance director first and foremost. We’re very much looking forward to this journey together.”
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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