The Sweet Shop has promoted its head of production, Preston Garrett, to the role of executive producer. Garrett will oversee all production that comes through the Los Angeles office, driving future growth for The Sweet Shop in North America by expanding opportunities for its directors.
With over nine years of experience, Garrett began his career in film and commercial advertising as a staff production coordinator at Form. He then worked as a freelance copywriter for commercial, TV and feature projects before joining Green Dot Films as a staff producer in 2011. Garrett joined The Sweet Shop in 2014 as head of production working on key projects, including the first ever commercial for Houzz, as well as ads for Lexus and Walmart. He has also worked with brands Audi, Dodge, Coors, Chevy, Wells Fargo, Dannon, Houston Methodist Hospital, McDonald’s, Almay, Netflix and NBC.
Laura Thoel, managing director of The Sweet Shop’s U.S. operations, described Garrett as “the backbone of our LA office.”
“For the last few years, Mr. Garrett has been integral to The Sweet Shop’s growth in the U.S. market,” said Paul Prince, The Sweet Shop’s CEO and founding partner. “He shares our philosophy and our goals and he’s ensured the quality of our directors’ work throughout the region.”
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