Stept Studios, a creative, and production studio based in Los Angeles and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has brought Meredith Rodriguez on board as head of sales, marketing and development, and Paul Muhlbach as a brand account executive. Previously, Rodriguez was the VP of sales and interactive marketing at Fresno, Inc., a Los Angeles start-up entertainment studio. Before that, she spent four years at Pinterest, within the partnerships team, joining as the first employee in L.A. and was responsible for building its presence in the market and partnerships with some of the largest global advertisers. Previously she was VP of content solutions at Demand Media and held sales and consumer marketing roles at Microsoft and MusicMatch. In addition to sales and marketing teams, Rodriguez will lead development for Stept’s film and TV projects. Muhlbach as brand account exec at Stept works directly with clients on branded content, production and post needs. Muhlbach has produced content at agencies and studios including CP+B, Stink, and B-Reel, in which he worked with global brands such as YouTube Music, WeTransfer and Jose Cuervo across a range of media and platforms….
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