Ezra Burke and Shane Harris of indie firm Content Chemics have taken on national representation for the recently launched Iconic Editorial, a subsidiary of Iconic Talent Agency. The new venture opens with a roster of editors from features and TV, making them available for commercials and branded entertainment projects. The roster includes editor Tom Cross, a Best Editing Oscar winner for Whiplash and then nominated two years later for another Damien Chazelle-directed film, La La Land; Joe Walker, a two-time Oscar nominee for 12 Years a Slave and Arrival; Jinmo Yang, an Oscar nominee for Parasite, which also earned him an ACE Eddie Award; John Gilbert, an Oscar and BAFTA Award winner for Hacksaw Ridge; Tyler Nelson who’s currently cutting The Batman for director Matt Reeves; Jake Roberts, the editor behind Alex Garland’s sci-fi series Devs; Colby Parker Jr. whose credits include Friday Night Lights, Deepwater Horizon and Antman; Laura Jennings who recently wrapped Maleficent: Mistress of Evil; and Matthew Newman, a frequent collaborator with director Nicolas Winding Refn, both in films and commercials….
ICM Commercial Production Arts has added cinematographer Anumeha Sinha to its roster. The Los Angeles-based Sinha works both as a DP and still photographer….
Hypertec Group has been named an official SGO Mistika Technology reseller partner in Canada, promoting all software-only Mistika products as well as customized turn-key systems with Mistika Ultima including high performance SGO storage solutions. Hypertec is headquartered in Montreal. SGO is a Spanish high-end technology company with decades of experience in developing and integrating high-end postproduction solutions. Built on years of research, development and production experience, Mistika Technology empowers users with new levels of creative power, performance, and efficiency in HDR, UHD/4K, 8K, S3D and VR workflows….
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