Bicoastal music and sound design shop Squeak E. Clean has brought composer, producer and musician Rob Barbato on board its L.A. office as associate creative director.
Barbato has toured and recorded as a side man of the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Cass McCombs, as well as being a member of the seminal UK post-punk band The Fall. Barbato has produced records for artist such as Bleached, Kevin Morby and La Sera and he’s composed music for Nickelodeons Sanjay and Craig and IFC’s Maron.
Prior to joining Squeak E Clean, Barbato was an in-house composer at Black Iris Music where he arranged “Beautiful Dreamer” for Canon’s “Inspired” spot, via Grey New York, which garnered an Emmy and Silver Lion. Barbato​‘s commercial portfolio also includes original compositions for Target, Nike, Toyota, and Google.
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