Bruce Springsteen took part in a two-hour jam session during a surprise appearance at a film festival in his home state of New Jersey.
Longtime E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt and veteran Jersey shore rocker Southside Johnny were among those who played with Springsteen at the Asbury Park Music and Film Festival on Friday. Also taking part were some former E Street Band members and the Lakehouse Jr. Pros, a band featuring child musicians.
The concert followed the premiere of a documentary film chronicling the history of the Asbury Park music scene. The show featured several rock and R&B staples including Chuck Berry's "Bye, Bye Johnny." Jimi Hendrix' "Voodoo Child" and Little Richard's "Lucille."
Springsteen said it was "great" to see the "old guys still cranking it out."
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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