Live action production company Strange Loop Studios has brought director/writer Kiki Allgeier aboard its commercialmaking roster. This marks Allgeier’s first official signing with a production house for spot representation as a director. She had previously been freelancing.
Allgeier seamlessly navigates storytelling from a passion for doc-style and sensibility to enhancing pure moments even in scripted short form. Her feature doc FEMMEfille is available to stream on Amazon following its theatrical and TV run in Europe, while her commercial client list includes Cadillac, Le Meridien, Lexus, Ray-Ban, goop and Nickelodeon.
“When curating the Strange Loop roster, we look at both the body of work and the person behind it,” said Strange Loop EP Luca Valente. “Kiki exemplifies a voice and vision that exudes raw talent, confidence and grace. We are thrilled to have her on the team and know that with her at the helm, our clients will walk away with not just great quality content, but a top-notch experience as well.”
Allgeier said of her Strange Loop connection, “Together we plan to create visually compelling stories that authentically bring to light humanity. Impossible to do this without like-minded partners, which I now have in Luca and his team. I couldn’t ask for better commercial representation.”
Strange Loop is repped by SG+Partners in the Midwest and Yvette Represents on the West Coast.
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