Bicoastal The Famous Group has signed director Dan Addelson for spots and branded content….
Brooklyn-based director/cinematographer Daisy Zhou has signed with production company Great Guns for branded content and music video representation in the U.K., India, Asia, the Middle East, Germany and Eastern Europe. Zhou has helmed major campaigns in collaboration with top artists and brands, such as Prada and Playstation. Her 2017 spot for Nike’s “BETRUE campaign,” featuring transgender international vogue dancer Leiomy Maldonado, garnered much acclaim. Over the years she directed for such brands as Lincoln, W Magazine, Chanel, Victoria’s Secret, and Vox, as well as music videos for artists such as Margaret Zhang, Banks, Mykki Blanco, Boston Manor, Cai Guo Qiang, and James Blunt….
Portland, Ore.-based creative agency Swift has hired creative director Paul Bjork who’s behind numerous award-winning campaigns from Taco Bell, including “Blackout” and “Breakfast Phones.” Notably, his leadership helped shape the brand into a culturally relevant social media powerhouse known for innovative work. He brings that expertise to Swift’s roster of global technology, consumer goods and financial services accounts….
Shawn B. Mishra has joined Isobar Commerce Practice as SVP, global managing partner. He will focus on driving Isobar’s global growth in experience-led, omni-channel commerce. Mishra will bring localized, transformative solutions through Isobar’s global commerce centers of excellence, which includes more than 1,000 commerce specialists around the world. Mishra will report to Jean Lin, Isobar Global CEO, and be based in Isobar’s Chicago office. Mishra comes to Isobar after spending 14 years at Cognizant Technology Solutions, where he was a VP and led the digital commerce practice. Prior to that, Mishra held eBusiness/commerce leadership positions at EDS and MCI Systemhouse….
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