The Substance (2024) | REVIEW

Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkles in Coralie Fargeat’s THE SUBSTANCE — PHOTO: Mubi / Camera Film (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Coralie Fargeat — Screenplay by Coralie Fargeat.

For whatever reason, there is a recent trend in French cinema where rising female filmmakers are gravitating towards horror filmmaking to tell stories with plenty to say. Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Julia Ducournau is the best example of this, as her critically acclaimed oeuvre — consisting of Raw and Titane — is filled with sensationally good and attention-grabbing body horror films that in the case of Titane is so out there and distinctive that you can’t describe it without getting strange looks from the person you’re talking to about it. French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat — whose first film was the revenge thriller appropriately titled Revenge from 2017 — is following in her footsteps. Her sophomore effort was, similarly to Ducournau’s Titane, warmly received at the Cannes Film Festival. While Ducournau won the main award, Fargeat’s evocative and expressive body horror film The Substance earned her the festival’s prize for Best Screenplay. Like Raw and Titane when they were released, The Substance, which reportedly received a standing ovation at upwards of 9 minutes at its world premiere, is an excellent piece of genre filmmaking that is sure to be remembered as one of the best and most memorable films of the year.

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Smile 2 (2024) | REVIEW

Naomi Scott in Parker Finn’s SMILE 2 — PHOTO: Paramount Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Parker Finn — Screenplay by Parker Finn.

Set only days after the events of the original film, Parker Finn’s Smile 2 follows Skye Riley (played by Naomi Scottt), a genuine pop star, who is trying to improve her image as she prepares to go on tour following a very public struggle with rehabilitation from substance abuse and the traumatic car crash that she was in, which took the life of her boyfriend (played by Ray Nicholson) and which she is still in pain from. She is constantly supervised by her mother (played by Rosemarie DeWitt) and her team of assistants, and so, because of her history with substance abuse, when she needs painkillers from an injury she sustained, she feels compelled to do it behind their backs. However, when she secretly visits an acquaintance who also happens to be a drug dealer (played by Lukas Gage), everything goes wrong, as he is clearly troubled and he goes on to brutally kill himself whilst brandishing a disturbing smile. Desperate to cover her tracks, she rushes out and refuses to mention what she witnessed to anyone, but what she becomes gradually more and more aware of is that something was passed to her, and soon she starts to witness crazy things from people smiling creepily. 

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Brothers (2024) | REVIEW

Peter Dinklage, Glenn Close, and Josh Brolin in BROTHERS — PHOTO: Prime Video.

Directed by Max Barbakow — Screenplay by Macon Blair.

Max Barbakow’s Brothers, from a script by Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore), is a buddy action crime comedy that follows twin brothers Moke (played by Josh Brolin) and Jady Munger (played by Peter Dinklage) who, after a shared history of crimes over the years, team-up to do ‘one last job’ together. During their previous ‘last job’ years ago, Jady was apprehended and sent to prison while Moke managed to get away, and so at the start of the film, they find themselves on opposite ends of life. Jady has just gotten out of prison, under suspicious circumstances, while Moke is trying to start a family and live as a law-abiding citizen. However, when Moke loses his job due to his criminal past, Jady finds an angle to convince his brother to join up with him for a road trip and a heist. Meanwhile, we discover that Jady made a shady deal with an aggressive crooked cop (played by Brendan Fraser) and his judge father (played by M. Emmet Walsh), who intend to keep track of whether or not Jady follows through on their deal.

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Caddo Lake (2024) | REVIEW

Dylan O’Brien in CADDO LAKE — PHOTO: Max.

Directed by Celine Held and Logan George — Screenplay by Celine Held and Logan George.

Every once in a while, you encounter a film that completely blindsides you in the best way possible for a variety of reasons including you not really having the highest of expectations for it. Why didn’t I have high expectations? Well, I think the fact that it was being unceremoniously dumped onto a streaming service, in this case, Max, certainly didn’t prepare me for something particularly great. But, and I mean this wholeheartedly, Celine Held and Logan George’s Caddo Lake is one of the better feature-length surprises of the year thus far — not necessarily because it’s one of the best films of the year (it isn’t and it almost definitely won’t be regarded as such), but more so because of how much this captivating and relatively strong film came out of nowhere. 

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‘Salem’s Lot (2024) | REVIEW

Ben Mears (played by Lewis Pullman) looks out at the vampires in his hometown in ‘SALEM’S LOT — PHOTO: New Line Cinema/Max (Still image from trailer).

Directed by Gary Dauberman (Annabelle Comes Home) — Screenplay by Gary Dauberman.

This long-awaited Stephen King adaptation has gone through what many would describe as development hell. The film started principal photography in late 2021 and was originally slated to be released theatrically in 2022, but it was shelved or delayed due to a variety of circumstances including COVID-19-related post-production issues. Despite there having been talk about releasing it a year ago around the time of the SAG-AFTRA strikes, it remained shelved for quite some time, which led many to fear that, like Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s Batgirl or Dave Green’s Coyote vs. Acme, it could be yet another finished but unreleased and permanently shelved Warner Bros. Pictures product. Earlier this year, Stephen King even got involved and questioned its shelving, but, eventually, it was finally released straight to Max almost two weeks ago. Though not exactly a gem in its current state, there are definitely things to like about this adaptation that has, thankfully, finally seen the light of day.

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Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) | REVIEW

Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux — PHOTO: Warner Bros. Pictures (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Todd Phillips — Screenplay by Scott Silver & Todd Phillips.

Only a select few films in recent years have had as much controversy surrounding their release, and yet still been celebrated by the industry, as Todd Phillips’ Joker, which was a massive box office success and earned its star, Joaquin Phoenix, an Oscar for his fully committed performance as the iconic DC Comics clown. When, however, Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux, the long-awaited sequel, was released last week, it was without that same controversy, without that same concern, and without that same celebration in the industry, with critics, or audiences. Box office-wise, it landed with a thud, and fans of the original film have almost uniformly rejected the sequel. So, what gives? Well, let’s just say, it sometimes feels like Todd Phillips’ sequel is bending over backwards to distance itself from the people who championed the first film. Despite including some DC Comics references, it almost couldn’t be farther from fan service. It makes for a strange endeavor, but a very interesting film.

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You Can’t Run Forever (2024) | REVIEW

J.K. Simmons in YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER — PHOTO: Lionsgate (Still image from trailers).

Directed by Michelle Schumacher — Screenplay by Carolyn Carpenter & Michelle Schumacher.

Michelle Schumacher’s You Can’t Run Forever is a film about a mysterious and sociopathic biker (played by J.K. Simmons) on a murderous rampage, who decides to take his frustrations out on a random family who he meets on the road. When the family’s teenage daughter runs into the woods in an attempt to escape him, the sociopath leaves his bike and hunts her through the woodland wilderness.

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Wolfs (2024) | REVIEW

Brad Pitt and George Clooney in “Wolfs,” now playing in select theaters and streaming on Apple TV+.

Directed by Jon Watts — Screenplay by Jon Watts.

A couple of years back, a crime comedy with George Clooney and Brad Pitt as co-leads would’ve been all the rage. Now such a film is given a limited theatrical release before being chucked onto a streaming platform without much fanfare. It is a shame, really. As if Pitt and Clooney’s names weren’t enough, the attached director is none other than Jon Watts. Though not a household name, Watts spearheaded the production of the extremely profitable and popular Tom Holland Spider-Man movie trilogy as its director. His first attempt at a film outside of the Mouse House since Cop Car, Wolfs is designed to be more than merely an Ocean’s reunion between ‘Brad’ and ‘George,’ but is the reunion worth getting excited about? Your mileage may vary, but I eventually warmed to what the film was throwing at me, despite the film feeling relatively unremarkable.

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Inside Out 2 (2024) | REVIEW

Embarrassment (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser), Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), Envy (voiced by Ayo Edebiri), and Ennui (voiced by Adèle Exarchopoulos) in Inside Out 2 — PHOTO: Disney.

Directed by Kelsey Mann — Screenplay by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein.

Following a string of films that were either dumped onto Disney+ or that disappointed critics and/or audiences, I think it is fair to say that, earlier this year, Pixar got its groove back. With the long-awaited release of Inside Out 2, Pixar had one of its golden internal properties back out in theaters, and it certainly felt like they had something here as it did well with critics, as well as found the type of audience that propelled it to breaking records. Eventually, Inside Out 2 became the biggest animated film ever made based on its box office numbers. But, as a major fan of the original film, which I declared a masterpiece when it was released, I was curious if the long-awaited sequel was actually as good as its reputation suggested. Well, I’ve now finally seen the emotionally-driven sequel. While I don’t think it is as novel of a film as the first one, or a masterpiece for that matter, I definitely think the sequel is a worthy follow-up to Pixar’s emotionally rich sensation.

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The Contestant (2024 – Documentary) | REVIEW

Title card for THE CONTESTANT — PHOTO: Hulu / Disney (Still image from trailers).

Clair Titley’s The Contestant tells the astonishing and disturbing true story about how one man, known as Nasubi (whose real name is Tomoaki Hamatsu), was fooled into appearing on a Japanese reality television show in which he was asked to live entirely on magazine competition prizes inside of a tiny apartment after having been stripped of his clothes. He had signed no contract, didn’t know the footage was being shown to the public weekly (or that he was eventually live-streamed), and he didn’t know when (or if) it would ever end. It’s a true story that you have to see to believe as it is equal parts Peter Weir’s The Truman Show and Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy, and the doc also prominently features the infamous television producer, Toshio Tsuchiya, who essentially was a devilish or sadistic taskmaster to Nasubi. As the film laid out the story, I was again and again shocked by what happened to Nasubi and horrified by how people reacted to it. It was essentially a social experiment writ large. 

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