As this year’s film festival circuit winds down and awards season commences, we seem to already be receiving 2024’s equivalent of Paul Haggis’ Crash (2004) and Peter Farrelly’s Green Book (2018). It’s a movie that intends to be morally progressive but is too flawed and ignorant to actually make a difference.

When Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez made a splash at Cannes, Telluride and Toronto this past year, many critics and pundits predicted Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and even Selena Gomez might get Oscar nominations. But as the picture hits select theaters and streaming this month, movie fans have been roasting the film.

This is a great cast directed by the same filmmaker of acclaimed dramas like A Prophet (2009), Rust and Bone (2012) and Dheepan (2015). What went wrong?

In present day Mexico City, Rita Mora (Saldaña) is a struggling lawyer who has to take whichever clients she can get, even if it means going against her own beliefs. After she begrudgingly helps a murderer get off the hook, she receives a secret offer from a local cartel leader, Juan De Monte (Gascón), to help find him a surgeon so he can fulfill his desire to transition into a woman and leave behind his kingpin reputation.

After succeeding at his offer, Rita takes her large payment to expand her law career and Juan begins going by ‘Emilia Pérez.’ When the two bump into each other four years later while Rita is living in London, she discovers Emilia wants to reconnect with her kids from her estranged wife, Jessi (Gomez).

Édgar Ramírez appears as Jessi’s lover after Juan/Emilia leaves the family to start a new life. Emilia Pérez is loosely based off Boris Razon’s 2018 novel Écoute as well as an expansion of Audiard’s own 2021 opera also titled Emilia Pérez. While the new foreign film has all the potentialwith the talented actors and flashy visuals, the story and character arcs are just too convoluted to naturally come together.

A big problem is that — besides the dialogue being primarily Spanish, the cast being mostly Hispanic, and Gascón being trans — no one behind the scenes is actually Latino or a part of the LGBTQ community. This is a CIS and French-directed, written and produced feature and it shows.

Obviously artists are allowed to set their work outside of their own home or orientation, but the problem here is that it’s just really obvious the creators don’t have any actual experience or association with either representation here. On top of all this, Emilia Pérez is — like Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux — a musical made by people who clearly aren’t trained in that area.

Watching the musical numbers actually makes us wish Emilia Pérez was either a straight melodrama or a full-on opera like Audiard initially intended. The songs are strangely short and end abruptly, which makes the sequences feel amateurish.

Although Gascón and Gomez are fine, the real acting standout holding the whole film together is Saldaña. After spending over a decade in extensive costumes and make-up for Marvel, Avatar and Star Trek, it’s great to see her dramatic range again, as well as her gifted dancing, since she was originally a ballerina before switching to cinema. It’s also a nice rarity to hear her speak fluent Spanish.

It’s too bad the material doesn’t always match the level of the performances. Ultimately, Emilia Pérez is an imperfect effort that means well, but ends up feeling like Chris Columbus’ Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) meets telenovelas.

The Substance, 2024.

Written and Directed by Coralie Fargeat.
Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Gore Abrams, Hugo Diego Garcia, Olivier Raynal, Tiffany Hofstetter, Tom Morton, Jiselle Burkhalter, Axel Baille, Oscar Lesage, Matthew Géczy, Philip Schurer, Daniel Knight, Namory Bakayoko, and Bill Bentley.

SYNOPSIS:

A fading celebrity decides to use a black-market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.

A good while after things have disastrously spiraled out of control between forgotten Hollywood star Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) and her younger, prettier, popular clone Sue (Margaret Qualley), in which they each take turns living seven days at a time (such are the rules of the titular black-market drug), the former has reached her mental breaking point for a variety of reasons, but chooses to continue the experiment while uttering to that younger self the hauntingly depressing and sad-but-true words (depending on how cynical you are about society) “you’re the only part of me that people love.”

Steering clear of the spoilers that have brought viewers to this point in writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s bonkers body horror The Substance, that line also feels like the moment where this already imaginatively demented cautionary tale grabs hold of all themes played with and stirs them into a sustained explosion of stunningly grotesque imagery and astonishing prosthetics, following the story to its natural conclusion while keeping one simultaneously asking themselves what the hell they are looking at, and what the hell they could be looking at next.

That’s not to say anyone behind or in front of the camera was playing around before that point, but this film gradually builds to a series of events so feverishly insane it transcends the movie into something masterfully unhinged of the highest order. It is nutty, bloody, and howlingly funny with, well, substance, going where few filmmakers and actors would ever dare go.

However, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley go there with fearlessly. As mentioned, the former is Elisabeth Sparkle, a once-beloved actress with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a star people were once enthusiastically visiting. After some seamless transitions of seasons and time, it is now cracked, with those who cross it either unaware of who she is or jogging their memories about what she has been in. No, the metaphor is not subtle, and that’s also not the only one. That’s also the point, as anyone can get away with a lack of subtlety so long as the messages are driven home with relentless force and courageous creativity.

Currently, she hosts an exercise show for middle-aged women, wishing she could go back to the days of her youthful beauty and star power. No one will be necessarily surprised to hear that Hollywood doesn’t exactly have the best track record with women over the past several decades, swallowing up women and disposing of them when they have outlived their usefulness to the industry, aka beauty. Dennis Quaid’s talent manager, Harvey, also couldn’t make it any more clear that he wants to revamp the show with sexualized dancing and is looking for someone young and pretty. Speaking of Harvey, he isn’t only depicted as externally gross but disgusting all around as the queasy cinematography lingers on his cruel face and harsh outbursts at tilted angles or sometimes focuses on the inside of his mouth, shredding apart shrimp with his teeth just like the women he uses and discards over time.

Through a bizarre set of circumstances, Elisabeth comes into a potential solution, being made aware of a secretive black-market drug called The Substance, first seen tested on an egg with a duplicate emerging from the side. Imagine that replicated with actual human beings, and you now have a small fragment of how graphic and gory the film’s setup is alone. Out comes Sue (Margaret Qualley), alongside a handful of rules that mainly involve injecting serums into the other unconscious body to maintain stability. Refusals to stick by these rules and the aforementioned 7-day request result in gnarly body horror, everything involving blood to decay to mutation.

In contrast to Elisabeth, mentally hard on her middle-aged body, Sue is confident, repeatedly seen idolizing herself, whether it be fondling her breasts, admiring her buttocks, and almost always wearing crop tops and underwear around the high-rise suite. Unsurprisingly, much of this positivity transitions into self-absorbed vanity, which the likes of Harvey propagate. Elisabeth gets what she wishes for; a way to experience the rise of fame again vicariously, but at the cost of creating a monster she’s unsure if she wants to destroy. Nevertheless, there are consequences on both ends, as the rules state that what happens to one body by neglecting the rules can’t be undone. In other words, it’s beauty as a drug to overdose on.

Also noteworthy is that men suddenly have a drastic change in attitude toward Sue (assuming that someone new has moved into the building), practically foaming at the mouth to get some action with her. Meanwhile, even with her dwindling fame, most people treat Elisabeth like an object in the way of their day. Again, this is also a darkly comedic film and Coralie Fargeat knows exactly the right time to give these men the scare of their lives. Then again, the whole movie could be attributed as one sick and twisted joke about women trying to meet up to the unreasonable beauty standards expected by men in power.

The slow unravelling snowballs into something extreme: an audiovisual annihilation of the senses that appropriately distorts sound and hypnotic camera movements. For an hour, Coralie Fargeat wears her influences on her sleeves and keeps one-upping herself in outrageous body horror and a twisted sense of humor. The phenomenal performances from Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley also ground The Substance in inevitable tragedy and internalized pain, proving that this is more than shock and thrills. It is diabolically exceptional, in a highwire freakout class of its own, and unforgettable, searing every nasty image into the mind. It is rare to be this mortified and laugh this much in awe while simultaneously feeling something human. 

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

Out Come the Wolves, 2024.

Directed by Adam MacDonald.
Starring Damon Runyan, Joris Jarsky, and Missy Peregrym.

SYNOPSIS:

At a cabin deep in the wilderness, a weekend of hunting turns to mayhem and a fight for survival.

Shortly after reuniting at a cabin in the woods for a weekend vacation and hunting in Adam MacDonald’s Out Come the Wolves, childhood friends Kyle (Joris Jarsky) and Sophie (Missy Peregrym) play a card game while getting reacquainted. Kyle is sure Sophie is bluffing about not having a convincing winning hand. A playful back-and-forth emerges, the kind best friends typically have, but Kyle is wrong. It’s a clever way of expressing that he also doesn’t know who she is anymore. For starters, she is vegan now and not particularly interested in hunting, but has arranged the get-together so he could teach her fiance Nolan (Damon Runyan) how to hunt for food as part of a journalistic piece in the making.

Initially, Kyle was going to bring his new partner along for the vacation, meaning that they would have had the chance to get to know who they are currently romantically intertwined with, but it is quickly revealed that those plans fell through. This also leaves Nolan suspecting that Kyle has ulterior motives for his chatty delight in being back around Sophie. Unsurprisingly, the silver-spooned Nolan has his insecurities. However, the subdued performances clarify that Kyle still pines for Sophie and imagines a past where things have gone beyond friendship.

It also probably won’t surprise anyone that the screenplay (courtesy of Enuka Okuma, with Adam MacDonald and Joris Jarsky receiving story credits) makes some not-so-subtle points that out here in the wild, the rules of civilization go out the window. The true nature of man comes out, leaving viewers questioning who the real wolves are. Speaking of wolves, their presence is a complete surprise to Kyle, who initially intended to train Nolan in tracking and shooting harmless deer.

However, the first half of this swift and absorbing 87-minute thriller wisely centers the characterization, with room for uncertainty about Kyle’s true motives and whether or not Nolan is even a healthy partner for Sophie. Each of the three relatively unknown actors brings a strong sense of inner conflict to the roles, with real complicated humanity under the surface that accentuates the tension and suspense when this shifts from relationship quarreling into full-blown survival horror more fitting of the Shudder label.

Daringly, the filmmakers have also opted to use real animals here (with several notices in the ending credits that it was safe for the actors and creatures involved), elevating that white-knuckle adrenaline. Due to circumstances that won’t be revealed, the drama between Kyle and Nolan also forces Sophie to shift gears into once again becoming the woman she was before, allowing her to showcase how resourceful and independent she is amid this peril. By no means does that mean there is no urgency or danger here; this is an unflinchingly violent feature with such vicious and grisly wounds and broken bones that it unquestionably crosses the line into body horror.

Admittedly, despite how tense the will to survive is depicted here, it is also a step down from the strong character dynamics in the first half, disappointingly never circling back to that aspect. Instead, Out Come the Wolves transitions into a survivalist thrill ride, implying that Sophie can only count on herself and, depending on how much production one wants to do, that the wolves represent something else. Going beyond that, women must be wary of the petty games men play in the name of asserting predator dominance and that survival is as much emotional as it is physical.

Out Come the Wolves is essentially two halves that moviegoers will find more satisfying for different reasons. Fortunately, Adam MacDonald has enough killer instinct to make both sides work.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist