The Substance

Once again transmogrifying old-school exploitation into her own feminist styling of New French Extremity, Coralie Fargeat trades in the empowered bloodletting of 2018’s Revenge for body horror. The Substance is one-note, obscene, and about as subtle as a sledgehammer — and it also happens to be one of the best movies of the year.

TIFF 2024 FILM REVIEW

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Film Review: Red Rooms
Film Review: Red Rooms

Digging up turpitude from the deep recesses of dark web opportunism, Pascal Plante’s Red Rooms is a serial killer thriller that finds power in its restraint and shocking prescience: an evil — yet vital — film to understand the stranglehold of postmodern, screen-abetted detachment. Juliette Gariépy’s chilling performance is a roundhouse kick to the teeth to dismantle our culture of macabre obsession, parasocial madness, and growing numbness. Minor spoilers ahead…

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TIFF-2024-Film-Review-Cloud.jpg
TIFF 2024 Film Review: Cloud

Meet the new Kiyoshi Kurosawa, same as the old Kiyoshi Kurosawa (complimentary). Cloud continues the director’s scalpel-focused scrutiny of our tech-abetted isolation, this time aiming at the grisly terminus of gig economy malaise. Minor spoilers ahead…

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TIFF 2024 Film Review: The Substance
TIFF 2024 Film Review: The Substance

Once again transmogrifying old-school exploitation into her own feminist styling of New French Extremity, Coralie Fargeat trades in the empowered bloodletting of 2018’s Revenge for body horror. The Substance is one-note, obscene, and about as subtle as a sledgehammer — and it also happens to be one of the best movies of the year. Minor spoilers ahead…

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TIFF 2024 Film Review: Hard Truths
TIFF 2024 Film Review: Hard Truths

Mike Leigh returns after six years away from the director’s chair with Hard Truths, a work of pure alchemy transforming misanthropic comedy into a brutal downer. Reuniting with his Secrets and Lies star, Leigh excavates the nooks and crannies of a small-scale drama with a towering deftness on the things left unspoken: Marianne Jean-Baptiste is absolutely titanic in what is likely the best performance of 2024. Minor spoilers ahead…

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TIFF 2024 Film Review: Festival Dispatch
TIFF 2024 Film Review: Festival Dispatch

Welcome to my dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Like always, I won’t be writing full reviews of everything I see at the festival, but this year has plenty of notable features worth at least a quick write-up: Sean Baker’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa like you’ve never seen him before, and Steven Soderbergh’s haunted house flick are just some of the highlights at 2024’s TIFF. Here are the capsule reviews for Presence, Cloud, Nightbitch, Anora, The Shadow Strays, and Conclave.

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THE STRANGE HARBORS PODCAST

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Actress Maggie Cheung, 1990
Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving filming The Matrix (1999) with its revolutionary Bullet Time technology, an effect achieved photographically by a set of still cameras fired sequentially surrounding the subject
Angelina Jolie as Thena in Marvel’s Eternals (2021), directed by Chloé Zhao. What did everyone think of the movie? .............................. Eternals (2021), directed by Chloé Zhao. #Cinematographer: Ben Davis
It Follows (2014), one of the best horror films of the last decade, is now streaming on Netflix. What are your thoughts on David Robert Mitchell’s horror debut? .............................. It Follows (2014), directed by David Robert Mitche
Dune (2021), directed by Denis Villeneuve. #Cinematographer: Greig Fraser
Edgar Wright’s decades-long tour of genres makes a no-frills horror pitstop in Last Night in Soho. A collision between past and present painted with the brush of giallo and other era-appropriate terrors, the film is a lush and arresting thrille
“Mmm…corn syrup. Same stuff they used for pig’s blood in Carrie.” .............................. Scream (1996), directed by Wes Craven. #Cinematographer: Mark Irwin
Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe on the set of Blonde (2022)
Sleepy Hollow (1999), directed by Tim Burton. #Cinematographer: Emmanuel Lubezki
“How do you do, fellow kids?” Steve Buscemi dressed up as his own meme for Halloween. 📷 Debra Wexler
Florence Pugh on the set of Ari Aster’s Midsommar (2019)
Titane (2021), directed by Julia Ducournau. #Cinematographer: Ruben Impens
Matt Smith and Anya Taylor-Joy on the set of Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho (2021)
Lightyear (2022), directed by Angus MacClane. Production Designer: Tim Evatt
Léon: The Professional (1994), directed by Luc Besson. #Cinematographer: Thierry Arbogast
Congratulations to the cast and crew of Dune on the official announcement of Part Two! Dune: Part Two is coming October 20, 2023.
The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), directed by Joel Coen. #Cinematographer: Bruno Delbonnel
“I thought I just needed a good night’s sleep but it’s more than that.” .............................. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. #Cinematographer: Bruno Delbonnel
The stunning costumes of Dune (2021), designed by Jacqueline West and Bob Morgan. Intricate, sumptuous work bringing the people of Arrakis, House Atreides, and House Harkonnen to life onscreen. Read my full review of the new Denis Villeneuve epic via
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), directed by Tobe Hooper. #Cinematographer: Daniel Pearl