Tremendous performance from Charlize Theron. And Christina Ricci does a great job, too. Theron gets lost in the character of Lee/Aileen Wuornos.
And Patty Jenkins doesn’t romanticize Aileen’s story. She presents what she did and allows the audience to decide. For me, Aileen was someone who was pushed over the edge by a society that never even tried to help. It’s not built that way. So she helped herself in ways she knew how.
Hyper-violent martial arts and gunplay meets horror-level gore in this world of assassins.
The action is brutal. Yet inventive and fresh. The perfect one-two for any action movie. Aurora Ribero as 13/Nomi gives a committed, vicious performance.
The characters were all entertaining. The story isn’t anything groundbreaking but it’s not a direct rip of anything. It borrows from the likes of John Wick, The Raid, and Lady Snowblood, but it’s very much its own dish.
It simply kicks ass. And the boot that kicks the ass has one wrecking ball of a heel.
A ghost story for the loneliness and grief in all of us. This is a beautiful film—and I’m not just talking about cinematography, writing, acting, and editing—it’s made with love. True, bleeding, sad, joyful, wondrous love. And if you’ve ever lost someone, especially a parent, this film may show you (or remind you) that their love still lives within yours.
If TLC’s “Unpretty” was a body-horror movie. With extra body. And extra horror.
Coralie Fargeat is an exploitation filmmaker with a crazy, surreal, hard-hitting movie in The Substance. It mutates and bleeds at you, getting under your skin and pulsing there until your flesh rips.
What a ride.
Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley turn in stellar performances. Moore plays the fading star clinging to her youth until it cuts her. Guts her. And bleeds her to death. Qualley plays the…
