Films I Watched This Week — Feb 17–23, 2025
The Substance (2024)
Coralie Fargeat’s the Substance is a scathing feminist critique of celebrity and consumer culture that sells us the illusion of better versions of ourselves. The film is complete bonkers with Demi Moore giving a courageous and captivating performance as she transforms into a grotesque Elephant Man looking monstrosity, full of exceptional special effects that will make your jaw drop. The distorted, uncomfortable imagery and fast erratic editing is like cross between Requiem for a dream and the Fly which will have viewers constantly squirming in their seat. The biting social commentary has been explored throughout cinema going back since the early days of the silent era: The has-been Norma Desmond Hollywood star, the dark Lynchian underbelly of showbiz controlled by deviant men, old and new dualities which are at war with each other, and the feminine angst on agism and fame, most memorably achieved in films such as Sunset Blvd, Mulholland Drive and All About Eve. All one has to do is sprinkle the grotesque elements of David Cronenberg’s body horror all throughout the story and you get this masterful abomination of a film. The story holds a mirror up to today’s climate of realistic beauty standards that has people achieve unattainable perfection at all costs including dangerous surgeries and drugs. It is also crammed full of movie references, some a little too on the nose, but if you are a geeky cinephile like me you’ll definitely have a lot of fun finding the several call backs to films such as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Freaks, 2001 A Space Odyssey, Videodrome, Black Swan, the Thing, From Beyond and the Shining (with a Kubrick-esque hallway drenched in blood). There is even a faint hint of Bernard Herrmann’s theme in Vertigo in one scene if you listen carefully. The third act dives into complete and utter insanity becoming something you’d get if you took the prom scene from Carrie and the lawnmower splatter in Dead Alive and tossed them in a blood-soaked blender. Like the shocking Herschell Gordon Lewis films of the 60s and 70s, The Substance’s last 20 minutes completely jumps the shark becoming an absolute surreal feast of body horror, cranked up to 11, disgustingly absurd, gross, bizarre and yet, one of the funniest and most entertaining experiences I had watching a film in a long, long time. And as revolting as all that was, I still found the scene of slimy Dennis Quaid eating shrimps even more disgusting, as the camera goes in for close-ups of his chewing, all with the squishy sounds of him biting and munching into the shrimp. Gross.
Red, White and Blue (2020)
John Boyega is considerably good as real-life police officer Leroy Logan, a man who is constantly conflicted and torn between his reasonings for why he joined Londons Metropolotan Police force in the 80s. Enduring hatred on both sides of the fences, whether from his own racist officers or within his community, he must continue to convince himself that he did not join to make friends but to make a change. Director Steve McQueens' third installment from his Small Axe Anthology titled Red White and Blue is a powerful critique of systemic racism within the police force. Near the films end, one can only be reminded of the film Serpico, in which Leroy Logan is left in the field, abandoned purposely without backup, and is attacked. He returns home completely demoralized and lays in bed with his wife, venting his frustrations. His wife responds in the best way a supporting partner can: "You didn’t join to be a part of a group. You do it for the people who get stopped and searched and beaten, the ones who get thrown in jail for nothing. And now you want to drop out for those racists. Really?" Luckily for everyone he didn't.
Alex Wheatle (2020)
Another solid installment in the Small Axe series exploring the early life of Alex Wheatle, a British novelist who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment after the 1981 Brixton riot. The story flashes back to when he was a young boy, abandoned by his birth parents and raised in a loveless white foster family, with music being his only outlet for tranquility. Reggae music has been a central popular motif that has been in all the episodes of the Small Axe series so far. Music was a way for Black communities in London to culturally become united through all their oppression and desires.
Education (2020)
Ending Steve McQueen's five-part Small Axe series is Education, based on real-life events of the 1970s, when some London councils followed an unofficial policy of transferring disproportionate numbers of black children from mainstream education to schools for the so-called "educationally subnormal". Our young 12-year-old protagonist named Kingsley is stripped of the possibility of dreaming of being an astronaut. He unfairly is singled out out in class for disruptive behavior, and the headmaster informs his parents that he will be sent to a school for those with "special needs." This new school is far from "special", as the students are not learning anything educational about their issues, with some of the staff infrequently showing up to teach. This final film in the series focuses on institutionized racism within public schools and its deep-rooted inequality and bias. Unlike the earlier installments, Education ends on hope rather than despair with the help of dedicated community activists determined in giving children like Kingsley the chance to achieve their dream.
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