Almost There: Margaret Qualley in "The Substance"

by Cláudio Alves

In an awards season full of co-leads pretending to be supporting players, nepo babies, and festival hits, it's a wonder Margaret Qualley didn't get a nomination for her work in The Substance. Coralie Fargeat's film is up for five Oscars, being the current frontrunner in Actress and Makeup, a major triumph for a picture such as this, where body horror elements are remixed and reimagined for a made-in-France Hollywood satire. It's gross, like few star vehicles in the Academy's history, so outré as to be off-putting and bold as all hell. In that regard, its closest Oscar relative is Black Swan, whose Mila Kunis, like Qualley, got major precursor and critical support but failed to secure the AMPAS' seal of approval…

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Happy New Year from the Team Experience!

by Cláudio Alves

As the year draws to a close, here’s a final thank you for reading The Film Experience and engaging in this cinema-loving community. Have a wonderful time tonight and let’s all hope for a good 2025, even if the odds may feel against us.

Also, remember, you are one. Don’t make the same mistake as Miss Sparkle in The Substance. Then again, we should all enter the New Year with a Monstro Elisasue type of smile – broad, bloody, mad and maddening, bursting in ecstasy beyond reason and full of star power. Cheers!

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Halloween Treats: A Sample of 2024 Horror

by Cláudio Alves

There's no better way to celebrate the spookiest holiday of them all than by indulging in the perverse pleasures of horror cinema. But what to watch? While classics are reliable, keeping up with the latest gems is fun, too. Every year, new delights are added to the nightmare canon, and 2024 is no different, with many scary movies among the best releases of the past few months. With that in mind, let's dive into the horror pool and see what precious gems we discover hiding in its depths - ones already available to stream at home, alone in the dark. For brevity's sake, I focused on English-language fright fests and films not yet reviewed at The Film Experience, starting with I Saw the TV Glow…

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The Hunt for the Tenth: Women in Best Director of 2024

By Juan Carlos Ojano

After last Oscars’ historic record of three female-directed films in Best Picture, we are again headed towards another round of awards season, albeit with no clear frontrunners yet as of the time of writing. Since 2017’s #MeToo, mainstream media outlets have been more cognizant of the routine exclusion of women in the Best Director conversation. Many cinephiles have also been vocal in addressing this issue, more than ever.

The issues female directors face is deeper and more systemic than just the awards season. However, this process of instant canonization is symptomatic of which kinds of art and artists are given more value by the critics and the industry. The fact we only had our ninth female nominee for Best Director at the last Oscars - in the Academy’s 96 years of existence - speaks loudly to this problem...

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