Elizabeth Sparkle Once Upon a Time (Demi Moore) She was the brightest star in Hollywood, but as the producer of the fitness TV show says, “everything goes after 50” – that is, a woman is fired from her own program on her birthday and immediately begins to look for someone younger to replace her. . Soon Elizabeth receives a strange offer from people on the black market: to inject herself with the drug “Matter” and create an “improved” version of this drug. The basic rule is that the original (“matrix”) and the copy (“other”) must change every seven days (apparently they cannot be conscious at the same time). This is how Elizabeth becomes younger Sue (Margaret Qualley)instantly becomes the crowd favorite. However, with success comes the appetite of the “other”, which has dire consequences for the “matrix”.
The film “Madde,” a story about the Evil Queen and Snow White in the mode of Jekyll and Hyde, could easily have carried the fairytale title of “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” if it had not been noticed before. Quentin Tarantino, who showed a three-hour film under this title in Cannes five years ago, was a mixture of Margaret Qualley and other actresses marinated in the unfiltered male gaze. But here the view is exactly the opposite — Frenchwoman Coralie Farge’s second feature film continues the male gaze of the female gaze of her 2017 debut, “The Revenant.” But instead of an action thriller about rape revenge, following in the footsteps of “Kill Bill” and “Mad Max,” it turns to Cronenberg’s body horror.
“Matter” is a current film, albeit absurd: it would seem that imposed beauty standards should have long been a thing of the past, but in 2024 half of the stars seem to be losing weight on Ozempic and pumping with Botox, while the latter are buying subscriptions to plastic surgery clinics. Body horror, of course, begs to be seen here, but its level is not exactly set to extreme and shocking levels. Therefore, you should not expect a strong dose of enthusiastic disgust from the picture. But it can boast of striking genre changes and hammered hysterical intonation. The latter is posed mainly by Dennis Quaid, who laughs funny, smacks his lips and dances in a caricature of a producer named Harvey.
A still from the movie “Matter” (2024)
Blacksmith
Parts of Farge’s film are in keeping with Julia Ducournau’s Titan; another body horror film, but about the amusing consequences of sex with a machine. Three years ago at Cannes he roared quite loudly and sped off the Cote d’Azur with the Palme d’Or under his arm; at its last screening, “Matter” won only the screenplay award. But Farge is much more audience-friendly than Ducournau: even though his film is noticeably long and repeats the same simple things irritatingly, it seems above all to have fun and to entertain.
But this is also its Achilles’ heel: the film had previously been called feminist, but in general this is not the most appropriate angle for “Matter.” In the second half of the film, the local genre palette mixes with hegsplotation. aka psychobiddy; in such films, as a rule, we talk about an old woman who has lost her former beauty, loses her mind and begins to terrorize those around her; one of the latest examples is Ty West’s song “X” – so the film honors the 50-year-olds and lets the 70-plus go to waste (but let’s see what Farge, now closer to Moore’s hero, will pull in the 2040s).
A still from the movie “Matter” (2024)
Blacksmith
So you shouldn’t think too much in this direction, otherwise the whole structure is in danger of collapsing. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to do: just when the picture starts to get seriously tired, the director introduces the Asian action and the blood spurting from his bosom, Tarantino-style. This, of course, seems like the perfect ending to a movie about how, in the end, not a single wet spot will remain from all of us (they’ll wipe it off). If you walk in the body of Margaret Qualley first, and then Demi Moore, you’ll have something to console yourself with.
Premiere date: May 19, 2024
Release date in Russia: September 19, 2024
Duration: 140 minutes
Manager: Coralie Farja
Casting: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid
What are you thinking?
Source: Gazeta
Brandon Hall is an author at “Social Bites”. He is a cultural aficionado who writes about the latest news and developments in the world of art, literature, music, and more. With a passion for the arts and a deep understanding of cultural trends, Brandon provides engaging and thought-provoking articles that keep his readers informed and up-to-date on the latest happenings in the cultural world.