MrHlad

Someday when I'm explaining to someone what "nice but shitty" means, I'm going to put this movie on. Or at least half of it, so they don't have to watch it for those excruciating two and a half hours. Coralie Fargeat had already disappointed me a lot with her previous film Revenge, but the two films have a lot in common. They look beautiful, there's imaginative play with colour, and in this case there's even some pretty stylish references to Kubrick, Cronenberg or Carpenter, the slow motion shots of TV performances are more than effective and damn sexy, but underneath all the glitz there's a lot of nothing. The Substance is a film that would like to open up interesting themes like the inability to age, the cult of youth in show business, and it also tackles the price of fame and how much anyone is willing to pay for it. But it does all this in a completely banal way that surprises no one and takes an insufferably long time to do so. After about twenty minutes I had already made a list in my head that The Substance will follow until the very end. And just kept ticking it off. Realistically, underneath the audiovisual audacity is a shallow, idealess show full of stupid characters making even stupider decisions and pretending to be surprised by the consequences. It's tiresome to watch, and behind all the pretty pictures, the tastelessness (which isn't so hellish after all), the nudity and the shots of sexy asses in spandex, there's just a perfumed nothingness

MaXXXine Minx is an adult film star, but she wants to take the next step in her career and is aiming for the lead role in an upcoming horror film. But succeeding in a Hollywood filled with madmen, serial killers and violence won't be easy. Especially when her past comes to mind. Ti West has conceived the final installment of his trilogy as a great homage to the 80s and the brainy thrillers and horror films of that era, and has uncompromisingly subordinated everything to it. Anyone expecting a traditional thriller with light genre games is in for a bummer. MaXXXine isn't afraid to be a wild, ridiculous and bizarre B-movie. And it certainly doesn't try to be cute. But it's undoubtedly interesting not just to fans of what West is paying homage to here.

Despicable Me 4 plays it safe. Gru with his family and the Minions are in the witness protection program, but it doesn't really matter. The whole thing is still more a collection of slapstick than a movie. Some of the jokes work, some don't, the Minions do what they always do, and we get a few action scenes. And it looks cute. If you enjoyed it three times, you'll enjoy it a fourth time. If not, there's no point in trying. The changes, innovations and developments were things that clearly no one here cared about. Whether that's a good thing or not is for you to decide. Personally, I'm getting a little sick of it, but it's survivable.