Happy Saturday From The Substance

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Good morning, friends! This may be a quicker newsletter than usual. I’m a little bleary-eyed today, having stayed up until midnight waiting for my son to come home from his first big cross country meet, where the freshman boys took first place (woo hoo!). As I’ve mentioned before, high school seems way more fun than it was when I was a kid back in the ‘80s. But some of the high school movie tropes still ring true: Figuring out where to eat lunch every day remains a process that’s fraught with peril.

You can always sit with us at Breakfast All Day. And you’re definitely going to want to do that now, because all the big fall movies are starting to come out. We reviewed an exciting cross-section of new releases this week on our YouTube channel and podcast.

• THE SUBSTANCE. Alonso and I were super psyched for this one and it did not disappoint. Demi Moore gives the performance of a lifetime as an aging starlet who takes an underground drug to create a younger, hotter version of herself. So much happens in Coralie Fargeat’s totally insane movie that we’re planning a separate, live spoiler talk in a couple of weeks, so keep an eye out for that. We loved it, but it’s not for the squeamish. In theaters.

• A DIFFERENT MAN. This would make a terrific double feature with “The Substance.” Sebastian Stan stars as a man with a severe facial deformity who undergoes a radical medical transformation to further his acting career. But once he looks like … well, Sebastian Stan, he meets a charismatic and joyful man (Adam Pearson) who happens to have the same condition. (I also wrote about “A Different Man” this week for RogerEbert.com.) Lots to ponder here. In theaters.

• TRANSFORMERS ONE. A “Transformers” movie that’s actually good? There haven’t been many of them — “Bumblebee” springs to mind — but this animated origin story is a lot of fun and features a great voice cast, including Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key and Jon Hamm. If your kids want to go, you won’t be miserable. In theaters.

• HIS THREE DAUGHTERS. Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne are three of the best actresses working today. So it’s a treat to see all of them together here in writer-director Azazel Jacobs’ insightful indie drama. They play estranged sisters who’ve come together to care for their ailing father at the end of his life. In select theaters and streaming on Netflix.

• MOVIE NEWS LIVE! We love seeing our folks out there on Fridays at Noon Pacific. Among our topics this week were Diddy’s indictment, Jane’s Addiction canceling the rest of their tour and the Hallmark Christmas lineup. We contain multitudes! No news next Friday because Alonso’s going out of town, but join us again on Oct. 4.

And if you’d like to join us in person, you can do just that when we host a screening of John Carpenter’s 1980 horror classic “The Fog” at The Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, CA. In case you missed the announcement earlier this week, we’re thrilled about our first live event. It’s something we’ve wanted to do for a while now. If you’re in Southern California, join us on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 2pm Pacific time. Then stick around afterward and watch us record a podcast review of the film. Tickets are available here. We look forward to seeing you!

This week on our Patreon, we started recapping “The Penguin” on Max. It’s a spin-off series from Matt Reeves’ excellent 2022 film “The Batman,” featuring Colin Farrell returning to the role of the villainous Oswald Cobblepot (or Oz Cobb, as they call him here). So far, it’s impressive from a craft perspective: The cinematography, production design and special effects are all top-notch. And Farrell is giving a complex performance beneath the layers of makeup that make him unrecognizable. But we’re a little mixed on the storytelling as a whole. Still, we’ll stick with it all season long, and we hope you’ll join us. New episodes come out on Sundays starting Sept. 29, and we’ll have recaps on the subsequent Tuesdays.

Plus, our dear friend Amy Nicholson is hosting The “Penguin” Official Podcast, so you’ll definitely want to tune into that if you’re watching the series. Amy always has brilliant insights and she asks thoughtful questions. I can’t wait to hear all the behind-the-scenes stories she gleans.

Also on our Patreon, we started recapping “Agatha All Along,” which — like “The Penguin” — is a spin-off series focusing on a comic book villain. Kathryn Hahn returns to play Agatha Harkness, the witchy “WandaVision” scene-stealer. Alonso and I are mixed on how effective this Marvel series is, but we always love Hahn, and the show gives her a chance to show a lot of exciting range. The first two episodes are streaming now on Disney+, with new installments coming on Wednesdays. We’ll do recaps on the Fridays afterward. Watch along with us and let us know what you think!

Thanks so much as always for sharing some of your time with me. I hope you have a spectacular weekend as we inch further into fall. My alma mater, SMU, plays our dreaded rival TCU today, which is always exciting. If you’ve found value in my newsletter, I hope you’ll pass it along to a family member or friend. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next Saturday.