Moore and Qualley are perfect ingredients for ‘The Substance’

Jeff Mitchell

“The Substance” (2024) – “It changed my life.” Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is a successful, Oscar-winning actress and proudly has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  These days, she shines on the small screen as a fitness instructor for a television show that looks like a throwback to the 1980s and 1990s, the “:20 Minute Workout” meets “Getting Fit with Denise Austin”.  However, her exercise gig suffers a career-ending injury when her misogynistic boss, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), fires her due to her age and on her 50th birthday…

‘Between the Temples’: Schwartzman and Kane offer keen performances in this eccentric comedy

Jeff Mitchell

“Between the Temples” (2024) – Benjamin Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is having a bad day.  While sitting in a local Upstate New York bar, minding his own business, and drinking a mudslide, Ben overhears a stranger poking fun at him.  Ben, to his credit, confronts the bully but is knocked to the floor with one punch.    Ooof. A random patron (Carol Kane) comes to Ben’s aid, but in a rare moment of fate, Ben realizes that this Good Samaritan is his elementary school music teacher, Mrs. O’Connor, who now goes…

‘Twisters’ spins in place compared to its 28-year-old predecessor

Jeff Mitchell

“Twisters” (2024) – In 1996, “Twister”, a tornado-chasing action-adventure flick starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, took movie audiences by storm and funneled a massive box-office take of just under half a billion dollars. Director Jan de Bont’s 90s disaster thriller is filled with twisty terror but also whimsy as a ragtag collection of scientists and researchers regularly encircle, with daredevil abandon, nature’s whirlwinds.  However, the will-they-or-won’t-they romantic tension between Bill (Paxton) and Jo (Hunt) is the emotional glue that holds this entertaining picture together. Twenty-eight years later, a sequel,…