I Love Boosters

This is Boots Riley's second directorial feature. His first was Sorry to Bother You which made my top 22 films of 2018 on my very first blog entry here on the Marquee. Had I started doing this earlier, I would have written a full entry about it. That film is about a black man working in a call center. It was bold, colourful, satirical, irreverent, pissed-off, arty, original, intelligent, and entertaining. Riley went on to make a TV series, I'm a Virgo, which I have not seen (but now I intend to). I Love Boosters is a bananas ride and all the adjectives I gave to his first film apply to his second. I loved it and thought it was a mess at the same time - like some of the ludicrous fashion designs that are the subject of this film. What's it all about? A gang of women are stealing and reselling high-end clothes from Metro Designers, a fashion empire run by Christie Smith (Demi Moore). Each store has its own primary colour - all the clothes in one location are yellow, for example. It's a gag and it's a hoot. Although it is a mockery of the fashion world, the designs remain outrageous and fun - The Hunger Games of primary colours. Then the film goes into the realm of science fiction with a teleportation device - a Chinese worker has teleported from China, where all the clothes are made. Her plan is to steal the clothes back as ransom to get workers some rights. She teams up with the boosters and all hell breaks loose. It becomes unhinged. A slapstick, Three Stooges, car-chase, roller-coaster of action. It's kind of like Everything Everywhere All at Once but add in a demon (LaKeith Stanfield - who is also the lead in Sorry to Bother You) who sucks women's souls out of their bodies through their coochies. Yeah, it's pretty wild and it's not for everyone. That said, it has to be one of the most interesting films of 2026 and I feel like I need to watch it again. Anxiety in this film is literally depicted as a giant ball of ATMs, computers, advertising, bills, phones, clothes, food, etc. rolling and roaming the streets of the city like an Indiana Jones boulder. It's brilliant. Go find something to wear and head to the cinema to catch this original film (not a cheap knock-off). Or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff when available.  

The Substance

Bananas! This film is a sci-fi body-horror-comedy which gives nods to 80s horror films ("Dead Ringers," "The Thing," "Carrie," "From Beyond") and it's the wildest ride you will take this year, maybe this decade. What's it all about? Demi Moore plays an aging Hollywood star, Elisabeth Sparkle. We start with Ms. Sparkle doing a 20-Minute workout style class on TV, something out of Jane Fonda's playbook. The studio head, Harvey, played to perfection by Dennis Quaid, shitcans her. She's out. Then a mysterious opportunity arrives, a way to get her beautiful youthful body back. Her youthful self, who becomes known as Sue, is played by Margaret Qualley (who is also in the other strangest film this year, "Kinds of Kindness"). "The Substance" is a movie is about society's obsession with youth, and particularly Hollywood's obsession with it. Demi Moore, although she remains a beautiful woman, she is now 61 and for the last two decades has done mostly TV. Maybe it has to do with raising three kids. Or maybe it's because Hollywood has said she is too old? Watching Ms. Moore, it felt like she brought 20 years worth of fuck-you to the role - a powerhouse performance. A bold choice considering she had to do half the film nude. Remarkable. This is one of my favourite films this year. Catch this now in theatres. 

Footnote: This was directed by Coralie Fargeat, who directed one of my favourite films of 2018, "Revenge." It appeared in my very first movie blog post here: McPherson's Movie Marquee: Top Films of 2018 (mcphersonsmoviemarquee.blogspot.com)