diegogue

Last night, I watched episode 1 of Coyotl, and I really liked it. While watching it, I couldn't stop thinking that this strange mix of superheroes and drug trafficking in northern Mexico is what Robert Rodríguez always wanted to do but never quite pulled off. This is a blend of '80s B-movies with all of Mexican subculture. Coyotl is a bizarre series where a victim of drug trafficking is brought back to life by a shaman and gains the powers of a coyote, becoming a sort of werewolf or were-coyote who confronts cruelty and injustice. It sounds like an absurd cliché, and it is, but the backdrop is extremely realistic, the characters are endearing and well-developed, and the staging is spectacular. Coyotl is fun, not too serious, but it has soul.

In my opinion, the main problem with *The Substance* is that Demi Moore is, and always has been, a very mediocre actress with a very limited range of expression. Margaret Qualley, on the other hand, is an excellent actress who can convey a lot even without speaking. It's awkward to see both of them playing the same character, especially since they don't look alike at all, not even in skin tone. The story is nothing special; it's almost like a weak episode of *Black Mirror*. I don't understand how it won a screenplay award at Cannes, since it's not particularly well-written, but anyway, it's a movie that aims to criticize and satirize the cult of beauty. However, it does so from a shallow, superficial point of view. Good cinematography, good art direction, weak script, and uneven performances (Dennis Quaid is neither good nor bad, just unpleasant).

I could say it would have been much more fun to cast Andie MacDowell, Qualley's biological mother, in Demi Moore's role because she looks more like Qualley and is also a good actress, but still, I think the story is mediocre. I know it's a movie that has generated a lot of buzz and been successful, but I didn't like it.

The kind of movie that you can't get why they made it. Valerio is this hypochondriac guy who never gets out of his apartment. He has a mother, friends, a beautiful ex-girlfriend, but he doesn't care about them. It supposed to be funny, but it's boring, boring as hell.