A Different Man, written and directed by Aaron Schimberg, is a terrific film, and interestingly enough, thematically and narratively very similar to The Substance. 

A Different Man is much gentler in execution (it couldn't be really called "body horror" like The Substance), but it is also about a person who is deeply dissatisfied with their physical appearance and takes steps to radically change that -- and then we see the consequences play out.  I'm personally inclined to think A Different Man is ultimately thematically a bit richer than the wild ride that is The Substance, but taken together, both films grapple in unique and wonderful ways with their similar subject, and watching them as a double feature would make for a fascinating experience.  

A Different Man is ultimately a layered, provocative film about performance and identity and physicality and the notion of "disability.” It’s a moving -- and often quite unexpectedly funny -- film with incredible performances from Sebastian Stan, Adam Pearson (whom you may recognize from Under the Skin), and Renate Riensve. It’s likely not to stick around for long. Catch it while you can -- and plan for plenty of time to discuss it afterwards!

And on a completely different note, we have our third new theatrical film, My Old Ass, written and directed by Megan Park (The Fallout), her second feature film, and starring the great Aubrey Plaza, an extraordinary Maisy Stella (in her first starring role in a feature film), and Percy Hynes White, who is a relative newcomer to feature films and who I hope will be in a lot more. (Check out I Like Movies, a wonderful little Canadian indie, where White plays the lead's best friend.)  

My Old Ass is a sort of magical realist drama, where 18-year old Elliott (Stella) meets her 39-year old self (Plaza) while high on a mushroom-trip -- a circumstance offering Plaza and Stella lots of room for comic gold -- and where the encounter with her older self offers Elliott the chance to change the outcome of her life based on her current choices.  

It's very funny and a whole heckuva lot more poignant (in a good way, not a syrupy way) than I thought it would be (tears were shed, especially at the end), and it's exactly the kind of good-hearted romantic/comedy/coming-of-age story that I think we all need right now and that is not often made. It's just really lovely, and I can predict it being one of the comfort movies I put on in the future when I need a laugh, some warm feelings, and a good cry.

Finally, we have two special events this week, including the truly wonderful Toy Story 3, this month’s Kid Pickford selection. In a world where sequels are almost always tired retreads of the originals, Toy Story 3 proves the rule wrong and demonstrates Pixar’s ongoing commitment to originality, with many critics even naming this Toy Story entry as the best of the three. As British critic Robbie Collin noted at the time, “The perfect film does not, and cannot, exist. But if it did, it would probably look a lot like this.”  

With this film, too, like so many Pixar films, it threads that impossible needle of simultaneously being a beautiful film for children without any of the patronizing attitudes that so many “movies for children” have, while also being a film for adults. As Anthony Quinn for the Independent said, “It takes a kind of genius to combine a children's movie for grown-ups and a grown-up's movie for children in one glittering digimated package, yet the folks at Pixar have done it time and again.” 

Toy Story 3 plays on Saturday at 1:30 pm and Sunday at 10:00 am. Tickets are just $7.