This isn’t the type of project a recent Oscar nominee for Best Actress typically embarks on, but we live in wild times, and Karla Sofía Gascón is the perfect encapsulation of this decade’s chaotic nature.
Yes, the “Emilia Pérez” star will be the co-lead in “The Life Lift,” a psychological thriller co-starring Vincent Gallo (!!!) and directed by Italian first-timer Stefania Rossella Grassi. According to the film’s synopsis, Gascón is set to play a psychiatrist who “embodies both God and the devil.”
Gallo is playing a “troubled man” named Gabriel. The character resides in a modest New York apartment and begins to unravel after discovering mysterious Post-it notes in the building's elevator. These cryptic messages instruct him to carry out brutal killings of three fellow residents—each of whom, the notes claim, plans to murder their own relatives—according to Variety.
A Gascón/Gallo team-up is the type of project I never thought I needed—two eccentrics who live life in the fast lane. I have no idea who Grassi is, but her decision to cast both actors, including Gascón as a God-Devil, has piqued my curiosity.
And what about Gallo? A filmmaker who helmed 1998’s delightful “Buffalo ‘66,” and then shocked Cannes in 2003 with “The Brown Bunny,” a film Roger Ebert called the worst in the history of the festival. Gallo retaliated by calling Ebert a "fat pig" and even cursed him with "colon cancer." Ebert responded with his trademark wit, saying, "I am fat, but one day I will be thin, and he will still be the director of The Brown Bunny."
Gallo has built a reputation not just for his avant-garde films, but for his outrageous behavior and inflammatory statements. He once put his sperm up for sale on his personal website for $1 million, offering a discount to "anyone with blonde hair and blue eyes," sparking widespread backlash.
Meanwhile, Gascón was recently shamed and forced to apologize for old, resurfaced tweets which defended Hitler, insulted Muslims, George Floyd, Chinese people, and the 2021 “Afro-Korean” Oscars. Gascón later defended the tweets by claiming they had been taken out of context and that the public got it all wrong, she was far “less racist than Gandhi.”
Grassi has her work cut out for her when it comes to shooting this film—her first one—but lordy, would I love to be on set to witness this movie getting made. Cinema!
As expected, Snyder's latest is being torn apart by TIFF attendees. No mercy given. The film, which had its world premiere this evening, is being called by some one of the worst movies to ever premiere at the festival.