Are You Prepared for the Dementia Epidemic? Shocking Facts You Need to Know!

Who can resist a compelling headline framed as a question? Or an opening sentence in a newsletter, for instance?

The answer to that question can sometimes be contentious. But there are times, like my colleague Bill Addison’s critique of the snug eatery on Melrose Avenue, “Stir Crazy,” where the answer is quite clear. “Aren’t quaint restaurants the most delightful?” Absolutely. As Bill eloquently puts it, “I’m not referring to the trendy hotspots that confuse being small and crowded with exclusivity, but the intimate refuges that make us feel safe and secure. The spaces that offer us a couple of hours of respite from the vast world.”

I’m Glenn Whipp, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, host of The Envelope’s Friday (and occasionally, Monday) newsletter, and the guy crooning, “Hold me closer/tiny diner,” because who doesn’t crave a haven every now and then? Especially one that serves a tasty tomato salad.

Demi Moore makes a comeback in ‘The Substance’

My favorite performance by Demi Moore was her reading of her 2019 memoir, “Inside Out.” A frank reflection of her tumultuous youth and the decisions, good and bad, that she made in her career and personal life. I’m smitten with her voice – literally, the emotive way she narrated the book for over 6 hours – and her candid discussions about her life.

Moore stars in a new film, “The Substance,” which is out today, but it’s not a movie that will appeal to everyone. A bloody, body-horror film that exposes Hollywood’s tendency to discard women once they hit a certain age, “The Substance” manages to be savage but empathetic, brutal yet insightful.

Moore portrays Elisabeth Sparkle, a star past her prime, who loses her retro-style exercise show and is so desperate that she’s contemplating undergoing a risky rejuvenation procedure. Soon, Elisabeth has a clone, Sue (Margaret Qualley), who is young and firm. To make the science work, Elisabeth and Sue must swap places every week. But there wouldn’t be a movie if everything went smoothly, and as things start to go awry, writer-director Coralie Fargeat heightens the gore and horror to dramatic levels. It’s genuinely ghastly. And that’s the whole point.

Emily Zemler had a conversation with Moore, Qualley, and Fargeat for The Times, which turned into a “one-hour therapy session.”

“Finishing the movie felt like there was a purpose behind my decision to do this — like I had an itch that needed to be scratched,” Qualley said. “I feel liberated after surviving the experience.”

Moore echoed that sentiment. “That profound reminder of appreciating who you are, as you are, where you are, just resonated more as the process went along,” she said. “And not just the external. But all those internal aspects of who we are that we often tend to ignore. And the journey it took to get where you are.”

But as I noted earlier, it’s not a movie for everyone. Reviewing for The Times, Amy Nicholson writes: “I can’t recall another Cannes screenplay winner that seems as indifferent to its own script. Fargeat, a native French speaker, has reduced the dialogue to what feels like 10 pages, and a lot of that is reused in flashbacks. At her core, Fargeat is a remix artist who has built the movie like a mashup of her own DVDs of ‘The Fly’ and ‘Sunset Boulevard’ and trashy early 2000s music videos. She showcases her inspirations like a plastic surgery client who asks for Angelina’s lips and Charlize’s nose.”

Let me know your thoughts if you catch it this weekend.

Farewell, J.D. Souther

When J.D. Souther passed away this week, my colleague Amy Kaufman commented in one of the Times’ Slack channels: “Vada’s dad in ‘My Girl 2’ and yes I am the only person who recognizes him from this,” to which I responded: “He also nearly caused a split between Hope and Michael on ‘thirtysomething’ and yes I am the only person who recognizes him from this.”

Souther, however, is most renowned for his contributions as a songwriter and musician, co-writing several of the Eagles’ most popular and memorable songs (“New Kid in Town,” a poignant song about the transient nature of fame and love, is a personal favorite) and his own charming 1979 hit “You’re Only Lonely.”

My friend Mikael Wood wrote about Souther’s passing, noting that in January, Souther performed onstage with the Eagles at Inglewood’s Kia Forum, where Don Henley introduced him as part of the “close community of songwriters and singers” that he and Eagles’ Glenn Frey would turn to in the ’70s “when we would get stuck on a song or were trying to initiate some new material.”

I attended that concert with Mikael. Has it already been nine months this year? Fame and love aren’t the only transient things.