The Substance is a modern fairytale exploring the painful and isolating reality of aging as a woman in horrifying detail. Its distinctly feminine approach to storytelling sets it apart from other dystopian films; mood and myth drive the narrative, creating an immersive, unsettling experience. Silence dominates, dialogue is sparse, the image is everything…

Turn to the very back of Paul Fussell’s masterpiece Class: A Guide Through The American Status System and you’ll find The Living Room Scale- a humorous assessment of the taste level and status of one’s living room based on the core principles and contemporary expressions of American social class explored throughout the book.

Points are awarded or taken away in relation to how interior design choices align with the living rooms of other upper or lower class households. Living Rooms are excellent proxies for class as they are a balance of public and private, decorative and functional. Each room encapsulates the values, aspirations, and actual lived experience of the owner even if (especially if) no conscious effort to appear higher on the hierarchy is present…