The Substance (2024)
September 24, 2024 10:24 AM - Subscribe
A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
"With “The Substance,” Fargeat, who helmed the excellent, brutal, bubble-gum-colored thrillride that was “Revenge,” has crafted an overstuffed, bonkers, blood-soaked saga about women and the hell they're put through all in the name of modern beauty standards. Fargeat's script is about as unsubtle as they come — every scene is loaded with unmistakable, obvious, impossible-to-miss meaning. And yet, this isn't a hindrance to the film. If anything, it just makes the movie all the more endearing. It's equal parts horrific and hilarious."—Chris Evangelista for SlashFilm
In theaters in the US now.
"With “The Substance,” Fargeat, who helmed the excellent, brutal, bubble-gum-colored thrillride that was “Revenge,” has crafted an overstuffed, bonkers, blood-soaked saga about women and the hell they're put through all in the name of modern beauty standards. Fargeat's script is about as unsubtle as they come — every scene is loaded with unmistakable, obvious, impossible-to-miss meaning. And yet, this isn't a hindrance to the film. If anything, it just makes the movie all the more endearing. It's equal parts horrific and hilarious."—Chris Evangelista for SlashFilm
In theaters in the US now.
That was entirely a thing.
I'm deeply enamoured of the weirdly assembled world where a (one assumes) broadcast TV morning fitness show is the key to absolute fame, and doing "The New Year's Eve" show with boobs-out showgirls is the apex of stardom.
Too much here to unpack, but I do have to say that without any kind of memory transference or experience-sharing, I don't really see the appeal of The Substance? I mean, if I could make a younger, fitter version of me that I can live vicariously through on alternating weeks, sure, maybe. But just cutting my life in half to generate effectively a perfect stranger having fun while I lie on a tile floor? Meh. What's the benefit to Elisabeth to have 'Sue' taking half her life and not even getting to know what happens with 'Sue'?
A lot of the time I think the point was made and then it just kept getting hammered in. I did really enjoy the descent into Full GWAR at the end.
posted by Shepherd at 5:28 PM on September 24 [2 favorites]
I'm deeply enamoured of the weirdly assembled world where a (one assumes) broadcast TV morning fitness show is the key to absolute fame, and doing "The New Year's Eve" show with boobs-out showgirls is the apex of stardom.
Too much here to unpack, but I do have to say that without any kind of memory transference or experience-sharing, I don't really see the appeal of The Substance? I mean, if I could make a younger, fitter version of me that I can live vicariously through on alternating weeks, sure, maybe. But just cutting my life in half to generate effectively a perfect stranger having fun while I lie on a tile floor? Meh. What's the benefit to Elisabeth to have 'Sue' taking half her life and not even getting to know what happens with 'Sue'?
A lot of the time I think the point was made and then it just kept getting hammered in. I did really enjoy the descent into Full GWAR at the end.
posted by Shepherd at 5:28 PM on September 24 [2 favorites]
That was amazingly fucked up. I think I might have seen a lot of either Moore or Qualley than I anticipated. (Cue Patrick Stewart in Extras: "It's too late. I've seen EVERYTHING.")
Oh, those sound designers and foley artists must have had a blast!
posted by Kitteh at 6:10 PM on September 24 [2 favorites]
Oh, those sound designers and foley artists must have had a blast!
posted by Kitteh at 6:10 PM on September 24 [2 favorites]
Yeah, I had to cover my eyes during some scenes, but the sounds were still very...evocative. The end was great - at first, it seemed like too much, but then quickly became hilarious (the earrings!) and I was fully onboard.
posted by amarynth at 7:30 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]
posted by amarynth at 7:30 AM on September 25 [1 favorite]
As an early 50-something woman with a fondness for all things Joe Bob Briggs, this movie feels genetically designed for me. I'd say the recipe for putting this together looks something like:
- one dash Aerobicise videos circa 1982 (my mom had these on Laserdisc!)
- a b-roll from Basket Case
- a smidge of Requiem for a Dream
- a sly nod to Re-Animator
Not to mention a few others, like Death Becomes Her. Superb casting for Dennis Quaid's character, by the way -- utterly repellent, and very familiar.
Saw this with a similar-aged friend, and we both agree that as absurd as the premise sounds, we've both done stupid things to try and be (insert whatever it is you hate about yourself and wish you could easily fix with a pill or procedure here).
It makes a lot of sense to me that you can't just reverse the aging process. Besides the fact we've already seen that story done to death, everyone would realize it was just a younger-looking Elisabeth. And we have that technology now, to some degree (just look at the recent pics of Christina Aguilera to see what I'm talking about). The right cosmetic procedures can easily shave 25 years off your face and body, if done right.
But to TRULY recapture all the potential of your original youth? The capriciousness, the sense of immortality, the self-destructive abandon of it all? Yeah, for that you'll need a whole new vehicle to operate in, so I get why the film took this angle. It shows exactly how deeply ingrained misogyny can destroy a woman's sense of self-worth.
All that wealth, prestige, success... and she'd throw it all away in a heartbeat just to be young again.
The memory/consciousness transference issue is a huge problem, but then again, who would inject The Substance if it was made perfectly clear you don't get to simply rent the new body with your old brain and personality ensconced inside?
The thing that makes a good Monkey's Paw/Faustian Bargain story is that you're given exactly what you wished for, along with the unintended consequences. Nobody is better off after using the Monkey's Paw, no matter how tempting the offer might be.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:57 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]
- one dash Aerobicise videos circa 1982 (my mom had these on Laserdisc!)
- a b-roll from Basket Case
- a smidge of Requiem for a Dream
- a sly nod to Re-Animator
Not to mention a few others, like Death Becomes Her. Superb casting for Dennis Quaid's character, by the way -- utterly repellent, and very familiar.
Saw this with a similar-aged friend, and we both agree that as absurd as the premise sounds, we've both done stupid things to try and be (insert whatever it is you hate about yourself and wish you could easily fix with a pill or procedure here).
It makes a lot of sense to me that you can't just reverse the aging process. Besides the fact we've already seen that story done to death, everyone would realize it was just a younger-looking Elisabeth. And we have that technology now, to some degree (just look at the recent pics of Christina Aguilera to see what I'm talking about). The right cosmetic procedures can easily shave 25 years off your face and body, if done right.
But to TRULY recapture all the potential of your original youth? The capriciousness, the sense of immortality, the self-destructive abandon of it all? Yeah, for that you'll need a whole new vehicle to operate in, so I get why the film took this angle. It shows exactly how deeply ingrained misogyny can destroy a woman's sense of self-worth.
All that wealth, prestige, success... and she'd throw it all away in a heartbeat just to be young again.
The memory/consciousness transference issue is a huge problem, but then again, who would inject The Substance if it was made perfectly clear you don't get to simply rent the new body with your old brain and personality ensconced inside?
The thing that makes a good Monkey's Paw/Faustian Bargain story is that you're given exactly what you wished for, along with the unintended consequences. Nobody is better off after using the Monkey's Paw, no matter how tempting the offer might be.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:57 AM on September 25 [3 favorites]
I made the dumb joke of "Women would rather take a black market subtance to technically be young again than go to therapy" afterwards.
BUT -- I get it. If you're someone whose life has been based on your looks--all your money and fame and etc--and then to be dumped because of your age (and lbr, Elisabeth still looked damn good, imo), yeah that would fucking sting. I think of all the Hollywood beauties past and present who were thrown aside once they stopped being young and fuckable. And while this movie can really overegg that particuar pudding, it doesn't make it any less true.
posted by Kitteh at 9:04 AM on September 25
BUT -- I get it. If you're someone whose life has been based on your looks--all your money and fame and etc--and then to be dumped because of your age (and lbr, Elisabeth still looked damn good, imo), yeah that would fucking sting. I think of all the Hollywood beauties past and present who were thrown aside once they stopped being young and fuckable. And while this movie can really overegg that particuar pudding, it doesn't make it any less true.
posted by Kitteh at 9:04 AM on September 25
I only saw like 70% of this movie with my eyes because I can't do gore or violence or their intersection. I was left more enthused about this movie in concept than in execution. Like if you said "Cronenberg goes Lynch goes 'Carrie'," I think on paper that sounds pretty good. But there was a period where the entire plot of this movie was "lady does subcutaneous injections on her proxy self and vice versa over and over again." And then there was the back third which was . . . insane and not of particular value. The movie deliberately evokes a loneliness--there aren't really any characters in this movie except for Demi Moore's character, and she has no interlocutors or anything. That was effective in making the movie feel pretty sparse, but at the expense, maybe, of having an actual plot?
posted by kensington314 at 2:42 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]
posted by kensington314 at 2:42 PM on September 25 [1 favorite]
I just went and read an article that gives away the plot and...hoo, boy. I won't be watching this, because of my own preferences, but it sounds like one hell of a statement movie.
My own kids are entering their 20s, and I briefly missed that time...before I remembered some of the Dumb Shit I had done and said at that age, and shook off the feeling for good. :7) But that's easy for me to say, since I am a man and also kind of a goofy-looking one: I had nothing to lose, and not far to fall.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:52 AM on September 27
My own kids are entering their 20s, and I briefly missed that time...before I remembered some of the Dumb Shit I had done and said at that age, and shook off the feeling for good. :7) But that's easy for me to say, since I am a man and also kind of a goofy-looking one: I had nothing to lose, and not far to fall.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:52 AM on September 27
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posted by Strange Interlude at 10:36 AM on September 24