In Wild Body Horror 'The Substance' Film Demi Moore Gives A Career Best Performance
The Substance is cinema; the absolute joy of watching two women acting at the top of their games. It made me think of Death Becomes Her, of Alex Garland's Men, of the "Beyond the Sea" episode of Black Mirror — but at the same time, it's like nothing you've ever seen. Though the plot pits them against each other, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are both fantastic, perhaps career highlights for both.
The Substance follows Elisabeth Sparkle (Moore), an Oscar-winning actress who is being replaced at the aerobics empire she built because she committed the unforgivable crime of turning 50. On her actual birthday, she is continually reminded of her mortality and fragility in an industry that often believes women cease to exist once they can no longer reproduce, as if that should have anything to do with exercising.
Dennis Quaid plays Elisabeth's repugnant boss, Harvey — a name choice likely not lost on at least the women in the audience — who takes business calls while urinating and can't get away from Elisabeth fast enough, even when he's delivering the worst news of her life. It's a stellar performance for Quaid, too, who in one scene eats shrimp in a way that, I fear, will haunt me forever.
After taking hit after hit — both emotionally and physically — Elisabeth is at a low point. With her future flashing before her eyes, Elisabeth is primed to make a dangerous, potentially destructive decision with precious little insight. Every step of the way is vague and unsettling, but what choice does she have to turn back, now that she knows what seemingly lies ahead?
Would you take the ultimate risk if the alternative were simply fading away? It shows you what we're willing to do to our bodies for the minute chance it will make us more beautiful or youthful or skinny, from dangerous fad diets, medicines not regulated by the FDA, and teenage surgeries to abusing drugs like ozempic.
So Elisabeth uses The Substance. What other choice did she have? As is typically the case, beauty is pain, but Elisabeth pushes forward because the benefits outweigh the pain, right? It's working. The process may not be pretty, but the result is Sue (Qualley), and she is stunning.
Elisabeth is forced to be herself for seven days for every week of Sue. It's a dream come true. She's gorgeous. She's got a heart of gold. She's every man's dream, and the studio is thrilled. All of Sue's dreams are coming true, but at what cost? There's always a cost.
A chance encounter reminds Elisabeth the value of her own time, and her own worth outside of Sue. She decides to go out on a date, and what follows is the heart-wrenching moment the intrusive thoughts win, and no matter what you do, you can't stand to look at the face that looks back at you. This moment alone warrants at least an Oscar nom for Moore.
As time goes on, Sue is taking more and more, as youth often does, maybe without even knowing it. Elisabeth is at an impasse, and has to decide how much this facade of success and adoration is actually worth. Much can be taken from this movie, and it will elicit a variety of likely strong responses in viewers.
For me, it was like watching a fight between yourself, and the literal embodiment of the meanest voices in my head. It was like watching a battle so ludicrously over the top you could laugh, that is, if it wasn't hitting something so real deep within you that you might cry. Elisabeth is aging, but stunning. Rich. Famous. Revered. I'm nothing like Elisabeth, but, at the same time, aren't we all? Who hasn't gotten ready only to bail at the last minute because the image staring back at you in the mirror is not at all the idealized version you'd had in your head?
The Substance is batshit f**king crazy. It's like if David Cronenberg directed Death Becomes Her. At times, it's so much that a man in my theater decided he could take it no longer, and left barely mid-way through. It's a full-on body horror that dares you to look away. Writer and director Coralie Fargeat absolutely f**king nailed it. Props to Benjamin Kracun as well, because the cinematography is amazing. Close-up shots make you viscerally uncomfortable, if they aren't turning you on.
The way they overly sexualize Sue, the way that the male gaze in Hollywood does, only to then unsettle and disgust with Elisabeth, an arguably beautiful woman, is masterful. It's over the top. It's gross out. It's, at times, grotesque. But isn't it repulsive the way we treat our female celebrities? Isn't it gross how at 37 an actress can "age out" of playing the lover of a 55-year-old man?
In one scene, a very mediocre man bangs on the door ready to berate Elisabeth, immediately changing his tune to the date rapist next door when he's surprised to see Sue answer. It's kind of a brilliant summation of the female experience in one clip. If they're attracted and they want you, expect entitled advances no matter how creepy or inconvenient. Reject them, or cease to turn them on, and even the "nicest" guy is ready to release his vitriol on you like you deserve it.
The Substance made me feel a lot of things: disgust, fear, rage, anxiety, sympathy, and vindication, to name a few. Body horror is really a brilliant avenue for exploring society's unrealistic expectations for women, and the self-hatred such conditioning imbues — because those feelings are messy.
Fargeat really knocked it out of the park with this one, a true gross-out body horror with profound meaning. If, unlike the man in the theater with me, you can make it through until the end, The Substance will stay with you long after the credits roll.
The Substance is in theaters now.
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