The topics of societal female beauty standards and the fears of aging into irrelevance for women have been covered many times in movies. However, they may never have been dealt with as viciously as in the gonzo satire The Substance. Writer/director Coralie Fargeat pulls no punches and uses zero subtlety in savaging our obsession with sexualizing youth and hiding the signs of aging. This is a darkly funny, blood-soaked, absurd piece of body horror, where the danger lies in what we will do for acceptance. This definitely goes too far for mainstream audiences, with a very gross final act. This is a smart, fearless descent into excess that does so with an intense sense of purpose. For those interested in something that is basically all risk, this is absolutely worth the ride.
Elisabeth Sparkle is a former star who is clinging to a dwindling slice of celebrity as she hits 50. Desperate not to be discarded by her callous producer, who is actively looking for someone half Elisabeth’s age to replace her, she experiments with a strange treatment called The Substance. One injection splits Elisabeth open, allowing “a younger, better you” to emerge. Naming herself Sue, she is able to relive all of Elisabeth’s glory. Of course, things do not stay perfect for long.
If you had the chance to turn back the clock, pursue your dream in a new body that seems flawless compared to how you see your current self, would you leap at it? I suppose that if your career, entire life really, depended on youth and beauty, the answer is probably yes. Especially if the potential reward appeared greater than the cost. The rules for The Substance are deceptively simple: 1) inject once, releasing the younger you 2) stabilize every day by taking fluid from the original you 3) switch every seven days, without exception. Also, always remember that there is no you and them; both are you. As long as these rules are followed, everything will be fine. When there is the slightest deviation, things get real bad.
While the conflict is between the individual insecurities and unrealistic expectations from the outside, The Substance (134 minutes, without the end credits) examines this through the differences between Elisabeth and Sue. It doesn’t take long before Elisabeth becomes jealous of the attention Sue receives and Sue is resentful of having to take a backseat for a week while Elisabeth sits alone in her apartment. They are the same person, in two different bodies, yet the fact that only one can be active at a time makes it easy for Elisabeth/Sue to forget that. This creates a kind of war between them that works as a metaphor for the struggle to remain physically pleasing in the eyes of men as women age.
The story is good and the performances are very strong, but it is Fargeat’s choices as a filmmaker that make this so captivating. It begins with an overhead shot of a sidewalk, where we see Elisabeth’s star being put in place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Initially, it is fresh, pretty, new. Then we see it through the years, as it gets spilled on, rolled over, battered by precipitation. Eventually, it is cracked, stained and worn. This is as clear a comparison to how Elisabeth feels about herself as could possibly have been devised. It is also a fantastic introduction to the themes and style the audience is about to experience.
The whole of The Substance is like that. In your face, uncompromising, full of confidence. There is an unreality to the world Elisabeth and Sue move around in that somehow makes it even more difficult to distance ourselves from the issues Fargeat is exploring. Though it bears a resemblance to what we know, it is greatly exaggerated in a way that is both funny and disturbing.
Demi Moore, as Elisabeth, and Margaret Qualley, as Sue, are remarkable here because they, at the same time, symbolically represent the fading star/ingenue and two sides of the same person struggling with her own worries about looking too old for men to continue to desire her. What they do may seem simple and broad, however, it could not be better suited to what Fargeat is doing here.
The Substance is undeniably going to be off-putting for those stumbling into it at the multiplex. For those who know what they’re getting into, it is bold, funny, thought-provoking and just plain brilliant. This is one of the best movies of the year.
4¾ out of 5
Cast:
Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle
Margaret Qualley as Sue
Dennis Quaid as Harvey
Written/Directed by Coralie Fargeat
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