{Movie Review}The Substance (2024)

“Remember You Are One”

I became a big fan of Coralie Fargeat when her inverted rape revenge film of similar name took the indy horror world by storm. Revenge was a vibrant reimaging of many of the horror tropes that I often looked at in the same way I look at my uncles MAGA hat (he’s family so our fights tend to be nasty and long going). If she could bring me onboard for that film I was ready to follow her wherever. Boy does her newest film The Substance stretches that thesis. Whereas Revenge feels like an incredible tight film with a large setting and small cast. The Substance is about big ideas, big sets, and even bigger performances. Even with a final ten minutes that defies all logic and reason it is with such great enthusiasm and energy I found myself pulled along for the ride. I can truthfully say The Substance is an exceptional movie with something for everyone.

I woke up to Bernie Sanders absolutely grilling a pharmaceutical executive about the price of Ozempic and I couldn’t but help drift to Demi Moore’s performance in this film. It is nothing short of brilliant and as the film makes her harder and harder to look at she continues to shine through the layers of makeup and prothesis. Elisabeth Sparkle was once a famed Hollywood actress who now makes a living and keeps herself semi-relevant by running a workout show on a major television network. After hearing that her show would be canceled and replaced with a younger cast by an absolutely slimy television executive played by Dennis Quad (who is having an absolute blast chewing up every scene along with peel and eat shrimp ewwww) she receives a mysterious note asking if she would like to be a better version of herself. Along with vials, tubing, and lots of syringes we learn that Sparkle can spend seven days as herself in her current form and seven days as her best ‘younger’ and ‘perkier’ self she dubs Sue (played with a cold and reptilian beauty by Margaret Qualley).

The monstrous feminine has always asked us questions about the Madonna/whore dichotomy but never have we seen the two occupy the same person (sometimes the same space) and as we jump from the two versions of herself we start to look at them as competitors with each other. The anger and jealousy that Sparkle has for Sue is only trumped by the disdain and contempt Sue feels for the aging starlet. As a cis middle age white dude I can’t directly connect but it doesn’t take a woman to recognize just how damaging these beauty standards can be. Also I look in the mirror everyday and as each of my 44 years adds up, I get it.

This is a film that will make you think. That being said when I usually make that comment the movie may be slow or empty of the gore we sometimes associate with horror. That is not The Substance. There are just gobs of goop in this film. From the body horror of giving birth to our better selves to the rapid aging that seems to always be on the peripheral of this film. If you are a Cronenberg fan this will be your jam. In fact the bonkers last ten minutes is essentially Cronenberg’s The Fly if someone took the ending and then solicited…”now what”? It is almost so gross and so out there I felt myself slipping away. Fargeat’s unrelenting directorial gaze never lets us go though and we find ourselves engaged through every last beat of the gloopy finale.

There is going to be so much written about this film I cannot wait to read but any review of the film would be remiss if it didn’t mention the pop synth of the soundtrack and the fluorescent patina. Both leave no leave no doubt that The Substance is set in the eighties. Somehow though the messages of the movie tend to fit nicely into our modern day discussions of social media. If our curated versions of ourselves online somehow could become walking avatars (simulacrum is probably a better word) would they like the non curated ‘real’ version of ourselves? Probably not. In that lies the entire thesis of the film. Not liking who we are inevitably means not liking who we are trying to become. It is Frankenstein for the 21st century set in the 1980’s

There are countless references to other horror films in The Substance and it is clear that Fargeat is not only building her own images and ideas but those ideas are also deeply rooted in the horror films that came before. The bathroom which is featured frequently is clearly an homage to The Shining while no one is going to miss the references to body horror we get in both Cronenberg and Lynch.

The embrace of the absurd in the film’s final act was a little too hard to for me. I didn’t really know what to do with it all. That being said it was a hoot to watch. Like I just thought to myself this entire thing is nuts and absurd but I mean that’s also beauty standards in general so maybe that is the point. Our movies should reflect that. But be prepared it goes from 50 to 100 in like ten minutes.

It is rare that a movie that is so silly has so much to say but Coralie Fargeat is the real deal and The Substance is her defining proof. Frankenstein, by way of The Stuff. I would like a second helping please. It is out tomorrow and you absolutely should go see it.