"THE SUBSTANCE" - REVIEW
There are two movies this fall which recall the tagline for BEING JOHN MALKOVICH: “Ever want to be someone else? Now you can.”
One of them is the darkly funny and deceptively compassionate A DIFFERENT MAN (my full review here: https://www.zachhammill.com/moviefriend/a-different-man-review), which starts out like a Charlie Kaufman film in terms of its grounded aesthetics and characters trying to rise above introspective, neurotic self-hatred, before becoming its own thing which, while dour, ends on an oddly hopeful note, and a perfect final shot.
The second film, which came out last month and I am now getting caught up on, is the Cannes Film Festival best screenplay winner THE SUBSTANCE. This film has similar Kaufmanesque leanings both in its body-switching premise as well as its own neurotic-self hatred, but it trades in the introspection for the most outsized, mad-scientist-level examination of women, aging, beauty standards, and the cagematch between them as it pertains to the entertainment industry and the public’s voracious appetite for it.
The difference between the two films? A DIFFERENT MAN is surprisingly tender. By the end of THE SUBSTANCE, you’ll feel like you’ve been tenderized.
Coralie Fargeat writes and directs this confident cross between Kaufman, Cronenberg, Verhoeven and Tarantino, but sensationally outdoing them all by mixing their preoccupations together into something completely new, and then shaking up the can and gleefully watching it explode. In the best and most surprising performance of her career, Demi Moore portrays Elizabeth Sparkle, a former Hollywood starlet, now largely relegated to a live morning aerobics show, who—gasp—just turned 50. Her boss, Harvey (a hilariously grotesque Dennis Quaid, eating all the scenery as well as all the shrimp) tosses her out and is on the hunt for someone new. Enter Sue (Margaret Qualley), breezing in out of nowhere with her flawless skin, silky hair, and perfect proportions, to seamlessly fill the void for a hungry audience.
But who is Sue? Well, Sue is actually Elizabeth. And Elizabeth is Sue. They are one person but with two bodies. Thanks to an experimental drug that is The Substance of the title, Elizabeth can recapture the beauty of her youth as Sue for seven days at a time. Sue then reverts back to Elizabeth for the next seven days, and as long as this honor-system contract is upheld, the drug as intended works. Sue lives her best life while Elizabeth lies at home unconscious, subsisting on contents from a feeding tube that runs out after seven days. Then it’s Elizabeth’s turn. But with no career to speak of and no friends of any, well, substance, her seven days are bitter and lonely. While conscious, her feeding tube is replaced by a different kind of feeding tube in the form of mindless daytime TV and food. The only time she seems to leave her impossibly slick, gargantuan apartment at all is to pick up her refills of The Substance.
Well, as you might guess, it isn’t long before this privilege is abused.
That’s what the film’s about. So how is it about it? There is always a tendency to remark on entertainment being “style over substance,” but in Fargeat’s capable hands, just like Elizabeth and Sue are one in the same, the style is the substance and the substance is the style. That style includes stark, clinical lighting and big, poppy colors in its outlandish production design. It includes a droning score that walks the tightrope between sexy fun and existential dread. It includes the way lighting and costumes are either flattering or unflattering to the plentiful flesh on display (and if you’re bothered by female nudity, this is not for you). It includes immersive ASMR-like sound design to hear every squish and squirm of viscera as it goes from showbiz satire to full-on body horror. It includes incredible special effects makeup that you might be staring at through your fingers (if you are squeamish, this movie is DEFINITELY not for you).
Of course, none of this style means anything without the substance that is amply injected into our nervous systems by its crackling script and its two leading ladies. Qualley of course is on a roll this year, in her third and best film of 2024, following the similarly kinky DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS and KINDS OF KINDNESS (reviewed here: https://www.zachhammill.com/moviefriend/kinds-of-kindness-review). While her character her isn’t much deeper than her previous two roles, that’s the point. There is calculation to what she does to keep Sue living in the world for as long as Elizabeth can sustain her, riding the success wave from winning the genetic lottery as she does, as long as she is adored.
As for Moore, my goodness. Her performance manages to be ferocious and empathetic all at once. As someone who has ridden the wave of beauty standards herself, particularly with her 90s filmography that has demanded much of her physical body in roles like G.I. JANE and STRIPTEASE, she transforms in a different way here. While the role of Elizabeth greatly benefits from the baggage that Moore brings, she’s excellent in her own right, particularly when Elizabeth’s experience starts to go disastrously wrong. Her best scene, in which she prepares for a date with a long-lost high school classmate, is absolutely heartbreaking. The work she does in the film’s second half makes me think of the beauty standards that Fargeat is challenging, and what types of films or roles Moore might have been allowed (or perhaps even permitted herself) to take on if things were different. Like, what if 1991’s disturbing but nowhere-near-as-sharp horror-comedy NOTHING BUT TROUBLE had been a hit? In any case, Moore was born for this role, and I pray for more character parts for her in the future, if she wants them. Here, she liberates herself from the box we’ve all put her in, and it’s a thrill to watch.
Where does all this ultimately lead? Where does this never-ending feeding frenzy on female beauty end? I’m recalling a line of dialogue that was also written by Charlie Kaufman, this time from Spike Jonze’s 2002 film ADAPTATION: “The last act makes a film. Wow them in the end, and you’ve got a hit. You can have flaws, problems, but wow them in the end, and you’ve got a hit.” If you make it past the rip-roaring finale, which you will most certainly be watching through your fingers, THE SUBSTANCE also features a perfect final shot. It is unwieldy, unreasonable, and absolutely messed up… but how much more unreasonable is it compared to our societal expectations that women remain young forever?
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#bodyhorror
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Zach is a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Alliance (MNFCA). For more info about Zach, the organization, or to read other great reviews from other great Minnesota-based film critics, click here: https://mnfilmcriticalliance.wordpress.com/