The Substance

I grew up on a smorg of wildly different influences that informed my film education. Everything from mainstream movies, to the wild VHS horror and exploitation films of John Carpenter or Troma, to the art-driven work of Kubrick, Aronofsky, or Refn. I would have to guess that Coralie Fargeat, the writer/director of The Substance, did as well. You can see the pastiche up there on the screen in her new film; The Shining and 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Toxic Avenger, Basket Case, Society, The Fly and Videodrome, Requiem for a Dream, Neon Demon, Rob Bottin’s effects for The Thing, and so forth.

Demi Moore plays Elizabeth Sparkle, a fading star who has aged out of Hollywood. She’s offered a serum — The Substance — that will use her DNA to create a younger version of herself. The Substance creates Sue, played by Margaret Qualley (a rising talent and Andie MacDowell’s daughter), who becomes an instant star. However, they quickly discover that sharing existence comes with its own problems (understatement of the year).

A friend who hadn’t seen the movie yet said to me, “I can’t wait to see it. Fargeat’s last movie, Revenge, was pretty wild.”

The Substance makes Revenge look like Mary Poppins.

The film is a bonkers, surreal fever dream of naked insanity. It’s incredibly extreme, but also literate. When I came out of it, I wasn’t sure if I had seen a two-star movie flirting with brilliance or a four-star movie with flaws.

On the positive side, it’s amazingly crafted. She throws every trick in the book at you to tell this bizarre story. Crazy sound design. Inventive camera rigs. Extreme close-ups. Frenetic editing. It’s brilliant and bold filmmaking (even if much of it feels derivative).

The cast does well; I can’t say Moore’s performance is game-changing, but she definitely sets any ego aside to lay herself vulnerable, emotionally and physically. There’s a lot of nudity in the movie, mostly focused on the idea that she’s sagging and past her prime. Qualley also gives a competent performance as her younger doppelganger (also lot of nudity, though it was suggested to me that some of it may be CGI). I’ve seen her shine more in other movies, but she commits here — both women do. I should also mention Dennis Quaid hands in a bombastic, giddy performance as a studio head who represents the grossness of men in general.

This parallels one of my problems with the film. I have no issue with the ideas they’re putting forth here — that we as a society (and men especially) are slobbering masses, obsessed with youth and beauty, often to the forfeit of our own humanity. However, the message is often delivered in a way that is too on-the-nose. Even to the point of repeating certain key phrases or visuals to hammer it home to the dum-dum audience. I mean, no one was ever going to accuse this movie of being subtle about anything. Titane is a very different film, but similar in many ways; with Titane, I had to dig deeper to understand what it was trying to say, which was much more engaging. With The Substance, thematic realizations don’t dawn on you slowly as the story comes into focus — it just bellows its message into your face.  

My other issue is that you really have to work hard to suspend your disbelief at the concept. Or at least, how it gets there. She splits into two people and each gets a week while the other sleeps. But how is this going to help Elizabeth Sparkle? She’s still old and unwanted and another version of her gets to live her life. As well, when problems start, they make no attempt to communicate with each other. To come up with some sort of plan or compromise. To even enjoy their success together. We also don’t know the motivation of the people providing The Substance, (though ultimately, that doesn’t matter to the story).

Of course, the flipside of my own argument is that maybe that’s the point — a person obsessed with health, exercise, youth, and beauty may not dialogue with themselves properly, to the point of it killing them slowly, as Sue is doing to Elizabeth. Reality and suspension of disbelief be damned. I can dig that, but all I can say is that some of these early story questions were distracting.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but wow. I found it brilliantly disgusting and wonderfully bold. Perhaps I need some therapy, but I laughed hard at the sheer insanity, bloodshed, and violence of it all. She out-Cronenbergs Cronenberg.

The Substance is not for everyone. I could see there being a lot of walk outs if unsuspecting boomers are going to see “Demi’s comeback movie.” But Fargeat takes all those influences and turns them into something that almost feels new again. Almost. I wouldn’t call it particularly original, but in a sea of IP and franchise films dominating the multiplex, it is a film that is unique and uncompromising, which is refreshing.

Overall, after rolling it around in my brain, I am all for The Substance. Sure, it has some flaws, but its willingness to rise up on its own terms, to show us some of the most bonkers imagery of the year, and to have something of value to say (even if that message wasn’t subtle), makes it well worth the price of admission.