The Substance
2024's THE SUBSTANCE went far beyond what I was anticipating. Sometimes this can be a good thing, to have your expectations subverted. But this? Wow. That final half hour or so left me speechless, and...not in a good way. I was laughing, too. In disbelief. That writer/director Coralie Fargeat would take her intriguing (if overly familiar) premise to such extremes. To make her not-subtle-in-the-least movie a true Satire for Dummies. Perhaps abandoning any pretense of insight and shooting for the peanut gallery.
Granted, I have a reserved seat in that gallery sometimes. I can appreciate an over-the-top gore fest with the best of 'em. But Fargeat doesn't get to have it both ways here. Her trenchant points about aging, ageism, body shaming, the hollowness of celebrity, and much more get absolutely buried in both too broad caricature and unspeakably gooey makeup effects, the kind that will remind some of SOCIETY, a film which didn't quite make the grade either, but never pretended to be anything but a B-movie.
Demi Moore is Elisabeth Sparkle, a once popular Hollywood star reduced to hosting an aerobics show on TV. A gig she's about to lose as her producer, Harvey (Dennis Quaid) thinks she's over the hill. After suffering injuries from a car accident (during which she notices a billboard of herself being taken down), Elisabeth is given a flash drive by a nurse at the hospital. One she finds advertises a serum that can create a younger, better version of her current self. "The Substance". She resists at first, but L.A.'s a pretty unforgiving place to former starlets.
We learn how it works. Once injected, Elisabeth will pass out and that younger version will emerge from a slit in her back. "Sue" (Margaret Qualley) will have to switch places with Elisabeth every seven days. Stabilizer fluids and IV food supplies will keep both parties alive. Sounds like an old episode of Twilight Zone? Or maybe an O. Henry short story?
The questions do mount. The women are supposed to share a consciousness, but when each awakens is suprised (and eventually repelled) by the other's behavior. Needless to say things go very, very wrong. Youth will truly based wasted on the young, and the elder will be cast aside, sucked dry (quite literally in this movie). We never see Elisabeth paying for the substance, must be awfully expensive! Ah, but the true cost is...
Easy to figure. THE SUBSTANCE is a film with a juicy idea that does not deliver on its potential. Rather, it is decidedly juvenile and gross. The film is advertised as a prestige picture, but proves itself to be as campy and ridiculous as some '80s straight to video refuse. That said, the practical makeup effects are quite good, but they should be in a different movie.
And Fargeat really doesn't trust her audience. Maybe she's right, maybe everything needs to be spelled out for today's viewer. Such as the scene when Elisabeth encounters an old man in a diner. And Quaid's ridiculous performance would be panned even in a bad SNL sketch. Hollywood cliches are rampant here, and not rendered with much thought. Though there are indications that underneath the spectacle is a thoughtful cautionary tale. A more Norma Desmondish take.
Moore, in a largely wordless performance, is very good. The best scene in this film involves her repeated attempts at getting ready for a date. Really underlines the film's point without being excessive. Can't say that about the rest of this movie.
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