Review: The Substance
If You Follow The Instructions, What Could Go Wrong?
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film The Substance. Keep in mind this is but one of the many movies I watch every year, and that whatever initial grade I come up for this film could change for better or worse with time. To better keep up to date with both my thoughts on other movies and if my feelings on this film changed, follow me on Letterboxd.
I’d also appreciate it greatly if you spread the word about the newsletter to any family or friends who would love to have film reviews, classic movie lists, and Oscars projections delivered straight to their inbox.
THE PLOT
Via Letterboxd: A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
QUICK REVIEW
Three years ago body horror pulled off the ultimate coup when Titane won the top prize at the Cannes film festival. Earlier this year a new body horror original, from director Coralie Fargeat, and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid, The Substance, premiered at the festival to high raves - escaping with the screenplay prize. The great reviews continued into TIFF’s Midnight Madness where it won that bloc’s top prize. Earlier today, I finally got my own eyes on a movie that has been seen as a long-shot Best Picture contender that could land Moore an acting nod at the oscars. And I ended up really liking it - but also really conflicted about one thing.
From the standpoint of pure film-making this movie is an amazing feat. The direction is up there with Dune: Part Two as among the best i’ve seen from the year. The editing, the production design, the costume design, the cinematography, the makeup and hair, the visual effects, and the score are all as top notch as it gets. I was blown away to see such technical mastery from a body horror film of all things. The performances are outstanding - particularly Moore who shines, as she showed me range I didn’t ever think she had in her. There’s a sexiness in this movie that oozes from its pores - even as it leans into the disgusting and macabre elements of horror it has to offer.
The movie also has an infinitely interesting investigation of the impossible standards of beauty we put onto women in society. A woman as beautiful as Demi Moore being seen as old-hat and being disgusted with herself feels unbelievable; but I’ve myself known too many women in my life who have hyper-focused on what they perceive as physical flaws even as you compliment them. Watching Moore’s character get to a point she can’t even be confident enough to go on a dinner date with a regular joe was heartbreaking to watch unfold, given everything we see her go through in the film by then. The way the camera is used to study the bodies of our two female protagonists, challenging me as someone with a male gaze to see Moore’s self-loathing and yet get seduced into Qualley’s scenes that were shot as if they were cheap “sex sells” commercials - a great decision by Fargeat in my mind. The zooms on Quaid’s face that made me feel disgusted by his leering and body judgment were also particularly masterful in making me sympathize with our protagonists.
But for as much as I was in awe in the way this film is shot, presented, and acted out, the screenplay, the very thing it won a prize for at Cannes (go figure), ultimately kept me from loving it as much as I feel like I should’ve. For as A+ as the technical aspects are, decisions are made in the screenplay’s third act that left me feeling frustrated. What starts out as a fascinating look into self-loathing, addiction, and beauty standards put upon women, turns into something I found a bit too self-indulgent and “shocking for shock’s sake” by the end. I get this is a body horror meant to disgust and shock us, but there is such a thing when you lean so much into the gimmick that I found myself rolling my eyes when the credits rolled on what this all ultimately lead to when it was all said and done.
I last felt about a movie like this with 2022’s Decision To Leave. That too was a movie that on a technical level I adored, but whose script made decisions in its third act that had me ripping my hair out. Nevertheless that movie showed up on my personal awards ballot, and The Substance likely will too because it is undeniable how incredible the filmmaking that went into it is. But ending is paramount, and this movie’s third act alienated me, by the end, to my deep disappointment. I can’t help but give this is a solid B+ for the awe-inspiring crafts and performances this offers to horror fans to watch on a big screen. From a pure technical and crafts levels, this is easily one of the greatest films of this year. I just wish I could have less gripes with its story choices, otherwise I could have put this into my A-tier list of films from the year.
INITIAL GRADING
