Basically, an “exercise queen”, aging out of her career and desperate to reclaim some of her old glory, takes the drastic step to use “The Substance” and split herself into a more perfect and original version of herself with dramatic and horrifying consequences. I would go into more detail, but there really isn’t much more to say.
I am so frustrated by this film, it really had all the markers for an excellent body horror…and they threw it all away on the visuals. The acting was fantastic, we would expect nothing less from Demi Moore. Watching her portray a desperate aging beauty was so unexpected and lovely because she always seems so confident with her aging. Yet, we all know this has to address a deeply held fear for a Hollywood staple like her.
Margaret Qualley, was delightful as a dewy, fresh-faced sweetheart Sue, who only hates her other self. It was chilling to watch her treat the source of her life so carelessly…and then, when the cameras are on, come alive again. And Denis Quaid, was delightfully smarmy. Every time he came on screen I wanted to curl my lip, and yet I found myself laughing at the absurdity of his character Harvey.
The camera angles, the disjointed filming, it all works in this film. As we progress further into this push/pull between them the filming gets as disjointed as they are. It is lovely. Then to snap back to the normal angles and normal timing when they are in their own lives, it makes your head spin and makes the chaotic parts more unsettling.
So what is my problem with it?
14 year old boys rejoice – it’s a spankfest! Seriously, there is so much nudity…long, drawn out nudity. So much nudity it is a distraction from the point of the film. When we first see Sue (Qualley) the nudity isn’t a woman looking at herself, it is a woman performing for a man. She rubs herself, she spins, she lifts her hair, she wiggles her ass…she puts on a sexual show. And it just goes on. Every time Sue (Qualley) is on the screen she is only a body, there is nothing deeper. It infuriated me, because we get flashes of her more complex feelings, but we never get to experience them. She’s plastic, and while that is the point, it makes her distant and her actions less horrifying…because a doll doesn’t know any better, right?
I get it, we as women are only seen as valuable if we are beautiful and sweet, but rather than fight this imagery all I saw in this film was the acknowledgement, nay endorsement, of it rather than a condemnation. For the love of God, one of the press photos (below) is just tits – no face, no head, because women are only here to be admired.
So, if you’re 14 years old and want to see full frontal…go for it.
If you want a real examination of the sublimation of a woman’s role in this world…watch anything else that passes the Bechdel Test.