The Substance serves MEGA CUNT
Natalia Dembowska
If you don’t want to waste time reading my silly review, I’ll tell you right away: The Substance is an absolute masterpiece that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. Totally original, instantly iconic, this cinematographic piece will certainly blow your socks off and have you leaving the theatre absolutely disgusted, yet more in love with yourself than ever before.
Directed, written, and produced by a French director Coralie Fargeat, The Substance was first released on 20 September 2024 in the UK. Starring (almost exclusively) Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, this futuristic and gruesome body horror/sci-fi centers around the construct of femininity - its consumption, exploitation, and deception. The story follows Elizabeth Sparkle (Moore), a widely-known fitness guru who upon turning 50 gets fired from her show to be replaced by a fresher, younger version of herself. This, as we find out, is to be taken more literally than one would expect.
Directed, written, and produced by a French director Coralie Fargeat, The Substance was first released on 20 September 2024 in the UK. Starring (almost exclusively) Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, this futuristic and gruesome body horror/sci-fi centers around the construct of femininity - its consumption, exploitation, and deception. The story follows Elizabeth Sparkle (Moore), a widely-known fitness guru who upon turning 50 gets fired from her show to be replaced by a fresher, younger version of herself. This, as we find out, is to be taken more literally than one would expect.
Infuriated, and hurt, Elizabeth stumbles upon a strange man who slips a note into her cunty yellow coat that informs her of the existence of an underground designer “youth” serum called “the Substance”. There’s only one rule - you have to switch each week. One week is for you, the next one is for your new self. No exceptions. So after a few martinis too many, Elizabeth comes back home, drunk dials the mysterious number written on the note, and decides to order it out of desperation and resignation. The next morning, hungover and depressed, she gets a call with the pick-up spot, and after retrieving her package from a dodgy garage, she decides to inject it and find out what the better version of herself is like.
Behold, because what happens next exceeds anyone’s wildest expectation. Charming, lovely, little Sue (Qualley) comes out of Elizabeth’s back (literally ripping it apart), and decides to eat - eat and leave no crumbs. She gets Elizabeth’s fitness gig, lives in her apartment, spends her money, and everyone simply falls in love with her. She walks around in cunty crop tops and high heels, and everyone around is drooling all over her, wanting a piece, and telling her how amazing and beautiful she is. As you may already suspect, things don’t go so well, and some rules of “the Substance” may or may not be broken along the way. Find out for yourself.
What struck me about this movie is that its surrealism is so deeply rooted in realism. Each experience that Elizabeth and Sue go through is iconographic, taking a simple act in a regular woman’s life and turning it into a symbol of the daily female experience in our capitalistic society. It reminds me of when you do something associated with femininity like shaving your legs or buying anti-aging creams, and you disassociate, over-thinking whether you’re a part of the problem, whether you’re giving in to the patriarchy, whether you should care, whether you’re doing this for yourself or to be accepted by others. At the end of her show, Elizabeth always says to the audience: “take care of yourself”. Yet she barely eats anything, drinks herself to sleep, and orders a mysterious drug to look younger. Sue may seem confident at first glance, but what she thinks is slaying is an act of satisfying others - men she meets, her disgusting boss, the societal expectations of what she needs to be. She’s pushing herself physically to an extreme while doing her show, showing up perfectly fresh and ready to go, but only partying and shopping in her free time. Both women have a set construct in mind of what type of a person or rather what type of “girl” they are, and they’re desperately trying to adhere to that ideal, seemingly confident when they manage, totally destroyed when they don’t.
This expectation is hence one of the biggest themes, and this does not come just from Elizabeth and Sue, but also from one of the very few other characters during the two hours of the film, their TV producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid). Harvey personifies the toxicity of the patriarchy, these white, middle-aged, rich men with a power trip, and the way this is captured in this film is truly spectacular. Every single shot of this character is just disgusting: close-ups of his dirty, sexualizing smiles, him pissing, smoking cigars, his gruesome mouth chewing on greasy shrimp. His revolting aura serves as a satirical portrayal of how women see these men and what sort of reasoning and intention are behind his presence. It’s satisfying, and truly refreshing to watch a movie with two female leads, and one stomach-turning, totally ridiculised male.
This expectation is hence one of the biggest themes, and this does not come just from Elizabeth and Sue, but also from one of the very few other characters during the two hours of the film, their TV producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid). Harvey personifies the toxicity of the patriarchy, these white, middle-aged, rich men with a power trip, and the way this is captured in this film is truly spectacular. Every single shot of this character is just disgusting: close-ups of his dirty, sexualizing smiles, him pissing, smoking cigars, his gruesome mouth chewing on greasy shrimp. His revolting aura serves as a satirical portrayal of how women see these men and what sort of reasoning and intention are behind his presence. It’s satisfying, and truly refreshing to watch a movie with two female leads, and one stomach-turning, totally ridiculised male.
I must say it was a pleasure to watch the construct of femininity destroyed right in front of my eyes, I think this was the most amazing part of this movie, and as it turns out this gets more and more literal as we approach the final scene (which is totally insane: it’s gory, nauseating, yet empowering - a truly spectacular, yet somewhat threatening show). Elizabeth nor Sue are ready to obey the rules or simply stop using the serum. So how far can they go? How far can we attempt to change the way we are? Can we attain ideals that we were forced into living, can we ever drop them?
When the film was over, you could hear the sighs of relief at the cinema. With my jaw on the floor, I turned around to see how the rest of the theatre looked after experiencing such an unusual spectacle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an audience this traumatised, this affected. Everyone was either staring into space with their mouths open, in shock, or yapping about how insane it was, turning to other people to see what their reaction was. As sick to my stomach as I was from what I just witnessed, I felt very loving and caring towards myself, and I felt like there’s some invaluable lessons I gained from this experience. Fuck capitalism, and fuck the patriarchy. But also, fuck being anyone but yourself, and fuck trying to be perfect. It’s an unattainable race, and you can’t outrun yourself.
Thank you Coralie Fargeat, thank you Demi Moore, and thank you, Margaret Qualley, for this truly spectacular film.
Illustrations by Katia