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Rob Ryan
Just as when you thought you have seen everything, The Substance out does itself and keeps out doing itself even more and then some. This is a movie that for the first hour and fifty minutes, I thought there was no way it could get more over the top, more grotesque, more disgusting, I thought the movie was out of surprises, but then, I was in awe. I found my self fully realising where its initial hype from the Cannes Film Festival came from. The film is a beautifully made and intricately plotted B-Movie that seems designed to push the limits of what audiences can put up with, even if you don't enjoy the satire, even if its commentary is a little too on the nose, chances are, the last thing you will find this movie ever being is dull.
The film stars Demi Moore in a performance that must have taken everything out of her, She plays Elizabeth Sparkle, a washed up movie star who now spends her days hosting a Yoga dance show, Her agent (A scene chewing Dennis Quaid) makes no secret that due to her age, she's no longer profitable as a star and has plans to fire her. Alone, desperate and running out of options, she is tipped off by a man in a hospital after getting into a car accident about a black market drug that few people know about, the titular Substance, that promises to provide "a better version of yourself" she makes a phone call to the provider, is tipped on a location of where to collect her package and then she takes the drug by injecting it into her system. A little prematurely she assumes that it was all a sham, but before she can move on, that better version of herself (Margret Qualley) begins to take shape inside of her and breaks out of her back.
Understand that I am only giving the basics of the plot as the rules of this drug and how it works are very well detailed that you can buy this being a thing in real life, the film for the first hour is like an orange, with each new peel giving us more and more juices to sink your teeth into, giving this a plot description won't do the storytelling justice but the main stipulation of the drug is that the other version of yourself can only be used for one week without exception, then its back to your old self for one week and so forth, this may work for a regular person with no prospects and a limited set of friends, but Elizabeth plans on using her new self to replace the old self as host of the Yoga instructing show. You can probably sense that things won't end well and that is the biggest understatement of the year. All this is done with bright, gorgeous colours and cinematography, a departure from the dark murky colours we are accustomed in horror movies, fantastic make up design and memorable performances.
Coralie Farget directs and writes with confidence, with a sense of humour and cynicism (complementary) that is all her own, she's clearly inspired by exploitation horror and body horror from the likes of Cronenberg but makes sure the movie looks and sounds beautiful while you are watching the extreme material play out. Her previous film Revenge (2017) took the rape-revenge genre to its bare bones and made it fully cinematic. Fargeat is such a gore fan that she probably likes to marinate in fake blood as a pastime. Its no wonder Universal the original distributer opted out of releasing it as they probably thought it would be too disgusting for audiences to handle thus shelving the movie for a year.
The films supporting characters are such cartoons that the protagonist is the only one that resembles a real person, Qualley with her spoiled rich girl persona that she carries effortlessly throughout and Dennis Quaid as a larger than life, chauvinistic womaniser who is all about appealing to his shareholders, both deliver Fargeat's jokes with ease and panache but this is Moore's movie and as the only straight person she's the one who like the movie's plotting in the second to third acts, is the most reckless. Someone that is so taken in by the high of fame and exposure that any other prospects in life are seemingly impossible avenues to pursue, even when she's given the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend like normal people, if only if she didn't feel so bad about how old she looks, if only she didn't carry a lot of self hatred, which in turn could explain for why she is so lonely when outside of a TV set.
Once you finally get to the end of The Substance, you may realise that the movie isn't exactly the most nuanced when it comes to it's commentary about the Hollywood system and how it places women in impossible standards to maintain their youthful and sexy image, but once you accept that the satire presented in this movie is more of a comedic exaggeration of a real life grievance then a profound look at ageing and sexism, the more likely you'll be on this movie's wave length. Then again, the premise doesn't seem that far from the realm of possibility when you consider that "Young Blood Transfusion" a company that despite not having FDA approval grants "eternal youth" by injecting yourself with the blood of young people, even though there is no evidence proving that. Regardless, Hollywood celebrities like Sandra Bullock and a plethora of other rich people still use it to this day.
The films escalation in the second to third acts, does feel like the movie is pushing the boundaries of what it can get away with regardless if it works narratively , it might have been a more cohesive movie if it didn't feel the need to cross the lines of decency but boy oh boy does it go off the rails, which normally would be a sign of a bad movie but it didn't matter to me because the intention of it's final acts was surely met, at that point the movie appealed to a certain part of my psyche that enjoys careless, mindless gore and violence, not the kind that falls into the category of torture porn, but the kind is done without a care of the world and will cause me to laugh in hysterics.
Go in with Caution, if you think have it all figured out... think again!!
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