The Substance (2024, Blu-ray, Library Rental) Review

[SRW1000]

Studio:  MUBI
Release Date:  1/21/2025
Rating:  R
Film Grade:  B

The Story:  Elizabeth Sparkle was a big star at one point.  But now that star is fading, for she’s past 50, an age where women are no longer “it” in Hollywood.  Her workout show is failing, and her future is bleak.  Through a chance meeting, she stumbles upon a possible solution, known only as The Substance.

My Take:  Despite the many accolades, nominations, and awards, this is not a serious movie.  Instead, take it as a modern, cautionary fable featuring loads of body horror themed around the burdens society puts on woman to hold onto their youthful looks and you’ll have a better understanding of what it’s trying to do.  Subtle, it is not. 

Yes, there’s nudity.  Is it gratuitous or leering?  No.  Is it necessary to the plot?  No.  The more provocative scenes actually feature fully clothed aerobics dancers.  Writer/director Coralie Fargeat treats the female form in various ways.  Sometimes as an idealized vision of beauty, sometimes with clinical detachment, and even as distorted, grotesque ugliness, all depending on the needs of the movie. 

I would suspect that the heaps of praise that Demi Moore has received are at least partially due to the bold choice to appear naked on screen, while over the age of 60.  The rest of her performance is fine, occasionally nuanced, but the character she’s given doesn’t have much depth to explore.  We really don’t know much about her at the beginning or the end of the film.  She seemingly has no friends to talk to for comfort or advice, living a solitary existence.  The rest of the characters are even more shallow.  Sue, her younger counterpart that catches the eye of the network, is little more than a glittering nymph, with no personality to speak of.  The men come off even worse, satirized as drooling, oblivious idiots that happen to hold all of the power.  Dennis Quaid hams it up as the disgusting, obnoxious, slobbering TV executive.  There’s one exception to this, but that story is abruptly halted. 

Do not expect any logic or explanation for what unfolds, that’s completely beside the point.  Things happen because they need to happen to support the movie’s themes, not because they make sense.  Although it features some dream sequences, it never fully captures the dreamy/nightmarish state that someone like David Lynch was able to make a staple of his work.  And this is where the film loses some points.

I’m going to get really nitpicky here, but there’s either a complete lack of attention to detail or there’s an intentional message that I’m missing.  On secondary viewings, I will pause on things like a newspaper, just to see if there are some hidden goodies to be found.  An early scene features the classifieds section of a newspaper.  Not only is the right page haphazardly spliced into the paper, both pages are littered with sloppiness.  Ads are repeated.  Los Angeles homes are listed for under $33K and two-bedroom rent is just $400.  One tells readers to click the link to learn more.  None of them have contact information. 

Sure, all of that might be forgivable, since it’s just throwaway information.  (Perhaps it’s AI generated?)  But the main purpose of the scene is to show an open audition notice and it’s completely generic.  “Auditions at the studio this Friday.”  What studio?  There’s no name listed, no contact information or address.  To take that a bit further, what network is this supposed to be?  It can’t be a broadcast network, since one of the shows features topless dancers.  Maybe this is attributable to the director’s European background.  Or maybe it plays into the general fable-like flavor of the film, where details are completely irrelevant. 

Or, maybe it’s just sloppy.  I’ll contrast that with the recent Nosferatu.  In the extras, David Eggers talks about how they hired calligraphers to create all kinds of papers, knowing that the audience wouldn’t even be able to make out any of them.  In frames where that work was visible, he goes into detail about the language they used and the decorative artwork in the margins.  You won’t find any of that in The Substance, where there’s an opposite approach of things being particularly nondescript/nonsensical.
   
Visuals:  This is a rich, luscious looking movie when needed, with bright, bold colors, and deep blacks, and excellent skin tones.  Some scenes take place in a stark white room, with revealing lighting.  This is mostly effective, but there is an exception.  The first two acts feature some remarkable makeup work and effects, being life-like and realistic.  That all falls apart in the third act, with lighting being too revealing and the camera lingering overly long on the handywork.  It ends up hurting the horror and tension, coming off more as silly and showoff-like, undercutting the pivotal scenes.

Audio:  While the disc only contains a DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix, it’s surprisingly lively, aided by a soundtrack that alternates upbeat vibes with off-kilter moodiness that works really well with different scenes.  There are a few instances of panning, such as when a maid vacuums from one side of the room to another, but there’s nothing outstanding to be found here.

Special Features:  There is a short featurette with the director that doesn’t offer much insight into the making of the movie.  It’s more of a fluffy marketing piece than something for the fans to appreciate.

Final Verdict:  This is a rare case where I lowered my grade between the initial viewing and writing the review.  While the movie offers thrills and has some nice touches to it, it’s not fresh or revolutionary.  The themes presented have been seen before.  Shows like The Twilight Zone have done a better job, and in under 30 minutes.  Stylistically, it’s derivative of David Cronenberg’s works, but without the complexity or nuance.  Instead, it offers spoon-fed symbolism and simplistic setups.

On a cynical, sarcastic, horror movie level it does score some points.  It has genuine laugh-out-loud instances of dark humor.  We get some visceral disturbing moments, but the experience is ultimately shallow, with only the visual elements remaining with the viewers.

Worth a watch if your curious and not offended by either nudity or grotesque body horror, but I can’t recommend it as a blind buy or as a title to watch with a group of friends (unless you know the movie and your friends quite well).

Expository Quote:  “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?  Younger.  More beautiful.  More perfect.  One single injection unlocks your DNA. . .”

My Review System:
JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
Oppo BDP-93
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup

[Paul Heroy]

Pass, though my wife has already declared she's watching this.

One question, Scott. You mentioned lowering your grade between initial viewing and writing the review. The grade listed is B. What was the initial grade? B+ or A? Either would surprise me based on your description.

[bmoney]

This movie was terrible 

It gets a F- for me. Yuck

[David Vaughn]

I had a massive crush on Demi back in the 80s, not so much today. 

[SRW1000]

Pass, though my wife has already declared she's watching this.

One question, Scott. You mentioned lowering your grade between initial viewing and writing the review. The grade listed is B. What was the initial grade? B+ or A? Either would surprise me based on your description.

Hi Paul,

My gut reaction was a B+, but after listening to the director's commentary and evaluating it on those terms and goals rather than just a horror film, I dropped it to a B. 

It's still an above average horror movie, but I'm mystified by all the accolades and awards.  Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Direction, and Actress?  It's highly unusual for a horror movie to get anything other than technical nominations, and its above average for that genre, but to be considered in the top 10 of all of the movies released last year is a huge stretch.

Reflecting on my review, the negativity was more of a rebuttal to the surprisingly high praise that it has received rather than just the film on its own.  It was entertaining enough to earn a B from me.

I'd be curious to hear what your wife thinks of it after she watches it (maybe she can coax you into joining her?).  My wife isn't a lover of this genre, but she also gave it a B grade. 

[SRW1000]

This movie was terrible

It gets a F- for me. Yuck

I can certainly understand that, although you'd never know it from the professional critics.

I just looked at the aggregate reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, and they're overwhelmingly positive:

The Substance (2024, Blu-ray, Library Rental) Review

Certainly not the numbers I would have expected after having watched it.  Skimming through the summaries, it looks like their alignment with the shallow themes overcame any of its shortcomings.

But it was a big failure for some of them as well.

[SRW1000]

I had a massive crush on Demi back in the 80s, not so much today.

She never did anything for me back then, so I wasn't able to take that into account when watching it.  I will say that she has aged more gracefully than others her age, with only a few signs of touchups.

[David Vaughn]

She never did anything for me back then, so I wasn't able to take that into account when watching it.  I will say that she has aged more gracefully than others her age, with only a few signs of touchups.

I think it was during the movie "About Last Night" that my crush started  That Rob Lowe was a pretty lucky guy

Although I think my all time movie star crush is Aubrey Hepburn, even though she was an old lady by the time I was a teenager. But watching her films from back in the 50s, I think she's one of the most beautiful actresses of all time. Throw in that British accent and that's just the cherry on top of the sundae! 

[Barry]

I am so grateful for this page. It is so help me watch movies that are really worth watching and many that I didn’t know about.

But it also saved me a lot of time not watching a lot of movies I would not want to see. So tonight we’re going to see Amadeus and not this will be here:)