The Substance (Coralie Fargeat) • Page 3

Bah I didn’t really care for this. Bummed.

 

Jesus Christ on a cross this was perfectly calibrated to be probably the most fucked up film I’ve ever seen in theaters.

I can’t believe no one has mentioned the fucking SOUND DESIGN making everything 100x gnarlier. It was masterful and also horrifying.

I also almost fainted at the first spinal tap between the sutures. Felt my palms start shaking, a cold sweat take over my body, and my knees get weak. Definitely looked away a few times after that.

 

hopping out to avoid spoilers. enjoy, y'all!

 

I hate to complain about plot, but there is a glaring problem with this that just gnawed at me the entire movie. I won’t spoil it. But I also found it incredibly superficial, and kind of felt like it had more contempt for women than the system that imposes these standards. It knows it’s superficial, and obviously this is hammered home by the glossy photography, but it became incredibly tedious over nearly 2.5 hours. It’s kind of like if The Zone of Interest was bad (ie, hammering home one central theme repeatedly).

I saw someone say this is the Ruben Ostlund movie about beauty standards in show biz and I agree. I also felt like all the nods to Cronenberg, Kubrick, Verhoeven, Lynch, de Palma, etc were tricks to bully this movie into that echelon of filmmaking. I didn’t buy it.

 

Spoiler tag it and give us your thoughts!

I don’t disagree that the “hagsploitation” might’ve been the weakest part of the film. I felt the same about X.

 

the supposed symbiotic relationship between Sparkle and Sue makes no sense, they feel like totally different people that have nothing to actually do with each other, and I never really believed they did other than a voiceover repeatedly telling me that they did, that they were one. How so? Like does Sparkle get satisfaction from Sue’s exploits? If so the movie really fails conveying that, at least to me. So I found myself wondering at points why she would ever agree to this after the first week trial? Basically I wanted the movie to do a far better job intertwining them. She basically wakes up every 7 days to a messy apartment and grotesque deformities and does nothing about it. It’s a very stylish movie, and I do love practical effects, but it’s basically just a pretty sledgehammer, and that eventually bored me.

 

I don’t disagree about the sledgehammer-iness either. Most of the time I felt like it was played for laughs, but there was one montage that made me feel like the movie thought I was dumb, which was when she goes to use the Activator for the second time and we get like 30 seconds of SINGLE USE flashed at us haha.

 

But they are the same person. What she gets out of it is she gets to be Sue for those 7 days. Shes not just going to sleep for seven days while another person goes out and has fun, she is getting to be young again for that week. They act completely different because they have completely different circumstances and bodies, different goals for their time.

 

I may never get over the fact that it was supposed to be Ray Liotta in the Quaid role

 

I thought Qualley did a great job taking on some of Moore's mannerisms as Elisabeth on that first day to show us that she is still the same person.

The substance causes Elisabeth to experience a physical manifestation of her self hatred, resulting in complete disassociation. She starts to seem like two different people to us because she starts to believe it herself. She, as “Sue”, is able to view a body that she hates from the outside in and tell herself “that is not me”.

Elisabeth grows resentful of the way she can only experience a life she wants for seven days at a time, especially when it starts to take a toll on her body. I would imagine she continues the experience because she does realize they are still one person, and those seven days driving as Sue mean more to her than it means to drive as Elisabeth at all - until it’s too late

 

Elisabeth didn't have a romantic partner and it's unclear how much of her loneliness is by choice, even before hand it's implied that her job was her whole life

 

But not really? She’s experiences none of Sue’s exploits or spoils. So the question is why does she continue the experiment? I could see if she was thriving on vicariously getting to enjoy all of the pleasures. But she doesn’t. And the movie never makes it seem that way either. She basically falls asleep for 7 days and wakes up and she’s herself again. I think the movie does a pretty poor job setting up their relationship and interconnectivity. Sue to me seems like a completely independent person with her own Agency. Ie has nothing to do with Elisabeth. Feels like a bug not a feature. And this has nothing to do with the theme of the film, which I think also misses the mark, which is a problem when it’s like the big theme of the 2.5 hour movie.

 

They're literally one person. The way I see it, until they split it's a singular consciousness transferring between the two bodies. As the title suggests, its like being on drugs or alcohol, you may act completely differently as you feel completely different but it's still the same person. This shows how much of who she is as a person is tied to her beauty and how she's perceived by others which is exactly what the film is about. That and what she is willing to risk to gain that beauty back, even for only half of the time.

 

oh I absolutely understand that they are the same person. I’m saying I don’t think the movie does a good job laying out their interconnectedness other than telling me they are one, over and over again. I think the disassociation is a reasonable argument but that still doesn’t mean the film does it well. Which is where I am at. And I think there are a few instances where the audience is kind of treated stupidly, which then makes me wonder if the movie also thinks it’s doing a bad job at laying out their relationship which is why we are constantly bombarded by voiceovers and instruction caps lock.

 

I'm not sure how the film does a bad job at laying out their interconnectedness at all really and if you get that they are the same person how do you not see what Elizabeth is getting out of it?

 

I didn’t feel like it was particularly hand-holdy, but can’t blame someone else for seeing it that way. It is a lot. IMO all the “reminder” type stuff is just the movie being as extreme as it is in every other way

 

just saying “remember you are one” isn’t good filmmaking imo. I was also eventually annoyed by the references to The Shining, 2001, Videodrome, Carrie, Showgirls, Mulholland Dr. all movies that are more nuanced and interesting and curious in their storytelling. And if we dive into the themes I think the movie fails there too as I think it ends up being more critical of Sparkle/Sue than the actual predatory industry, another bug not feature.

 

It is def a lot. And I was pretty worn out by the end. Not knocking anyone for enjoying it. I was honestly glad that it’s something you could see at an AMC on opening weekend 2000 screens. It’s a good thing.

 

Yeah I just disagree with all of that haha.

 

I just got back from seeing it a second time and I somehow enjoyed it even more. I think it's a perfect film.

 

This is for absolute sickos only. Highly recommend.

 

Some guy said "that's the second worst film I've ever seen" on the way out.

 

You gotta wonder what takes his top spot.

 

Was the first “Popstar”?

 

Neon Demon