“The Substance” was released at the end of last month and I’ve already seen it twice. This movie is gory, graphic and satirical, but it is also a beautiful representation of what women go through.
Going into this movie I had no idea what was going to happen and I was not expecting to witness the raw emotions Demi Moore exhibited so skillfully.
Moore did a wonderful job of capturing the audience’s emotions and illustrating the emotions that so many women feel.
The idea of this movie is that there is a substance that creates a better, more beautiful version of yourself.
The story follows a washed-up actress, Elisabeth Sparkle who is struggling with her age and changing body. She finds out about the substance and decides to give it a try so she can be beautiful once again.
However, the drug has unforeseen side effects and we watch as Elisabeth struggles with her new counterpart.
This movie was directed by Coralie Fargeat who also directed “Revenge.” She’s known for challenging gender stereotypes and societal norms in her movies and we see it in this movie.
She consistently has a tough and independent female lead who breaks these societal conventions of women.
Something that I didn’t notice until watching the movie a second time was the consistent male presence throughout the movie.
At Sue and Elisabeth’s job, we see practically every higher-up is a man and they are constantly encroaching on the two women.
Their boss Harvey is constantly in their personal space and has rude and disgusting actions and behaviors. When Harvey appears on the screen in the movie, the audience views him from an abstract angle instead of traditional straight-on shot.
He fills up the whole screen and barely leaves any room for other characters or even the background.
I can’t help but wonder if this style choice is meant to show patriarchal tendencies in society or the workplace to take up room. Within our society we constantly see men taking up space and barely acknowledging the room they’re taking from those around them, especially women.
“The Substance” does a great job of capturing this idea and showing the audience just how frustrating it can be.
I can’t be the only one who has been told by men while working that “you should smile” or “why aren’t you smiling?” There is nothing more annoying than being told by a man how you should be acting or how you should look a certain way.
We see this in the scene below, when Sue is obviously distressed and Harvey along with the stakeholders, who are all men, tell her that she should be smiling.
Women are constantly expected to perform and meet unrealistic standards for men, even in their most vulnerable moments.
Elisabeth and Sue are continually subjected to this pressure and are often haunted by it.
For Elisabeth, these expectations are especially harmful, as the movie unfolds, we see how deeply they shape her sense of self.
The idea of how society often ties a woman’s value to her appearance is seen especially via Elisabeth’s job.
Furthermore, Elisabeth loses her job because she is deemed “no longer what people want,” not due to her skills or performance.
We can all assume this is a thinly veiled way of saying she no longer meets the youthful and idealized image of a woman that her employer demands.
This is a stark example of how age and appearance standards can undermine women’s careers, regardless of their talent or dedication.
One of the first scenes that really got me was the scene of Elisabeth trying to get ready for a date.
Sue, her counterpart, starts to get into her head and Elisabeth becomes self-conscious because she doesn’t look like Sue who looks very young.
Elisabeth seems to be done getting ready but then keeps coming back to the bathroom to change her lipstick. This happens roughly three times before she ultimately breaks down and decides not to go.
This scene was so heartbreaking to watch. It shows such a raw depiction of what so many women go through. Most women feel the need to look a certain way to be accepted in society and Elisabeth embodies this struggle so well.
She struggles to accept herself and the way she looks with her increasing age and Sue is a constant reminder that she no longer looks young and “beautiful.”
I’ve been in this exact situation of not liking how I look and just going into this mode of insanity when trying to fix the problems I see.
I constantly felt bad for Elisabeth while watching this movie. I thought she was beautiful and to watch her go down that spiral of not being enough was hard to watch. I just wanted to reach through the screen and hug her.
Overall, this movie was beautifully done and made me and most other women feel seen.
It perfectly balanced satire and gore and allowed for the audience to feel that while it hit on important topics it wasn’t meant to be a heavy movie.
I hope you all go watch this movie and be prepared to have your stomach twisted and your heartstrings pulled!