The Substance
released 2024
www.ink2quill.com

“The Substance” is a scifi, satirical, horror, soon-to-be-cult-classic film produced by Nicolas Royer, Alexandra Leowy, Eric Fellner, Coralie Fargeat and Tim Bevan. Coralie Fargeat also directed and wrote the screenplay. It stars Demi Moore, Denis Quaid, Edward Hamilton-Clark, Gore Abrams, Oscar Lesage, Christian Erickson, Robin Greer, Tom Morton, Hugo Diego Garcia, Daniel Knight, Jonathan Carley, Jiselle Henderkott, Akil Wingate, Billy Bentley and many more.

The Substance IMDb webpage

“The Substance” is the story of an aging TV personality named Elizabeth Sparks, played by Demi Moore. Her exercise show spanned many decades and made its sponsors a hefty hunk of change. But on her 50th birthday she gets the news that she is to be replaced by someone younger. This is devastating news for a woman who has nothing else but her show. She gave absolutely everything for her show, pushing herself everyday, day in and day out, foregoing meaningful relationships in her life, showing up every day and giving her job her all. All this only to be replaced by a younger woman by her lecherous boss Harvey, played by Denis Quaid. It must be noted that her boss, Harvey is a disgusting human being who cares absolutely nothing for people.

Upon finding out that she is to be replaced at her job she is approached with an offer to recapture her youth. She is given the opportunity to have a younger clone that can take over her career thanks to something known as ‘The Substance’. The whole process of creating and maintaining the younger clone is a little more complicated than just drinking a yellow liquid but it is what Elizabeth Sparks wants. Things go haywire when the younger clone takes more and more time and youth from Elizabeth.

First, let me say that this film will become a cult classic because it’s so well done and all the people who worked on it did such a good job including the actors and everyone else. I loved the way the time period of the story was hard to pin down. I’m still not sure. So much of the story takes place in a 1970 and 1980 setting with the carpets, TV etc. but they also have smart phones and other pieces that give it a more present, everyday feel to it.

I also loved the themes of this film. Let’s hope that generations from now, in the not-too-distant future viewers of this film will be able to look back in disgust at how Hollywood treated this star. To get to the point, there are themes of sexism. Men in this film are not portrayed well at all. Not just Harvey, but think of Sue’s neighbor or the people at the restaurant Harvey went to with Sue. Almost all the people inside were men who seemed too much alike not to be lecherous. This is all a powerful statement as to the type of oppression Elizabeth has been going through. The same thing can be said about racism, agism and all other forms of discrimination. I felt sorry for both Elizabeth and Sue because of the environments they had to suffer in. The younger clone of Sue seemed to wrestle her environment well but the truth of the matter is that eventually it would have gotten the better of her over time. Like someone told me at a literary convention, discrimination grinds you down and eventually kills you, and that’s the sad truth.

I also think that the villain in the story is the system with Harvey as its mouthpiece, at its center. He is so uncaring, manipulative and tacitly evil I have no problem disliking him for being a villain. Denis Quaid did such a good job as the villain. Is that antagonist that gets away with his bad behavior because he works within the system and it protects him. This film stirred up all kinds of feelings about that kind of evil.

Another grander theme is the fear of aging and death. This permeates the entire story even down to the scene when Harvey is eating the shrimp at the restaurant. He’s sucking down those shrimp the same way he uses and casts away the careers of people. For him his great fear must be to not being able to devour people the way he does. That’s the form of career death he fears.

This film is definitely worth the watch. So, check it out.

John Ink2Quill

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