The Substance is a 2024 satirical body horror film co-produced, written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. The film stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid. An international co-production between the United Kingdom, the United States[2] and France, its plot follows a fading celebrity (Moore) who decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself (Qualley), unknowingly giving herself horrifying side effects.
The Substance premiered on 19 May 2024 at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, and was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in its main competition section, where Fargeat won Best Screenplay. The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom and the United States by Mubi on 20 September 2024, and is scheduled to be released in France by Metropolitan Filmexport on 6 November 2024.
The Substance premiered on 19 May 2024 at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, and was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in its main competition section, where Fargeat won Best Screenplay. The film was released theatrically in the United Kingdom and the United States by Mubi on 20 September 2024, and is scheduled to be released in France by Metropolitan Filmexport on 6 November 2024.
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00:00Now, we review the 2024 film, The Substance.
00:09Yes, Substance.
00:14Ladies and gentlemen, I have seen what I believe is my top film for the year so far.
00:22And the year is almost over.
00:26Well, more than 90 days left, but that's not the point.
00:34The Substance is a new film starring Demi Moore,
00:39where she plays a 50-year-old who's in the entertainment industry,
00:44and she's passed her prime, she's losing jobs,
00:51and she gets the opportunity to do something scientific
00:59that essentially gives her two selves.
01:03Herself, and a younger, hotter version of herself.
01:15Wow.
01:18This is a movie about addiction and internal struggle.
01:23You've got two characters essentially playing the same person.
01:27One is the public persona that is making the money,
01:31and the other one is the true self, which is suffering from a poor life balance.
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02:01Now, one of the things I have to say, the poetic weirdness about this film,
02:08is that Demi Moore, I checked, I believe she's 61 now,
02:12and she plays a 50-year-old character.
02:19So it really does say something about just the world that is perceived here.
02:26Now, let me tell you that this is a body horror film,
02:31and not only does it earn its R rating,
02:34this film should be NC-17.
02:37This is going to give people nightmares.
02:40This film is insane.
02:43I mean, not only is there just a huge amount of nudity in this film,
02:49I mean, not only is it nudity,
02:52it's very disturbing nudity in certain scenes with the body horror elements.
03:00I mean, this is, it's not mutilation, it's not a splatter film.
03:04There's some blood in this, but wow.
03:07I mean, there are elements of the fly and the thing in this film.
03:15This is extreme body horror.
03:18This is the body horror that Cronenberg would truly love.
03:23But it's sane enough so that you're not just grossed out.
03:27You don't want to vomit.
03:29But I mean, just wow is the body horror in this film incredible.
03:35You know, it is really disturbing stuff.
03:40I will say that if I wanted to make it grosser,
03:43I would have made it a little less dry in places.
03:47But I mean, in the end there, it really, wow.
03:52This is disturbing.
03:55I mean, this film is shot like an art film.
04:00There are a lot of extreme close-ups,
04:03and there are a lot of odd scenes.
04:07There's one scene with Demi Moore where, you know,
04:10she's talking to this other character,
04:12and they make the conscious choice to show her from the nose down,
04:16not showing her eyes,
04:18which, I mean, removal of the face of a character tends to be very dehumanizing.
04:23That's one of those symbols there.
04:25So it's almost like this person dehumanized her,
04:29and it's just very artistic in terms of its shooting.
04:33And I will also say that the sound score for this film,
04:37it's exactly what it should be.
04:40I mean, really, they don't use a huge amount of music in this film,
04:45but what they do use is very appropriate to set the mood
04:49and the surreality of this picture.
04:51But, I mean, the mainstay of this,
04:54the center stage product is the body horror,
04:58which is truly, truly incredible.
05:01And I have to ask, you know,
05:04did they use a body double for Demi Moore?
05:06Because that does not look like her hiney.
05:10I mean, her hiney has been in a lot of things,
05:13and it's always been a spectacular hiney.
05:16And, you know, one of the things about the hiney
05:19is that it is one of those parts of the body that you can tone.
05:23You know, this is a woman who's always taken very good care of herself,
05:27so I think she might have, if that was her real hiney
05:30in that particular shot where they showed off the hiney,
05:34I think that she probably looked at her hiney and said,
05:37this is why I'm going to make this movie.
05:40Because, you know, I mean, it just doesn't look like her hiney.
05:46You go and you Google her hiney,
05:49and she just has a much better hiney than that.
05:52So that's just one of those things, you know,
05:55and it's like the other actress, I forget her name,
05:58she has an incredible hiney.
06:00And, I mean, yes, you see a lot of her hiney.
06:03Her hiney is very, very prominent in this movie.
06:06There's a lot of hiney going on.
06:08And you're just going...
06:11Demi Moore is a very attractive woman, even still.
06:14You know, she hasn't really lost that attractiveness.
06:17She's not like, okay, you know, perfect,
06:20but still a very attractive woman, you know,
06:24for being a person who's done as much work as she has,
06:29been under the stress she's had.
06:31It's really surprising she can take really good care of herself.
06:34And that's just one of those things.
06:36It's just like, yeah, that's the person you want in this movie
06:40because, you know, she looks great.
06:43Yeah, someone goes, well, yeah, but, I mean, you know, she's not 25.
06:48Yeah, okay, but she looks a lot better than a lot of 25-year-olds I've met.
06:52Anyway, Dennis Quaid also is a real standout for this movie.
06:56He plays kind of a secondary antagonist to the self.
07:01He is a D-bag.
07:03And, I mean, there's just one scene where he is eating shrimp.
07:07He is making that shrimp utterly disgusting.
07:11And, I mean, it is just incredible how well he does that.
07:16The close-ups of his mouth, the rudeness of the body, and eating
07:20are very much on display in this film.
07:23This is a painful film to watch.
07:26You are glued to it.
07:28This is like George R. R. Martin part of
07:32you're afraid to see what happens next kind of filmmaking.
07:36How they got this under an R rating, I just do not know.
07:40But he is just this horrible sleaze character.
07:47And then, in the end, you know, it's one of those things about this film
07:51is that the central theme is the internal battle and balance.
07:55Finding balance in your life.
07:58Finding balance between who you want to be and who you truly are.
08:02And it's one of those things, you know, it's like
08:06this woman has this sort of second lease on life.
08:10But, in order to enjoy the second lease on life,
08:14she's killing herself.
08:16And, you know, it's like there's a development of an eating disorder in this movie.
08:21Which is very prescient to these particular people.
08:26And, I mean, there are these scenes where
08:30she's almost taking out her anger on food.
08:35It's just really, like, yeah, I get it.
08:40You know?
08:42Taking out your anger on food.
08:45Consuming as a form of control.
08:48Of gaining a lexicon.
08:51It's one of those movies that is almost existential
08:55in its brawness and the scope of the pain that it displays.
09:01I think a lot of people are going to be able to see this movie
09:05and understand what is going on and what is happening.
09:10So, look, this film, it is an art film.
09:13So I can give it the art film rating.
09:17But it's a really great art film.
09:21So this gets my very rare must watch rating.
09:25This is one of the best films I've seen this year.
09:29It is really, I mean, I don't think I could watch it again
09:33because it is so emotionally draining.
09:35But this is a film you really should see.
09:38But just be prepared for the fact that it is a gross movie.
09:43It is an agonizing movie.
09:45It is a Requiem for a Dream level movie.
09:49Wherein, you may not be able to watch this a second time
09:54because it is so disturbing.
09:57And I will say that I have watched many body horror movies multiple times.
10:02I have watched The Thing maybe five or six times.
10:06I have watched The Fly at least three times.
10:09This film, I don't know if I could do it again.
10:13It is that horrific. It is that good.
10:18So yes, The Substance is a must watch film.
10:23Go out and see it.
10:25It is probably going to be much better in theaters
10:28unless you have a really big nice TV at home.
10:31And that's my opinion.
10:33I'd love to hear yours down in the comments below.
10:35I, of course, am Richard.
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