I just now finished watching this movie [at the time of starting to write this review]. It is a newer movie that premiered in theaters in September 2024 [it was originally shown at Cannes Film Festival earlier that year] and I think it may be up for an Oscar in some category or other [it is nominated in five categories: Demi Moore for leading actress, Coralie Fargeat for director, makeup and hairstyling, Best Picture, and writing for original screenplay]. I don't remember hearing about this movie when it was originally in theaters, only within the last couple of days, which probably had something to do with the Oscars.
I watched the trailer and was intrigued. In order to thoroughly discuss the movie, this review will contain spoilers. The premise involves an aging celebrity who is offered a chance to take a Substance that will create a better, more perfect version of herself. This movie is a drama with body horror. It's also somewhat meta, about fame and celebrity and the entertainment industry's focus on beauty and youth.
The way the Substance works is that it creates a second body for the person who takes it. The new body contains the same mind/consciousness as the original body, just in a better exterior package. Each body can be inhabited for seven days in a row, and then they are supposed to be switched out. The person is reminded repeatedly that both bodies are still them, rather than two completely separate people. While one body is not being inhabited, it exists in some kind of stasis (eyes open) and is fed intravenously.
The Substance is something that is injected and is a neon yellow liquid. This causes the new body, the Other Self, to emerge from an opening down the spine of the old body, as if the old body were a cocoon. While inhabiting the Other Self/new body, the person is supposed to inject themselves daily with a Stabilizer fluid that is withdrawn from the old body (while it is in stasis).
Things begin to go wrong when the main character tries to extend her time in the Other Self body beyond the specified seven days at a time.
This movie was pleasingly surreal in the way that I like, which I describe as light surrealism. To specify further, I like surrealism that has some dystopian or unsettling/darker element to it as well.
I feel like there's possibly some Greek myth allusion here but I can't think of which one. In various different ways, the movie reminded me of the conceptual video artwork Safe Conduct, Cinderella, The Picture of Dorian Grey and Requiem for a Dream. (Requiem for a Dream and Safe Conduct are some of my favorite things).
It has the surreal body horror elements like Safe Conduct, the changing states of Cinderella, a changing version of oneself that's kind of metaphorical like The Picture of Dorian Grey [please note I haven't actually read that, I just have a vague idea of its premise], and some cinematography that's similar to Requiem for a Dream (repeated motifs, closeups of eyes, injections, also a manic scene). Also, Demi Moore resembles Jennifer Connelly quite a bit. I would also say there are cinematographic similarities to some of Stanley Kubrick's work, like The Shining or A Clockwork Orange (in that some scenes in The Substance seem to allude to scenes in those Kubrick movies, and perhaps some more distant thematic similarities too).
It was left vague as to when exactly the movie was supposed to take place. It has a bit of a 1980s aesthetic, including the fact that the main character Elisabeth and her younger version Sue are stars of a dance-exercise television show and wear 80s-inspired dance leotards and legwarmers. Additionally, the interiors of various buildings/rooms have a 1980s-esque look too. However, a smartphone is featured occasionally in the movie, as well as a modern-day flat screen TV and a flash drive. These are the only things that hint at it taking place in the 2010s, at least.
I thought it was a very thought-provoking movie and I'm almost a little surprised that it was a more mainstream movie, since it seems a bit out there. I'm not really sure what the overall/prevailing opinion of it is (among professional movie critics as well as the general public), although it seems like the kind of thing that not everyone would find appealing or interesting.
It makes me ponder about whether I would choose to take the Substance that could create a more perfect version of myself. Whether I would take it right now in my life, or perhaps at some future point when I'm older (like Elisabeth's age in the movie). The idea of being able to intermittently inhabit a more perfect version of oneself is quite interesting to think about in the theoretical sense.
In the movie, it seems that the Substance is primarily intended to create a more perfect physical version of the person, rather than substantially altering their inner personality and mind. However, Elisabeth-Sue behaves differently depending on which body she is inhabiting at a given time, even though it's emphasized that the person in each body is one and the same. But I'm not necessarily sure if this was the Substance creating a new/different personality for Sue's body, or if it was more like some sort of 'physical determinism' -- the fact that she was living in Sue's perfect body caused her to act differently than she did in Elisabeth's older, less perfect body, and vice versa.
Personally, when I think of taking a Substance that creates a more perfect version of myself, there are a few physical things that would change to become more "perfect," but there are also a number of personality/mental changes that I also think of as being part of a "more perfect" version of myself. If anything, the personality/mental changes take precedence in my mind over the physical aspect of a Substance-induced better version of myself. I don't know if everyone else would think the same way in terms of what changes a more perfect version of themselves entails.
If I were able to take a Substance that creates a "better" version of myself, would I begin to resent the original, inferior version of myself and/or the "better" version as well?
Some themes or concepts this movie addresses are vanity, beauty, self-esteem and body image, hedonism, and trade offs. What is beauty (and youth) worth? What would you do in order to become more beautiful, more perfect? What would you be willing to trade?
If you were sapping life out of your old body (and making it increasingly more decrepit) in order to sustain the more perfect Other Self, would you find that an acceptable trade off to make? If you did take the Substance like in the movie, would you be able to stick to the schedule of seven days in each body, or would you become tempted to extend your time as the Other Self at the expense of your original body?
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