The essence of popularity

One of the films that we most wanted to see in this year's Oscar batch was largely unavailable through our regular channels. Despite showing many more popular films at the Michigan and State theatres in recent years, The Substance didn't seem to have anything approaching a normal run for something that was seemingly as well-received as it was (standing ovation at Cannes, plus winning Best Screenplay there; 90% positive at RT.) The distributor was pretty low on the totem pole (Mubi) and there was reportedly major pushback by the studio that was going to do distribution (Universal) and, given how the industry is generally portrayed, that's probably not too much of a surprise. But word of mouth got around and after lead actress, Demi Moore, began winning every award available (the first trophies she's ever won in her career...), it finally hit the streaming possibilities and Tricia and I found it last night.

Right away, I have to mention that the story isn't mindblowing. It's a vanity tale and, in fact, once we'd seen enough of it, the first thing that came to mind (comics nerd that I am) was a Tales from the Crypt episode from that series' first season, "Only Sin Deep", in which Lea Thompson sells her beauty to a pawnbroker in order to land a rich guy and be on Easy Street for the rest of her life. You can see the ending of that already, I'm sure. This film is no different in that respect. You can see how it's going to end from the very outset, but the way it's presented- in a very pointed perspective on Hollywood, America's version of misogyny, and the careers of people like, say, Demi Moore -is far more explicit than many similar stories. Moore's character, Elisabeth Sparkle (just a bit on-the-nose there...) is being shown the door by her boss, Harvey (a perfectly-sleazy if a bit over the top Dennis Quaid) after decades as the studio's fitness/sex symbol because the "shareholders" are looking for new blood (aka more money.) After being clued in to an opportunity to get around this whole "age" problem via back-alley (literally) science, Elisabeth decides to take advantage of it and start us on our spiral downward.

The thing that struck me right away was the visuals. Writer/director/producer, Coralie Fargeat, filled all three of those roles because she wanted creative control of this story that was extremely personal to her and followed the perspective of her previous critically-hailed film, Revenge. (Rumor has it that one of the reasons Universal objected was because Fargeat had final cut in her contract. You can view that as misogynistically as you'd like because it's probably all true.) But Fargeat and cinematographer, Benjamin Kračun, did an amazing job of keeping the eyes of the viewer entertained at all points of the story. One of their most prominent devices was that every hallway in the film was extraordinarily long, presenting us with the notion both of the detachment from self that the Substance process presented (despite its providers' insistence that the users were "one" and not distinct from their other selves) and also the imagery of Alice down the rabbit hole and the farther you go, the weirder it gets. The other image, of course, is that in Hollywood, no matter how far you go, that point of perfection is still out of reach. Every environment is also very clean and very precise until they look at almost anything organic that isn't the "upside" of the Substance. Food, the traumatic changes (e.g. the body horror), fluids (both fantastical and normal); everything is shown as viscerally as possible in complete contrast to the shells that all of these organic things inhabit (buildings, etc.) That, too, is part of the message and it's never one that is used to club the viewers over the head. It's all just part of the visual realization that you make as you proceed through the film.

The later progression of those organic themes will summon some flashbacks to John Carpenter's The Thing, one of the best horror films ever made, so if you're the squeamish type, you should get ready to squirm a bit. But that comparison works on more than one level, as the point of this film is demonstrating that "monster" within us (vanity, pride, envy) that can drive us to these outrageous acts and, with enough money, can harm a lot of other people along the way. Moore plays it straight and the anguish is totally believable the whole way through. Similarly, co-star Margaret Qualley, who plays Sue, is also on top of her game, as you can feel the compulsion that she's displaying as she tries to escape the one thing that many humans fear more than anything else: embarrassment. It's just that this time it comes with a slightly more traumatic end if it's not evaded. Again, it's not a new story, so Story Guy kinda shrugs his shoulders at that side of my usual perspective. But the storytelling- the process and delivery -make this a standout of the current Oscar season. Among those films nominated for Best Picture, it's definitely among the, uh, more attractive offerings. Recommended.