The Substance - feminist horror starring Demi Moore

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French director Coralie Fargeat's latest horror film is bound to take the US by storm in September!



I'd sure love to see Demi giving an Oscar-worthy performance!



https://variety.com/2024/film/awards...rs-1236136537/



Watching it this weekend



I might go see it this afternoon.
I have double reservations... If I really like it the first time I will watch it a second time!



In case anyone really likes the score, it's going to get a vinyl release.



Saw this today. It was wildly entertaining and dementedly satisfying! One of the best films of the year. Demi Moore is fantastic and Margaret Qualley is great too.



Saw this today. It was wildly entertaining and dementedly satisfying! One of the best films of the year. Demi Moore is fantastic and Margaret Qualley is great too.
i might check this out down the road.



My review



The Substance

I think Coralie Fargeat is a very talented filmmaker and I will definitely never miss anything she directs.
When it comes to The Substance, however, I think she should have learned the lesson that the movie's protagonist clearly failed to and realized that sometimes, less is more.
There's some truly demented ideas and very eye-catching visual style here that I definitely wish we could get more of in modern-day horror movies.
But horror movies have traditionally worked best when they kept it tight, with a relatively short running time... think of Halloween, Psycho, or Night of the Living Dead
Fargeat's latest film runs almost 2-1/2 hours, and there are times when you almost wish she'd found a way to make this work with a much tighter running time - the movie definitely has a lot of interesting ideas, but not so many that it justifies that crazy running time.
Having said that, there's a lot to like here, including some really fearless performances by Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley; the score by Raffertie and Stanislas Reydellet's production design are also top-notch.
Lastly, without giving away too much, don't be surprised if the movie scores an Oscar nomination for best makeup. It would actually be a very worthy winner, if the Academy decides to give it that recognition.



I really enjoyed The Substance.

The ending might have been a little too over the top and quirky, but it's still the best, most original movie of 2024 so far in my opinion.

I expect many Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (Coralie Fargeat), Best Actress (Demi Moore), Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Quaid), Best Supporting Actress (Margaret Qualley), Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects, and Best Sound.
__________________
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Between The Substance, Love Lies Bleeding and The First Omen, women are killing it in the body horror genre. This film feels like a singular vision that absolutely nails the tone. I fell in love with the film pretty early on with the the unique camera angles and the grotesque sound design.

Demi Moore kills it in the role, watching he rev up an egg beater like a chainsaw and have the yolk splash in her face like blood was an Evil Dead inspired treat.

Very fun, very grotesque and just the right amount of humour. Like everyone else is saying, the last 20 or so minutes of the film is a wild ride.

Cronenberg would be proud. Long live the new flesh.

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews



One of the best I've sat through at the cinema this year so far, and one of the best body horror films perhaps ever. Can easily go toe to toe with any Cronenberg film. Simple premise, well written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. Easily the best performance Demi Moore has done for decades, if not her entire career, Margeret Qualley continues to impress, while Dennis Quaid is perfectly repellant in this Nightmare on Hollywood Blvd.

My main issue would be that the final act goes on too long and takes away a bit from what for the most part is pretty brilliant... but in a way that kind of fits with the narrative of the story about balance, about the cost of when things go out of balance there is that negative effect, but perhaps that was more accidental than intentional? For a film to generate such a visceral reaction from so many speaks for itself in how effective and affecting this is. Might be a while before can bring myself to sit through this again, but that doesn't take away from how good this movie is.



My review



The Substance

I think Coralie Fargeat is a very talented filmmaker and I will definitely never miss anything she directs.
When it comes to The Substance, however, I think she should have learned the lesson that the movie's protagonist clearly failed to and realized that sometimes, less is more.
There's some truly demented ideas and very eye-catching visual style here that I definitely wish we could get more of in modern-day horror movies.
But horror movies have traditionally worked best when they kept it tight, with a relatively short running time... think of Halloween, Psycho, or Night of the Living Dead
Fargeat's latest film runs almost 2-1/2 hours, and there are times when you almost wish she'd found a way to make this work with a much tighter running time - the movie definitely has a lot of interesting ideas, but not so many that it justifies that crazy running time.
Having said that, there's a lot to like here, including some really fearless performances by Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley; the score by Raffertie and Stanislas Reydellet's production design are also top-notch.
Lastly, without giving away too much, don't be surprised if the movie scores an Oscar nomination for best makeup. It would actually be a very worthy winner, if the Academy decides to give it that recognition.
it was a bit long. could have done with the over the top dennis quaid character.



Well, looks like I’m the only one here that hated it (not even viscerally, but more in a ‘These are hours of my life I’ll never get back’ way). I am a huge Cronenberg fan and adore body horror, even the extreme kind, so on paper this was supposed to be my kind of thing, or at least I was meant to be able to appreciate it… no such luck.

I don’t know, I took issue with some of the world-building and plot logic (I wrote in the ‘Movie You’re Watching Tonight’ thread that I felt
WARNING: spoilers below
it would have made more sense to have the older version drain life/youth out of the young version, with the older version getting younger by the day (there’s a film that does this, but I can’t think of the title)
, but more importantly, it just seemed really silly, for lack of a better word, and lacked, imo, any sort of, well, substance?)

I do acknowledge I often ‘don’t get’ feminist horror, but I do really like Revenge and have rewatched it countless times, everything’s great there — the soundtrack (I have it in my library and listen to it regularly), the characters, the vibes, the plot. It’s likely that Revenge was the exception to the rule, though I also quite like stuff like Raw. I do appreciate quite a few New French Extremity films, but I suppose I don’t see them as particularly feminist (Martyrs is a knockout imo). But well, I personally have a complicated relationship with feminism, so it could be that I’m just not the intended audience here. It just seemed like a student film to me, the
WARNING: spoilers below
chicken/recipe book stuff was just ridiculous, not in a good way, and annoying.


Much like one reviewer in The Cut, I believe, I also found it very confusing that Elisabeth looks phenomenal for the most part (imo Demi Moore herself actually looks better than the character, which is even more perplexing), so the narrative of ‘decline’ just isn’t really there from the onset…. So yeah, I feel like I’m really missing the point here, but I thought it was awful, really irritatingly bad.

Also (again paraphrasing from The Cut, but I did think this, too) the dynamics/logistics of
WARNING: spoilers below
‘the deal’ for Elisabeth herself are entirely inexplicable — she isn’t even awake to feel the younger version ‘live life to the fullest’, so again what does she get out of it? It’s not like the money ‘Sue’ makes goes into Elisabeth’s bank account, because, well, legally they are presumably different people…? And the whole thing started off with Elisabeth wanting to prolong her career, presumably to make more money, so what gives?


I adore my absurdist surreal moments à la Lynch, but the ending didn’t land that vibe here imo, so again it was just odd and out of place. I watched it in a packed theatre and we were all laughing in a kind of resigned disgust at having ruined our night (my row at least). Or I could be projecting. But universal acclaim there was not.



Well, looks like I’m the only one here that hated it (not even viscerally, but more in a ‘These are hours of my life I’ll never get back’ way). I am a huge Cronenberg fan and adore body horror, even the extreme kind, so on paper this was supposed to be my kind of thing, or at least I was meant to be able to appreciate it… no such luck.

I don’t know, I took issue with some of the world-building and plot logic (I wrote in the ‘Movie You’re Watching Tonight’ thread that I felt
WARNING: spoilers below
it would have made more sense to have the older version drain life/youth out of the young version, with the older version getting younger by the day (there’s a film that does this, but I can’t think of the title)
, but more importantly, it just seemed really silly, for lack of a better word, and lacked imo, any sort of, well, substance?

I do acknowledge I often ‘don’t get’ feminist horror, but I do really like Revenge and have rewatched it countless times, everything’s great there — the soundtrack (I have it in my library and listen to it regularly), the characters, the vibes, the plot. It’s likely that Revenge was the exception to the rule, though I also quite like stuff like Raw. I do appreciate quite a few French Extremity films, but I suppose I don’t see them as particularly feminist (Martyrs is a knockout imo). But well, I personally have a complicated relationship with feminism, so it could be that I’m just not the intended audience here. It just seemed like a student film to me, the
WARNING: spoilers below
chicken/recipe book stuff was just ridiculous, not in a good way, and annoying.


Much like one reviewer in The Cut, I believe, I also found it very confusing that Elisabeth looks phenomenal for the most part (imo Demi Moore herself actually looks better than the character, which is even more perplexing), so the narrative of ‘decline’ just isn’t really there from the onset…. So yeah, I feel like I’m really missing the point here, but I thought it was awful, really irritatingly bad.
I didn't hate the thing, but I honestly don't think it is a very good movie at all, although there are some touches and flourishes here and there that I liked. But saying that you may have liked 2-3 scenes while thinking it is a mediocre movie isn't really much in the way of praise, is it?



I didn't hate the thing, but I honestly don't think it is a very good movie at all, although there are some touches and flourishes here and there that I liked. But saying that you may have liked 2-3 scenes while thinking it is a mediocre movie isn't really much in the way of praise, is it?
Nope, not at all, and I get that! For what it’s worth, I loved the yellow coat with her black hair. ****, yes.



Nope, not at all, and I get that! For what it’s worth, I loved the yellow coat with her black hair. ****, yes.
I liked the scenes that were vaguely reminiscent of Kubrick/Lynch/Gilliam