‘The Substance’: A stomach-churning satire of capitalism’s social pressures
Alex Baxter
The Substance is the latest release from French director Coralie Fargeat, currently causing a storm and a sensation in UK cinemas, having picked up the award for Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
Fargeat’s new feature is a grotesque body-horror movie, in the same vein as other recent pictures such as Infinity Pool and Raw, containing both metaphorical and literal bite in equal measure.
The film’s satirical message is on the nose. Its dark humour is tongue in cheek. And its twisted visual effects display a gnarly, Cronenbergian mix of tongue-on-nose and nose-in-cheek.
Along the way, treading the line between surreal and silly, on the one side, and providing serious social commentary, on the other, writer, producer, and director Fargeat offers viewers generous portions of fun and politics.
Be warned, however: this movie is only for those with a strong constitution.
Chaos and consequences
The plot revolves around Hollywood star and TV-fitness-show host Elisabeth Sparkle, brilliantly played by Demi Moore, who gives the performance of a lifetime.
Upon hitting the age of 50, Sparkle is unceremoniously shown the door by her monopolistic media network – personified by its revolting and misogynistic boss, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), who happily chews up and spits out female performers in order to boost his channel’s ratings.
Cast aside without any consideration or future prospects, Elisabeth stumbles into taking a black market drug, enigmatically referred to only as ‘The Substance’, which promises its users the possibility of spawning a new, younger, ‘better’ version of themselves.
In this way, those beginning to feel the impacts of age are given the hope of maintaining an artificial sense of vitality and purpose as time begins to take its toll on their bodies and lives.
Needless to say, however, all does not go to plan, and Elisabeth’s life quickly descends into chaos.
While her beautiful-but-brattish offspring – Sue (Margaret Qualley) – goes on a hedonistic rampage, Elisabeth is forced to suffer the consequences: an irreversible process of accelerated ageing, which leaves her crippled and unrecognisable.
💉 Be careful what you wish for.
THE SUBSTANCE trailer has arrived.
Starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. A MUBI Release. pic.twitter.com/H6QHhhNQ9F
— The Substance (@TryTheSubstance) August 15, 2024
Two sides of the same coin
The final act of the film, with its montage homage to other horror classics such as Carrie and The Elephant Man, sees both Elisabeth and Sue paying the price for their vanity – along with the profit-hungry executives and shareholders who have created the egoistic, deformed creature that now confronts them.
Elisabeth and Sue are consistently reminded by the makers of ‘The Substance’ that they are in fact one and the same; part of an indivisible ‘matrix’. What is gained on one side is lost on the other. Yet they ignore these warnings, to devastating effect.
The main theme of the film, alluded to with nods to Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde and Frankenstein’s Monster, is therefore clear: that big business’ hypersexualisation and objectification of young women is the other side of the coin of the unrealistic age and beauty standards bred by capitalism.
The insecurity that women, in particular, are made to feel about their image, and the demonisation of the elderly, in other words, go hand in hand with the commodification of people’s bodies and faces pushed by the advertising, media, fashion, and beauty industries.
Pains of parenthood
But there is seemingly also another, more subtle, motif to the movie: that of parenthood; or, more precisely, the difficulties faced by single mothers in raising a family under capitalism.
This same subject is also addressed in other female-directed horror films, such as Prevenge, We Need To Talk About Kevin, and Relic. And Fargeat appears to be adding to this collection, building on their same central point: that huge, anxiety-inducing expectations are placed on parents by capitalist society, yet no social support is provided to help them.
Instead, all the burden for raising the next generation is placed on the shoulders of isolated families or parents. And if anything goes wrong, with children turning out ‘delinquent’, then all the blame also falls on these individuals.
In the case of The Substance, this metaphor is hinted at throughout the story.
Elisabeth effectively gives birth to Sue, and is quite literally torn apart in the process. She then (again quite literally) has the life drained out of her, whiling away her days in boredom and isolation, in order that her ‘other self’ may party and thrive.
When things turn sour, however, Elisabeth is told by the makers of ‘The Substance’ not to expect help from them or anyone else: Sue’s messes and mistakes are the responsibility of her ‘mother’ to clean up and deal with.
Whilst Elisabeth admires her attractive progeny, meanwhile, she is also jealous of her success. Later in the film, whilst full of bitterness about the contrast between her decrepitude and Sue’s celebrity status, Elisabeth also reluctantly admits that the latter represents “the best of her”; that “she needs her”.
As she gets old, in other words, alienated from the dog-eat-dog world around her, and deprived of any hope or future by those in power, Elisabeth sees no option but to live vicariously through her ‘child’. But this only leads to tragedy and destruction for both mother and daughter.
Depth and substance
Looking only at the surface, with its cranked-up-to-11 visuals and sound, The Substance may seem like little more than a rollicking – and stomach-churning – rollercoaster romp.
But peeling back the film’s skin (as the movie literally and viscerally does throughout), there is in fact (no pun intended) more substance and depth to Fargeat’s horror flick than initially meets the eye.
This is a clever satire that combines stellar acting and forceful directing with definite anti-capitalist undertones.
So check out The Substance on the silver screen if you can, before it moves to streaming services, where the sensory impact will no doubt be dampened. But also bring a sickbag, just in case it all proves too much.
‘The Teacher’: A poignant portrayal of life in occupied Palestine
Jayan Eric Holmes
The Teacher, out in cinemas now, is a riveting film that needs to be seen.
Inspired by true events, and shot in the West Bank before 7 October, The Teacher frames the lives of people forced for generations to live under the brutality of Israeli occupation.
Written and directed by Bafta-winning and Oscar-nominated British Palestinian Farah Nabulsi, the film is grounded in a harsh reality that few of us will have had the misfortune to experience – yet that has nevertheless had a profound and unavoidable impact on us all.
Basam (Saleh Bakri) is a teacher in the West Bank, who befriends and tries to protect his student, Adam (Muhammad Abed El Rahman), from the oppressive conditions imposed on their community by decades of occupation.
Basam’s aim is to prevent Adam’s justifiable sense of rage and anger from consuming him and destroying his life – a battle he himself constantly struggles with.
The film poses the question of how to survive as a human being, when every aspect of your humanity is under threat; when any sense of self belief and hope is eroded by a vicious regime that is intent on the elimination and erasure of your people.
How is it possible to live through such daily torture, Nabulsi asks, yet still preserve enough dignity to rise above – and live beyond – the danger of such annihilation?
The performance from each of the actors is outstanding. Viewers can feel them bringing much of their own history and experience to their roles.
Saleh Bakri was born in 1997 in Jaffa, for example. And there is a sense that the character he portrays is as much a depiction of his own life as the product of any script.
But he is not alone. There is a shattering authenticity that drives the audience through the entire film.
Nabulsi skilfully weaves together a subtle interplay of narrative threads – all part of the tragic tapestry being spun in Palestine, which we become witnesses to.
We meet a US diplomat, played by Stanley Townsend, in a desperate search for his son, held hostage to negotiate a prisoner exchange. Then there is the well-meaning but naïve volunteer teacher, played by Imogen Poots, whose innocence inevitably falls when she realises the impossibility of fulfilling a relationship with Basem.
Then there are the Israeli settlers, whose illegal incursion and assault lead to shocking and devastating – but all too common – consequences.
All of these stories and people are seamlessly drawn together into an inevitable but powerful denouement.
This is a profoundly personal and political drama, made beautifully in horrific circumstances, which accurately reflects the daily oppression and injustice, the grief and pain, that Palestinian people have suffered for generations.
It’s release this week – with the genocide in Gaza almost one year old, and Netanyahu escalating and expanding his war into Lebanon – makes this soul-stirring film all the more pertinent and poignant.
