Movie Review: The Substance (2024)
Synopsis: After being fired from her weekly fitness show because she's too old, former movie star Elisabeth Sparkle answers an ad offering a way to regain her youth called the Substance. The drug works as advertised, creating a younger version of her who goes by the name Sue and immediately finds her own stardom. However, Sue's success and beauty quickly make Elisabeth jealous while Sue, inconvenienced by the need to switch places with Elisabeth every other week, begins skirting the rules, causing Elisabeth to age faster.
Who's in it? The movie stars Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Gore Abrams and Oscar Lesage.
Review: It's once again too cold for my wife and I to go out (she is feeling a bit under the weather anyway) so we stayed in this evening and searched for a movie to watch. I picked out The Substance because it sounded like it would be an interesting thriller. Unfortunately, while the plot was intriguing, my wife and I both thought the execution needed some work.
I'll start out by saying I thought the movie did an OK job with the underlying body image theme. Elisabeth (Moore) was definitely not someone I wouldn't consider attractive and I think that made the whole "wanting to be younger and prettier" thing hit a little harder. Of course, it helped that everyone around her seemed to think she was hideous for some ridiculous reason but the point stands.
The biggest problem we had with this movie was the way it seemed to be designed for the male gaze. It stopped a short of being a softcore porn film but there was a whole lot of nudity, including at times when it really didn't seem necessary and a very sexually charged fitness show. Basically, my wife and I went from "oh look, she's naked" to "oh look, she's naked...again" and then "will she put some clothes on already" very quick.
As the movie progressed, I also struggled a bit with the overall concept. For one, I didn't see any benefit to taking the Substance, which didn't make Elisabeth younger, it just created a younger duplicate (Qualley) with her own personality and memories. I failed to see the point of taking the drug because Elisabeth didn't seem to be gaining anything out of the deal.
I also thought the movie should have at least attempted to give some clues about the people behind the Substance. Elisabeth wasn't charged for the drug. If profit wasn't the motivation, then what was?
My opinion of the film's ending was mixed. There were things I liked, such as the fight between Elisabeth and Sue and the surprise side effect when Sue attempted to use the drug on herself. However, the very end was both excessively gory and dragged out to the point it was just silly and stopped being entertaining. At minimum, it was one of those endings that could have been cut down a bit.
Final Opinion: It's a good concept but it would have been considerably better had the filmmakers taken it in a different direction with less unneeded nudity, more action and a better ending.
My Grade: C
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