THE SUBSTANCE 2024
by
Coralie Fargeat
Don’t fall for the emotional trap that The Substance lays down for you. There is no obligation to feel any kind of consumerist guilt on account of body-shaming faced by an ageing starlet Elisabeth Sparkle, played by Demi Moore, who is now fifty years old. She is an Academy Award-winning Hall of Famer who features on a TV aerobics show. Age has begun to show, as it must at some point. You cannot blame her producer (played merrily by Dennis Quaid) for wanting her out and drafting in a new babe instead. It’s the ratings, baby! No hard feelings. It is all business. And the consumer is always the king! People want what they want not because what the network sells but because they want to buy hope, health, youth and happiness.
The starlet knows that she is past her prime. She had already achieved what she ever wanted. A very grateful industry had given her due recognition. People had not held back on their adulation either. But the fount of love does not have an infinite source and must eventually dry up someday. Sportspersons are forced to retire after an age. In the West, even politicians do. Somehow entertainers (and academicians) want to just hang on. This is the nature of fame in entertainment business. Obdurate pride and inordinate vanity goad you to go on.
Elisabeth should have gracefully bidden goodbye and faded into plush retirement. But she chooses a quick fix when faced with ouster. Something like a wonder-drug. In the Age of Ozempic, she falls for ‘the Substance’ without the slightest of hesitation. Once you join in ‘the program’, it is a slippery slope. Control is progressively lost. Balance cannot be maintained for extended periods. Any chemical injected into your blood must take its toll.
The inherent blame instinct zeroes in upon the market. Easy to blame the consumers. But what would they do? They are spoilt for choices, for everyone (like the starlet) is after money and abiding fame. One who can provide the best value (show) for my time shall get my view. Obviously, the performer has to try harder or walk the extra mile to catch eyeballs to keep them hooked.
From then on, whether herself gets divided into two bodies, or it is just a case of mind-body duality, one cannot be too sure. Mind prefers to dwell in the youthful part of existence and overdraws from the body, resulting in increasingly faster aging. The Substance had stipulated that the required balance be maintained- both mind and body had to respect each other, that is their timelines, but they do not. The result is chaos of pandemonic proportions.
The Substance is less of a film and more of a no-holds barred scream against norms, conventions, expectations. Elisabeth’s reluctance in letting go is mercilessly mocked at. The convenience with which she gets addicted is lampooned. The studio executive, marvellously played by Dennis Quaid, is exposed as a greedy, lecherous TRP-pusher. His rudeness and shamelessness are caricatured with unqualified disgust. The audience is ridiculed for adhering to exacting beauty standards and being hyper fixated with age.
As for classifying this in the body horror genre, the film does resort to gory images to hit the point(lessness) home. Gallons of flowing blood, cracking spines, cut-up backs, innards tumbling out of body crevices, broken tooth and uncoiled intestines are on unrestrained display alongside syringes pressed and discarded, glasses shattered with bodily impact, sight of sagging flash and what not.
Demi Moore has packed the punch, albeit with a lot of help from prosthetics. Her role, like the film, asks a lot of questions, not all of which, I fear, make sense. She does seem like a strong contender for the Oscars. Her younger self is played by Margaret Qualley with a lot of spunk. In fact, she comes across as so thoroughly despicable and immature that it beats me how she has missed out on Supporting Actor nomination by the Academy. Dennis Quaid, the producer of the TV show, has also not landed a nomination for what is a totally unlovable role. He represents the lustily evil ‘male gaze’ that sexualizes female body before the viewer ever has a chance to. “Pretty girls should always smile”, he leerily says, and means it. Because that is what sells, he should have added. He is the personification of corporate rudeness and relentless commercialization that specializes in dehumanizing artists.
This film shall take you back to the gory, bloodied, neon-coloured, depressed world of David Cronerberg and David Lynch. The hideous creation, Monstro Elisasu, which is finally torn to shreds by lustful men, makes one recall The Elephant Man. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and James Whale’s The Invisible Man also seem to have influenced Coralie Fargeat. Every existential crisis in which a human being loses his shape and form transports one to the world of Franz Kafka.
Long after the film gets over you would be left with the eternal existential question-can I knock off a few years from how I come across? Is there any Substance that might help, are there no shortcuts, or is the reversal of age not possible at all?
============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================
#thesubstance #bestpicturenomination #demimoore #margaretqualley #dennisquaid #caoraliefargeat #bodyshaming #shortcut #theprogram #quickfix #davidcronenberg #franzkafka #davidlynch #theelephantman #ageing #ageism #marryshelley #frankenstein #jameswhale #theinvisibleman #monstroelisasu #ozempic #academyawards #beautystandards #halloffame
Comments
Post a Comment