I finally got to see The Substance over the weekend, and although my feelings are mixed, I came away impressed. This isn’t a perfect film. Of the films that are nominated for Best Picture this year, I would rank it somewhere in the middle of the pack. However, it is a powerful film that, in many ways, is like a modern-day fairy tale. Fairy tales are known for clear themes and points of view, and The Substance absolutely checks those boxes. The film also has an excellent screenplay, thoughtful and innovative cinematography, and acting performances worthy of Oscar consideration.

Director Coralie Fargeat channeled her inner Stanley Kubrick to deliver a powerful film about the objectification of women and how our society mistreats them as they age. When women are treated as objects, valued only for their beauty, they are cast aside as their beauty and bodies betray them with age. Many women (and men) cling to that beauty as long as they can through plastic surgery and other synthetic methods, and the results over time are often far more detrimental to their appearances than the natural aging process would have been.

Fargeat tackled that issue head-on in this film, and she also did something else that was very interesting. She also took a critical look at how women treat each other. While women broadly support each other through various organizations, there is a hyper-competitiveness among many women in the workplace, and this film bluntly shows two women who will mutually benefit by working together, but the selfishness of one of them leads to vindictiveness in the other, which leads to the ultimate downfall of both. That is the biggest reason that it was essential for a woman to direct this film. She tells women through this film that there is nothing women cannot accomplish when working together, but their inability to do that is ultimately what holds them back.

Bill Burr put it ever so concisely in a comedy routine several years ago. Take a look at it here.

Body Horror with a point

The term body horror has been used to describe The Substance, but I’m not sure it applies in the traditional sense. There are some disturbing and graphic images of mutilation and deformations, but it was never scary or even gratuitous. It was, in fact, a metaphor for the point made above. We are so focused on beauty in our society that women (and men) are willing to destroy their bodies at a cellular level to hold onto their beauty, even for just a few more fleeting years and even at the expense of the last several years of their lives. This is visual storytelling at its best. It shows us everything we need to know without telling us a word.

If you are a screenwriter trying to figure out how to tell a story visually and metaphorically, this is a film you should study.

The screenplay is excellent in other ways as well. Fargeat was also the screenwriter for the film, and she is justifiably nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Not only does the script excellently and effectively tell a compelling visual story with poignant thematic components, but it also has a riveting dramatic structure and rising levels of tension and drama that all screenwriters can learn from. The script also has a tight Hero’s Journey that helps guide the story and build the drama. All the stages of the Hero’s Journey are represented, and it’s written in such an organic way that very little of the script feels contrived or forced.

This is an excellent story that is very well told

I mentioned above that as a director, Fargeat channeled her inner Standly Kubrick, and that was meant as a compliment. Anyone who follows this blog with any regularity knows that Kubrick is my favorite director, and many of his films are on my personal top-5, top-10, and top-20 lists. It is clear from watching The Substance that Fargeat is very familiar with The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. From camera angles, to color palette, to story points, Fargeat produced a work of art that would have made Kubrick proud. If you are a fan of Stanley Kubrick, this is a film you should see.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the acting. Demi Moore, every straight Gen-X male’s first celebrity crush, gives what might be the best performance of her career as Elisabeth Sparkle, the Hollywood bombshell on the back end of her career, being pushed aside for a younger, prettier model. She deservedly won the Golden Globe. I’m not sure if she’ll win the Oscar, but I, for one, would not have the least problem with it. She brought brooding subtlety to a performance that was searing with hot emotion bubbling just under the surface, waiting to be unleashed. But she didn’t carry this film alone. Margaret Qualley more than held her own as Sue, the younger version who ends up trying to destroy Elizabeth and take over her life. There’s an Anne Baxter-Betty Davis (All About Eve) quality to the relationship taken to new and disturbing levels. Finally, Dennis Quaid, as Harvey, the sexist, disgusting TV executive who sets all this in motion, gives a performance that is over the top but also weirdly spot-on.

This is not a perfect film. I felt like it went off the rails a little over the last 20 minutes or so. I didn’t dislike the ending, but I felt like Fargeat drew it out too long. I might have liked it more if it had been the last 10 minutes instead of 20. I felt myself thinking, I really am ready for this movie to end, but it kept going. It obviously didn’t ruin the film for me, and it may be a bit of a nitpick, but it prevented the film from reaching the upper echelon of this year’s Best Picture nominees.

The Substance is the deepest film of 2024

That said, even though it might not be the best film of the year, in my opinion, I do believe that it is the deepest film of the year. The Substance has a powerful message and strong themes. It is a modern-day fairy tale that harkens to the darkest stories of the Brothers Grimm to teach us that beauty is fleeting and should never be tied irrevocably to our self-worth.