The Substance is an old new film.
Of course it’s brand new, freshly baked, recently released, highly praised, among other things. But it’s also extremely old in its core. It’s OK to switch “old” with “classic”, but also OK with “rotten”. You know the drill.
It’s all about perspectives.
The story is balanced, fine tuned to a degree that you’ll feel like you’re watching a visual guidance on how to make a typical Hollywood halloween blockbuster. There’s enough blood and gore, gal and gown, just nothing new.
Our protagonist Elizabeth couldn’t handle what’s left of her acting career after 50 years. So she opted for a newly-developed medicine called the substance. This method made a younger copy of herself, which required Elizabeth to switch consciousness with the copy every other week.
Everything worked out fine until it didn’t.
The balance was broken within weeks by the freshwoman, then by the depressed origin. What used to be a conspiracy within a mind gradually split into two individuals, spawning endless troubles. Well, here’s humanity 101 for you: nobody ever felt satisfied or happy until they lost everything. Elizabeth and Sue are not the exception, but the regulars.
It’s a cautionary tale at best, but also a heads up for anyone trying too hard to fix aging. Long story short: you can’t. Better live with it than fight back, which only makes it worse by becoming unnatural as hell. Besides that, there’s not much to say. Elizabeth truly deserved this ending because she really behaved like someone in her fifties, so desperate and irresponsible. She lived and died by and only by her body, not by her talent as an actor.
But talent is a cruel thing. Whether you got it is pure luck. From what’s shown in the film, it’s safe to say she didn’t get much. So it all made sense.
For someone lacking real talent to support her fame, a new body isn’t just optional to keep her life together, it’s necessary, even indispensable. Not to mention the fact that she got nothing besides her career to fall back on. There’s no lover, no family, no friend, she’s been nothing but a puppet in the hands of a cruel manipulator.
But making sense doesn’t make it new, on the contrary, it only made things worse. Sure, Elizabeth’s way of thinking isn’t uncommon in our times, the film only pushed it to an extreme. But there’s no denying that nowadays, we’re facing much complicated situations.
What’s terrifying of Elizabeth & Sue’s horrible ending is also liberating since it’s clear that it can be avoided as long as you can get a hold of your own greed. Just don’t go to places they went and you’ll be fine.
To be fair, that’s half the point of a horror film: to put you in a tight spot by imagination, then release the pressure to make you feel better in real life. Whether the solution is cheap isn’t of much concern of the director.
But if you want to dig even just a little deeper, you’re out of luck, because there isn’t any. Age can change a lot of things, like how everyone else treated you, how many opportunities you get, even how you see yourself.
What the film showed is an extremely abbreviated version of that. It lacked any nuance like what’s the alternatives? How can one age gracefully? Won’t we become much wiser with more life experiences? No, none of that, we only got a stupid Elizabeth and her abbreviated version, an irresponsible Sue, who is equally stupid and even more selfish.
The females depicted in this film are just god awful, which is as stereotypical as the male producer. And the plot is as simple-minded as possible to avoid any real discussion. Everybody has their part to play and blame, naturally. It just doesn’t feel organic or earned. There’s no real struggle here, no internal fight, each of our protagonist gave up so easily and quickly that it’s hard for the audience to care about the consequences.
Which is a shame in itself.
Yeah I get it, people are greedy and stupid, they made bad choices every step of the way. So what? If there’s no redeeming qualities in any of them, why should we care about them in the first place? If the protagonist isn’t likable, then what’s the point of seeing them struggle to get things right? I can’t imagine people just like to see some despicable person fail and die. That’s beyond gross.
In fact, there’s actually lots of films just like that, especially horror flicks. Without a strong lead, the horror counterpart also lost its strength. Elizabeth and Sue were so easily defeated by each other and themselves that there’s no point rooting for them. Sure, all the audiences got blood on their hands, but sacrificing your whole life to satisfy their sick needs are just beyond both imagination and redemption.
What's not real won't be able to touch people's hearts.
Like many films prior to it, The Substance sold itself short by oversimplifying the protagonists and their situations, thus defeating the purpose of any meaningful discussion about the real human dilemma: how to accept aging.
But it’s a fun film to watch, and sometimes, that’s enough, I guess?
