The Substance

 

   I've recently watched this movie called "The Substance", which I have a lot to say about it. The movie starts out about an aged actress called Lizzy who grows insecurity about her body because of harsh comments from her manager. The manager is trying to find young girls to recruit and pushing Lizzy out of the business. He has succeeded and now she's left alone with her own thoughts and insecurities. 

As the story continues, Lizzy is reached out about an experience she can have, called The Substance. In the video demonstration she watches, it is explained quite simply as having a better version of yourself. A second body, with a few rules attached. You have to stabilize your other self everyday, and switch bodies every 7 days with no exception, and "Remember You Are One". 

Lizzy doesn't fall for it at first, but her insecurities cave in and she decides to order The Substance. She follows the instructions and begins to enjoy her beautiful and young body. But the story goes downhill when Lizzy doesn't "respect the balance" and the rules of the experience. 

What I'd like to say about this entire story is many things. But I'd like to start out with theme, I had a hard time understanding the theme of the story. What I interpret it finally, is the extremities of insecurity. Which is a beautiful theme, but I don't believe it was executed properly. 

When the storyline unravels, I felt as if Lizzy's character wasn't fleshed out enough to stay rooted in her. It was unrealistic, an older actress, who as far as I'm concerned, has never had harsh comments made about her. I find that part underdeveloped, I believe the lengths Lizzy went through, had to be an underlying issue eating away at her all her life. If the manager was presented carefully as the last straw, I'd understand, but we just barely got to know Lizzy!

As a woman and actress, I find it hard to believe she was a dying out star. She was pointed out as an Oscar winner with a running show. Even when she first hears complaints from her manager, the scene took place in the bathroom as the manager takes a call with someone else on the phone that I'd imagine a male. The other caller, noted her successes and age. It felt like the manager was alone on this one, even her co workers had a warm smile on them when she was at work. 

Now the beauty of this set up was that it didn't take much for the story to begin. Lizzy didn't have to go through excoriating events in order for her to start on The Substance. It was simple storytelling, and stunning visuals. It was all just insecurity, that's what started this all. I understood the vision here of course. 

The other thing I wanted to analyze was the odd visuals at times. Blood gushing everywhere in a comedic sense rather than thriller, the silly dancing and unnecessary nightmares that occurred. I believe the gaps between when Lizzy and her other self called Stabilizing could've been corrected with other visuals. 

The dancing and sexualizing scenes felt shallow, when Lizzy wakes up in her new body. She poses unnaturally in the mirror, exaggerating herself. She does it the entire movie in her other self. Her other self poses as innocent and dumb, meanwhile I saw a strong suit on Lizzy. To see a grown woman cater to men in such extreme measures looked very pathetic and unreal. It didn't look like it was about insecurity anymore, the movie had such a loose following of the plot. The times I saw theme stay strong was;

The giant poster of Lizzy at what she'd probably call "Peak Lizzy"

The scene where she is scrubbing her makeup off while getting ready for a date because she felt ugly

Lizzy's other self didn't respect the balance, the consequence was Lizzy aging faster but even though she had an option to stop the experience, she chose not to because she was still insecure about herself

Lizzy's other self's only goals was to show the world she is beautiful

But what I loved....was I couldn't read Lizzy, it felt tied into the story. That I couldn't see Lizzy and her other self slowly splitting into two. Because I didn't have access to inner dialogue, only to the camera. I also forgot to "Remember You Are One". The insanity creeping out on both characters was so sudden to me as it was to them. It didn't feel out of place, there was perfect justification for their episodes. The cracking stress was The Substance itself, that fed the insecurities that led to insanity, 

Yet at the end, It felt odd and rushed. There was a metaphorical change, all possibilities to The Substance were met. All the rules were broken, so now what? The show really had to go on, Lizzy's now dead. The spotlight is on the other self now, who is Sue. The movie shifted from insecurity to survival, insecurities of Lizzy felt unfinished. Just tapped upon here and there. The movie had to rely on metaphor and exaggeration now for the end. To keep the theme of insecurity. 

Sue had to survive without Lizzy, by injecting herself with The Substance. Which created a monster, a very very ugly monster. Whose blood spattered everywhere, insecurity can be very ugly for sure. At the end, was a sort of Junji Ito style of story telling. It switched up on me, to finish up. But if the movie had that exaggerated style the entire time, It would've cleaned up the story line better.

Im sure I have more to say, but this is what I have for now, the movie was good. It really was, enough to care for criticisms to be made. But this is just my opinion.