The Substance and How We Treat Women
A group of friends and I went to experience The Substance together in theaters last month, most of us not knowing what to expect besides the rumored disgusting body horror. For that very reason, I was scared: while I love Black Swan, that One Scene (click at your own risk1) has scarred me for the rest of my life, and I still look away every time I rewatch it. Oh, and also, I hate seeing needles in action – onscreen and off. Guess what there’s a shit ton of in The Substance? Needles.
Seated with eyes half-covered, what unraveled before us was a dark, hilarious and terrifying roller coaster – no, more like an amusement park horror ride if womanhood and aging were the central themes. (Would Universal Studios consider doing this? They should!) This metaphor of “ride” is the only one that can properly describe the viewing experience: it was shared with our community of fellow moviegoers (all laughing, gasping and screaming, “what?!” together) and you felt exhilarated but nervous and disgusted, never knowing where it was going to take you next.
In an attempt to summarize the basis of the plot, The Substance is about an aging (er, 50-year-old) actress who feels the pressures of being pushed out of her job and industry altogether. In a moment of desperation, she resorts to a black-market-type remedy: a lab that promises their “substance” will transform her into the youngest, dewiest, bounciest version of herself (that version played by Margaret Qualley). It’s kind of like The Picture of Dorian Gray meets Carrie meets The Fly. Does that help?
I can’t even begin to explain all of the places this movie went to, and I won’t try – this is the kind of viewing experience meant to be seen without much preparation2. All I can say is that it is truly one of the boldest and most twisted movies I have ever seen. And I also had fun. For filmmaker Coralie Fargeat to achieve not only gross horror, but humor and camp with an undercurrent throughout about women and aging in the entertainment industry… is mind-bogglingly triumphant.
The casting is equally so. It’s the kind of movie where you walk away thinking, “no one else could have done that.” Demi Moore in the lead role as Elisabeth Sparkle gave the film an added layer in the commentary on aging, as Demi is an actress in real life who has long been regarded as “looking good for her age” and seemingly “defying gravity.”
Demi was only 40 years old when everyone oohed and aahed over her killer bikini body in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. 40 is – famously (but perhaps not famously enough) – not old. Maybe things were different in the early aughts, or maybe we’ve just always been really weird about a hot woman staying hot as she “gets older.” Or we’ve always been really weird about women and their looks just, you know, in general...
The tabloids and entertainment mags at the time had a field day writing headlines about "Demi’s COMEBACK!!!!!” and how she upstaged everyone by looking so fit. One CBS News article from June 2003 made sure to include the following (alleged? assumed?) details about Demi:
“She returns to acting after a considerable break and has undergone a severe regimen to regain her youthful figure. The star follows a strict diet and it has been reported that she has also had $330,000 of plastic surgery including a facelift and liposuction.”
Demi recently reflected on her place in Hollywood after the media attention of Charlie’s Angels: “I didn't feel like I didn't belong. It's more like I felt that feeling of, ‘I'm not 20, I'm not 30, but I wasn't yet what they perceived as a mother.’”
Ah yes, that dreaded “not young enough for a 45-year-old man boy to be interested in” but “not old enough to be his mom” in-between stage that all women inevitably face. And yet, she caused even more of a stir by being 40 when she started dating then 25-year-old Asht*n Kutch*r – something men that age and much older have done (and still do) all the time.3
Eerie, then, to think of Demi’s own controversial history as a Hollywood actress daring to turn a year older each year while watching and processing The Substance. Demi is now 61 years old and still looks young enough to play an attractive and fit 50-year-old woman aging out of the Hollywood system. It’s here where the life-imitating-art intersection really fascinates me.
“I didn't feel like I didn't belong. It's more like I felt that feeling of, ‘I'm not 20, I'm not 30, but I wasn't yet what they perceived as a mother.’”
There’s a moment when things begin to unravel (and you think this is the height of it but oh, it’s so not!): Elisabeth watches Sue (the youthful version of herself) get interviewed on a late night show while Elisabeth ragefully cooks the world’s most extravagantly grotesque Thanksgiving dinner for one. She shouts from the kitchen at the TV/Sue/her younger self, “You would be NOTHING without me!”
I wonder how many 40+ actresses have felt this way – watching the younger ones ascend to stardom as they feel themselves being pushed further and further into oblivion by The System. Breaking records and starting trends only to be swiftly replaced with fresh blood the moment they are deemed “irrelevant.” The truth in The Substance is that society does do this to women, which often turns women against themselves and one another. It’s why we think it’s normal to say Demi Moore looks great “for her age” in a bikini at 40, and why we keep perpetuating the patriarchally-backed myth that men get better with age, but women get an expiration label by the time they reach 25.
And that truth is much harder to stomach than the nastiest, vilest scene in The Substance.
but I still only linked to a Google search for it to protect you, my babies!
funny then, that I wrote a whole think piece about it???
some major jump scares in there, sorry!!!
Blessed to have witnessed this with you!
excellent commentary regarding Hollywood's depiction of women and aging.