Movie Reviews

The Substance (2024) – Movie Review

Published

1 year ago

December 1, 2024

The Substance, 2024.

Written and Directed by Coralie Fargeat.
Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Gore Abrams, Hugo Diego Garcia, Olivier Raynal, Tiffany Hofstetter, Tom Morton, Jiselle Burkhalter, Axel Baille, Oscar Lesage, Matthew Géczy, Philip Schurer, Daniel Knight, Namory Bakayoko, and Bill Bentley.

SYNOPSIS:

A fading celebrity decides to use a black-market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.

A good while after things have disastrously spiraled out of control between forgotten Hollywood star Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) and her younger, prettier, popular clone Sue (Margaret Qualley), in which they each take turns living seven days at a time (such are the rules of the titular black-market drug), the former has reached her mental breaking point for a variety of reasons, but chooses to continue the experiment while uttering to that younger self the hauntingly depressing and sad-but-true words (depending on how cynical you are about society) “you’re the only part of me that people love.”

Steering clear of the spoilers that have brought viewers to this point in writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s bonkers body horror The Substance, that line also feels like the moment where this already imaginatively demented cautionary tale grabs hold of all themes played with and stirs them into a sustained explosion of stunningly grotesque imagery and astonishing prosthetics, following the story to its natural conclusion while keeping one simultaneously asking themselves what the hell they are looking at, and what the hell they could be looking at next.

That’s not to say anyone behind or in front of the camera was playing around before that point, but this film gradually builds to a series of events so feverishly insane it transcends the movie into something masterfully unhinged of the highest order. It is nutty, bloody, and howlingly funny with, well, substance, going where few filmmakers and actors would ever dare go.

However, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley go there with fearlessly. As mentioned, the former is Elisabeth Sparkle, a once-beloved actress with her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a star people were once enthusiastically visiting. After some seamless transitions of seasons and time, it is now cracked, with those who cross it either unaware of who she is or jogging their memories about what she has been in. No, the metaphor is not subtle, and that’s also not the only one. That’s also the point, as anyone can get away with a lack of subtlety so long as the messages are driven home with relentless force and courageous creativity.

Currently, she hosts an exercise show for middle-aged women, wishing she could go back to the days of her youthful beauty and star power. No one will be necessarily surprised to hear that Hollywood doesn’t exactly have the best track record with women over the past several decades, swallowing up women and disposing of them when they have outlived their usefulness to the industry, aka beauty. Dennis Quaid’s talent manager, Harvey, also couldn’t make it any more clear that he wants to revamp the show with sexualized dancing and is looking for someone young and pretty. Speaking of Harvey, he isn’t only depicted as externally gross but disgusting all around as the queasy cinematography lingers on his cruel face and harsh outbursts at tilted angles or sometimes focuses on the inside of his mouth, shredding apart shrimp with his teeth just like the women he uses and discards over time.

Through a bizarre set of circumstances, Elisabeth comes into a potential solution, being made aware of a secretive black-market drug called The Substance, first seen tested on an egg with a duplicate emerging from the side. Imagine that replicated with actual human beings, and you now have a small fragment of how graphic and gory the film’s setup is alone. Out comes Sue (Margaret Qualley), alongside a handful of rules that mainly involve injecting serums into the other unconscious body to maintain stability. Refusals to stick by these rules and the aforementioned 7-day request result in gnarly body horror, everything involving blood to decay to mutation.

In contrast to Elisabeth, mentally hard on her middle-aged body, Sue is confident, repeatedly seen idolizing herself, whether it be fondling her breasts, admiring her buttocks, and almost always wearing crop tops and underwear around the high-rise suite. Unsurprisingly, much of this positivity transitions into self-absorbed vanity, which the likes of Harvey propagate. Elisabeth gets what she wishes for; a way to experience the rise of fame again vicariously, but at the cost of creating a monster she’s unsure if she wants to destroy. Nevertheless, there are consequences on both ends, as the rules state that what happens to one body by neglecting the rules can’t be undone. In other words, it’s beauty as a drug to overdose on.

Also noteworthy is that men suddenly have a drastic change in attitude toward Sue (assuming that someone new has moved into the building), practically foaming at the mouth to get some action with her. Meanwhile, even with her dwindling fame, most people treat Elisabeth like an object in the way of their day. Again, this is also a darkly comedic film and Coralie Fargeat knows exactly the right time to give these men the scare of their lives. Then again, the whole movie could be attributed as one sick and twisted joke about women trying to meet up to the unreasonable beauty standards expected by men in power.

The slow unravelling snowballs into something extreme: an audiovisual annihilation of the senses that appropriately distorts sound and hypnotic camera movements. For an hour, Coralie Fargeat wears her influences on her sleeves and keeps one-upping herself in outrageous body horror and a twisted sense of humor. The phenomenal performances from Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley also ground The Substance in inevitable tragedy and internalized pain, proving that this is more than shock and thrills. It is diabolically exceptional, in a highwire freakout class of its own, and unforgettable, searing every nasty image into the mind. It is rare to be this mortified and laugh this much in awe while simultaneously feeling something human.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

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Movie Reviews

Jeremy Schuetze’s ‘ANACORETA’ (2022) – Movie Review – PopHorror

Published

8 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Jeremy Schuetze’s ‘ANACORETA’ (2022) – Movie Review – PopHorror

PopHorror had the chance to check out Anacoreta (2022) ahead of its streaming release! Does this meta-horror flick provide interesting story telling or is it a confusing mess.

Let’s have a look…

Synopsis

A group of friends heads to a secluded woodland cabin for a weekend getaway, planning to film an experimental horror movie. As the shoot progresses, the project begins to fall apart—until a real and terrifying presence emerges from the darkness.

Anacoreta is directed by Jeremy Schuetze. It was written by Jeremy Schuetze and Matt Visser. The film stars Antonia Thomas (Bagman 2024), Jesse Stanley (Raf 2019), Jeremy Schuetze (Jennifer’s Body 2009), and Matt Visser (A Lot Like Christmas 2021)

My Thoughts

Antonia Thomas delivered an outstanding performance as the female lead in Anacoreta. It was remarkable to watch her convey such a wide range of emotions with authenticity and depth. I was continually impressed by her ability to switch seamlessly between different dialects. I absolutely loved her delivery of the dialogue of telling The Scorpion and the Frog fable.

Anacoreta employs a distinctive, meta-horror style of storytelling. The narrative follows a group of friends creating a “scripted reality” horror film, and as the plot unfolds, the boundary between their staged production and their actual lives becomes increasingly blurred. This was interesting, but at the same time frustrating as a viewer.

Check out Anacoreta on Prime Video and let us know your thoughts!

Movie Reviews

‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

Published

21 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

“So it’s like Avatar?” one character quips in Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers,” bluntly translating the film’s high-concept premise for the sugar-fueled kids in the audience. And yes, the comparison is apt. The story follows a nature-obsessed teenage girl who manages to quite literally “hop” her consciousness into the body of a robotic beaver in order to spark an animal rebellion against a greedy mayor determined to bulldoze their forest for a freeway.

It’s a clever hook. The kind of big, elastic idea Pixar used to make look effortless. “Hoppers” does not reach the rarified air of “Up,” “Wall-E,” or “Inside Out,” but after a stretch of uneven originals like “Turning Red” and “Luca,” and outright misfires such as “Elemental” and “Elio,” this feels like a genuine course correction. The environmental messaging is clear without being preachy, the animals are irresistibly anthropomorphized, and the studio’s once-signature emotional sincerity is back in sturdy form.

Pixar can afford to gamble on originals when it has a guaranteed cash cow like this summer’s “Toy Story 5” waiting in the wings, but “Hoppers” earns its place in the catalogue. Director Daniel Chong crafts a warm, heartfelt film that occasionally strains under the weight of its own ambition, yet remains grounded by character and theme. Its meditation on conservation and animal displacement feels timely in a way that never tips into after-school-special territory.

We meet Mabel, voiced with bright conviction by Piper Curda, as a child liberating her classroom pets and returning them to the wild. Her moral compass is shaped by her grandmother, voiced by Karen Huie, who imparts wisdom about nature’s sanctity. True to both Pixar tradition and the broader Disney playbook, this beacon of guidance does not survive past the opening act. Loss, after all, is Pixar’s favorite inciting incident.

Years later, Mabel is still fighting the good fight, squaring off against the smarmy Mayor Jerry, voiced with slick menace by Jon Hamm. He plans to flatten the glade where Mabel and her grandmother once found solace. Mabel’s resistance feels noble but futile. The animals have already mysteriously vanished, the machinery is coming, and her last-ditch plan involves luring a beaver back to the abandoned forest in hopes of jumpstarting the ecosystem.

That’s when the film gleefully pivots into mad-scientist territory. At Beaverton University, Mabel discovers her professor, voiced by Kathy Najimy, has developed a device that can project human consciousness into synthetic animals. The process, dubbed “hopping,” allows Mabel to inhabit a robotic beaver and infiltrate the forest from within. It’s an inspired escalation that keeps the film buoyant even when the plotting grows predictable.

Her new posse includes King George, a lovably beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan with distinct Bing Bong energy; a sharp-tongued bear voiced by Melissa Villaseñor; a regal bird king voiced by the late Isiah Whitlock Jr.; and a fish queen voiced by Ego Nwodim. As is often the case with Pixar, even in its lesser efforts, the world-building is meticulous. The animal hierarchy, complete with titles like “paw of the king,” is layered with jokes that play for kids while slyly winking at adults.

The plot ultimately follows a familiar template. Scrappy underdog rallies community. Corporate villain twirls metaphorical mustache. Emotional third-act sacrifice looms. At times, you can feel the machinery working a little too cleanly. Pixar, and Disney at large, has grown increasingly reliant on sequels and established IP, and “Hoppers” does not radically reinvent the wheel. In an animated landscape where films like “K-Pop: Demon Hunters,” “Across the Spider-Verse,” and “Goat” are pushing stylistic and narrative boundaries, being safe and sturdy may not always be enough.

And yet, there is something refreshing about a Pixar original that remembers how to tug at the heart without squeezing it dry. “Hoppers” is playful, peppered with cheeky needle drops, and builds to a sweet emotional catharsis that may or may not have left this critic a little misty-eyed. It feels earnest and engaged.

“Hoppers” may not be top-tier Pixar. But it is a welcome return to form, a reminder that the studio still knows how to marry big ideas with a bigger heart.

HOPPERS opens in theaters Friday, March 6th.

Movie Reviews

‘Hoppers’ review: Who can argue with hilarious talking animals?

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

‘Hoppers’ review: Who can argue with hilarious talking animals?

Just when you think Pixar’s petting-zoo cute new movie “Hoppers” is flagrantly ripping off James Cameron, the characters come clean.

movie review

HOPPERS

Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG (action/peril, some scary images and mild language). In theaters March 6.

“You guys, this is like ‘Avatar’!,” squeals 19-year-old Mabel (Piper Curda), the studio’s rare college-age heroine.

Shoots back her nutty professor, Dr. Fairfax (Kathy Kajimy): “This is nothing like ‘Avatar!’”

Sorry, Doc, it definitely is. And that’s fine. Placing the smart sci-fi story atop an animated family film feels right for Pixar, which has long fused the technological, the fantastical and the natural into a warm signature blend. Also, come on, “Avatar” is “Dances With Wolves” via “E.T.”

What separates “Hoppers” from the pack of recent Pix flix, which have been wholesome as a church bake sale, is its comic irreverence.

Director Daniel Chong’s original movie is terribly funny, and often in an unfamiliar, warped way for the cerebral and mushy studio. For example, I’ve never witnessed so many speaking characters be killed off in a Pixar movie — and laughed heartily at their offings to boot.

What’s the parallel to Pandora? Mabel, a budding environmental activist, has stumbled on a secret laboratory where her kooky teachers can beam their minds into realistic robot animals in order to study them. They call the devices “hoppers.”

Bold and fiery Mabel — PETA, but palatable — sees an opportunity.

The mayor of Beaverton, Jerry (Jon Hamm), plans to destroy her beloved local pond that’s teeming with wildlife to build an expressway. And the only thing stopping the egomaniacal pol — a more upbeat version of President Business from “The Lego Movie” — is the water’s critters, who have all mysteriously disappeared.

So, Mabel avatars into beaver-bot, and sets off in search of the lost creatures to discover why they’ve left.

From there, the movie written by Jesse Andrews (“Luca”) toys with “Toy Story.” Here’s what mischief fuzzy mammals, birds, reptiles and insects get up to when humans aren’t snooping around. Dance aerobics, it turns out.

Per the usual, “Hoppers” goes deep inside their intricate society. The beasts have a formal political system of antagonistic “Game of Thrones”-like royal houses. The most menacing are the Insect Queen (Meryl Streep — I’d call her a chameleon, but she’s playing a bug), a staunch monarch butterfly and her conniving caterpillar kid (Dave Franco). They’re scheming for power.

Perfectly content with his station is Mabel’s new best furry friend King George (Bobby Moynihan), a gullible beaver who ascended to the throne unexpectedly. He happily enforces “pond rules,” such as, “When you gotta eat, eat.”

That means predators have free rein to nosh on prey, and everybody’s cool with it. Because of bone-dry deliveries, like exhausted office drones, the four-legged cast members are hilarious as they go about their Animal Planet activities.

No surprise — talking lizards, sharks, bears, geese and frogs are the real stars here. They far outshine Mabel, even when she dons beaver attire. Much like a 19-year-old in a job interview, she doesn’t leave much of an impression.

Yes, the teen has a heartfelt motivation: The embattled pond was her late grandma’s favorite place. Mabel promised her that she’d protect it.

But in personality she doesn’t rank as one of Pixar’s most engaging leads, perhaps because she’s past voting age. Mabel is nestled in a nebulous phase between teenage rebellion and adulthood that’s pretty blasé, even if a touch of tension comes from her hiding her Homo sapien identity from her new diminutive pals. When animated, kids make better adventurers, plain and simple.

“Hoppers” continues Pixar’s run of humble, charming originals (“Luca,” “Elio”) in between billion-dollar-grossing, idea-starved sequels (“Inside Out 2,” probably “Toy Story 5”). The Disney-owned studio’s days of irrepressible innovation and unmatched imagination are well behind it. No one’s awed by anything anymore. “Coco,” almost 10 years ago, was their last new property to wow on the scale of peak Pixar.

Look, the new movie is likable and has a brain, heart and ample laughs. That’s more than I can say for most family fare. “A Minecraft Movie” made me wanna hop right out of the theater.