The Substance movie review: Coraline Fargeat’s French film The Substance, perhaps the most brutal film of the year- goes to bitter, agonizing extremes. It has a fury and rage that feels utterly distinct in its own genre of body horror. The body here is that of an ageing woman named Elisabeth Sparkle, who is striving hard to reconcile with the fact that she might just be forgotten in the crowd of younger and more attractive women. As Demi Moore plays her, the body hides an insecurity so deep and relentless that it cuts through the screen. (Also read: Demi Moore filmed 45 ‘very difficult’ takes of ‘heart-wrenching’ scene in The Substance: ‘Got to a point where I…’)
The fountain of youth turns red
Elisabeth is a former star, who is now happy doing her exercise show, but soon enough, she hears that her chauvinist boss (played by Dennis Quaid) is looking for a younger replacement. She escapes a near-fatal accident and, in the process, chances upon an ad for something called The Substance. It can create a younger version of herself by injecting the activator. Every seven days, the original must swap roles with the doppelgänger. Is it safe? What are the consequences?
Elisabeth does not have much time to mull over these questions. Desperate, she quietly returns to her huge Los Angeles apartment (excellently designed by Stanislas Reydellet), which boasts huge glass walls that provide a bird’ s-eye view of the city. The space distinguishes her loneliness as tragically immense and unforgiving. She decides to take the substance, and then it emerges, tearing her backbone apart: her replacement is a much younger woman played by a pitch-perfect Margaret Qualley. She is Sue.
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Demi Moore gives career-best performance
Sue swaps her role as the new face doing those same exercise routines, and her instant rise to stardom means she needs more time and more days. This also means working a little around the rules of using The Substance. Elisabeth begins to resent Sue midway, which forms some of the most hard-hitting scenes in The Substance- away from its all-out bloodied unsubtlety towards the second half. Moore, in her finest hour on screen, is devastating to watch as her self-worth fades away gradually, distilled in this particular scene where she gets ready to meet the one person who has been kind to her for a change. Elisabeth’s own insecurity is the real horror, as she proceeds to smudge it all off with her bare, harsh hands.
Final thoughts
The Substance loses some of that restraint and reflectiveness during the last hour, when Fargeat seems to take the body horror to such an extreme that it glosses over its own critique of ageing and the sexist male gaze. However, it is still relentlessly violent, gruesome, and sickly funny to experience the havoc that happens, thanks to the instantly memorable work of prosthetics and makeup effects designer Pierre-Olivier Persin.
Ultimately, I was left troubled with the body politics of The Substance, a film that only wants to critique what it means to age and unlove oneself. Fargeat’s vision is laced with a riotous fury and audaciousness that gives it back to the establishment that sets these absurd beauty standards. But does it do better in deconstructing this very idea of what ageing looks like in a vastly judgmental world? The dizzying, off-the-rails ending is a problem here because it places the consequences firmly on the feet of the woman herself. She has nowhere to hide, nowhere to go. It is her biggest nightmare come true- facing the world with a frightening version of herself.
Behind the severe shock value, The Substance does little to amplify Elisabeth’s desperation and agony. Who is Elisabeth when she is not defined by the disillusionment brought in by her ageing? Elisabeth exists in this one myopic fulcrum of judgment. So she punishes herself more and more as the film progresses. Suffering and slowly driven to madness. The Substance might as well be treated like a blood-soaked question mark on the unrealistic beauty standards that continue to plague the showbiz.
Nandamuri Balakrishna was conferred with the Padma Bhushan award a few days ago by the Indian government. Fans are thrilled with the news, and so is Balayya’s family.
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A private event was held at Balayya’s farmhouse, with only a select few in attendance. A video from the event, where Balayya talks about his three favorite actresses, has gone viral on social media.
In the video, Balayya’s sister is seen asking him about his three favorite heroines, to which the star hero responds with Vijayashanti, Ramya Krishna, and Simran.
Balayya has worked in multiple films with these actresses in the past, delivering several industry hits. Stay tuned for more updates.
Tollywood star Ram Charan’s next biggie, RC 16, is directed by Buchi Babu Sana. The actor is currently shooting for the film in Hyderabad, with Janhvi Kapoor playing his love interest.
Renowned cinematographer Ratnavelu ISC is handling the visuals for this project. In a recent interview, he revealed an interesting aspect of RC 16’s cinematography. He pointed out that many recent Hollywood films have been shot using negative film stocks, with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer being a prime example. Nolan opted for an old-school filmmaking approach, and now Ratnavelu is attempting something similar by using negative film stock for a portion of RC 16.
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However, he acknowledged that this approach comes with challenges. Unlike digital filming, shooting on negative film means there is no room for multiple takes, as the film stock would be wasted. Despite the difficulties, his Oppenheimer-like experiment has received appreciation from the Eastman Kodak Company.
This development is exciting news for cinema enthusiasts who appreciate old-school filmmaking techniques. It remains to be seen how this experiment will shape the final output of RC 16.
The rural sports drama also features Jagapathi Babu, Shiva Rajkumar, Divyendu Sharma, and others in significant roles. RC 16 is being produced by Vriddhi Cinemas in collaboration with Sukumar Writings, with Mythri Movie Makers presenting the film. AR Rahman is composing the music. Stay tuned for further updates.
Meera Menon’s Didn’t Die opens without specifying what kind of outbreak has set the world in isolation. The parallels with the Covid-19 pandemic here is instant, and surely enough, one of the first characters to appear on screen has a close encounter with a ‘biter’. Two years have passed since the zombies were first spotted at night, but now they have begun to seize the hours of the morning, too- a second wave of sorts. Premiering at Sundance, this is a film that starts off with a strong premise but does not match up with the themes of dealing with loss and finding a community. (Also read: Twinless review: Trauma-bonding takes on a different meaning in this darkly hilarious tale)
The premise
Didn’t Die follows a spirited Indian American podcast host, Vinita Malhotra (Kiran Deol), and her younger brother Rishi (Vishal Vijayakumar), as they travel to meet their older brother, Hari (Samrat Chakrabarti) and his wife Barbara (Katie McCuen), which is also their childhood home. Vinita is about to celebrate the 100th episode of her podcast Didn’t Die, which takes place through a radio broadcast where she anchors stories and interviews fellow survivors to share their experiences with the rest of the world. This family reunion of sorts becomes a melting pot for questions on dealing with loss and somehow trying to make sense of a dystopian reality.
Meera’s use of monochromatic frames here is evocative, urgently conveying the desolation and loss of the present generation. Working with her partner Paul Gleason, who also shot and wrote the project, Didn’t Die is more attuned towards a character study rather than going the full length about the zombie apocalypse. It is more a psychodrama of sorts, where the dynamics of this one family pushes the rather inert story forward. The shaky camerawork wears itself out after a point of saturation. This, in turn, limits the sense of perspective.
What works
As morbidly funny as Didn’t Die turns out to be, the film also feels rushed in places and often loses its momentum in between. The main tonal shift here is a complex tightrope, as Vinita’s sardonic wisdom takes away from the urgency of the situation. Hari and Barbara’s arc carries the emotional weight of the film, as Vinita’s pragmatism begins to wear off along the way. The point is the insistence of the narrative to show how humour can often be a way of dealing with grief. Indeed it is, but that is an effect that has to be counter-intuitive and not labelled upon. A misplaced sense of humour can cause more harm than a reluctant pause, a lesson this viewer could impart. Still, Meera does well by not playing to the cliches of how South Asian American characters are represented here. It is not a big deal, she insists.
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Didn’t Die is a film brimming with ideas, which would have worked better if the genre elements were also utilized with more keenness. However, the genre elements in Menon’s film feel circumstantial and therefore, limit the chances for developing any other crucial context. Still, this is a small film with its heart in the right place. It only needed more bite.
Santanu Das is covering Sundance Film Festival 2025 as part of the accredited press.