Some dudes may scoff at this, but I consider myself a feminist.
That said, as a Black man, I can’t speak for women. I can only speak for other Black men (and about films about being Black). So, I just have to take a woman at her word when she discusses the things that she goes through.
Thankfully, there are storytellers who make game-changing films that speak to the female experience, and I consider Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance one such film. It’s definitely one of the angriest movies I’ve ever seen, and I want to talk about it.
First Off, None Of The Men In This Movie Come Out Looking Good
There was a great book I read last year called This Girl’s a Killer by Emma C. Wells. It’s about a pharmaceutical rep who kills predatory men at night. Her reason? “He had it coming.” In the story, there are very few redeemable male characters, but they’re there if you're looking.
Not so with The Substance, as there’s only one possibly redeemable male character. The main scumbag, though, is a TV producer named Harvey, played by Dennis Quaid. We often see disgusting close-ups of him eating, or talking at Demi Moore’s character, Elisabeth Sparkle, rather than to her.
In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen another movie that shows men in such a detestable light. Old men act like children, “love interests” just want to hit it and split it, and even the sole “redeemable” male character - a man from Elisabeth’s past before she became famous - mostly seems like he can’t believe his luck that a movie star would actually want to go on a date with him.
But, in the end, you feel bad for both him, and Elisabeth, as she’s a woman with her own star on the Walk of Fame, but is reduced to accepting a date from a guy just because she has such low self-esteem ever since she hit 50.
It’s all very angry material that simmers for a while until that explosive climax, which I’ll get into next.
The Film Also Acts As An Indictment On Not Only The Entertainment Industry’s Treatment Toward Women, But Also Society As A Whole
The Substance sits comfortably in the body horror subgenre, but I wouldn’t say that it sits in the same realm as some of the best David Cronenberg movies. Instead, its body horror is very specific to the female experience. In fact, the film’s director had an interesting thing to say about that in The Hollywood Reporter:
The way we live with our bodies in the public space, the way we are constantly judged by how our bodies look and what that means when our bodies mutate by getting older, getting pregnant, that is body horror. Being a woman is body horror.
And, you can tell that the film is furious that society has forced women to feel this way. As a man, I get uncomfortable about newly sprouted white hairs. But, I don’t view aging as something horrific. Instead, I merely view it as annoying. However, the movie goes full throttle into showing how lopsided the double standards are between men and women. Elisabeth has an exercise show at the beginning of the film, but she’s being replaced because a man thinks she’s too old...at 50! One would think that there are women her age who could take value in seeing somebody like them.
But, no, the industry (led by men) is pushing her out the door, and all of Elisabeth’s self-hatred crescendos with the climax, where she transforms into a monstrous being that gets decapitated and gushes blood on everybody in the audience. It’s a loud, ANGRY ending to a quietly furious film.
It’s also a movie that has a message about self-love, but you have to search for it, since a lot of the film is an indictment against the patriarchy. It’s a viscerally angry movie, and the kind that I want more of. I mean, Women Talking is great and all, but I much prefer women shouting! And, that's pretty much The Substance in a nutshell - Women Shouting: The Movie. And, I'm just happy to be in attendance.
