What is the point of The Substance?
The Substance uses a female perspective to explore aging and the impact of media and the entertainment industry on beauty standards. Elisabeth Sparkle is a negative example. Who not to be. If you find yourself thinking like her, acting like her, then it’s time to take a breath and reorient. She joins the ranks of other negative examples, like Nina from Black Swan, Andrew from Whiplash, Mark Zuckerberg as depicted in The Social Network, Lydia Tár from Tár, and Tonya Harding in I, Tonya. Similarly, Sue is an unrealistic standard to have for yourself. Because “perfection” is fleeting. Your value as a person can’t be and shouldn’t be judged by how you looked in your prime. Even if Hollywood and the like make you feel otherwise.
Cast
- Elisabeth Sparkle – Demi Moore
- Sue – Margaret Qualley
- Harvey – Dennis Quaid
- Written by – Coralie Fargeat
- Directed by – Coralie Fargeat
Plot summary and analysis of The Substance
Set-up
- Egg split foreshadows Elisabeth and Sue. Has two purposes. It works as an exposition tool, a simplification, that allows mainstream viewers to easily follow what’s happening. It also works as a promise. More active viewers will realize that’s how Margaret Qualley will arrive in the movie, so will wonder and anticipate just how gnarly it will be when it’s a person, not an egg, dividing into two. It teases the body horror to come.
- Elisabeth Sparkle gets her Hollywood star. She’s young and popular. Montage of passing time corresponds with Elisabeth’s aging and the waning interest from the public. The crack that forms on the star becomes a metaphor for the crack in her own psyche (between who she is now and who she used to be).
- Pick up with Elisabeth Sparkle in her late prime. In shape, looks great, has her own show.
- Women’s bathroom is closed, men’s is open. This subtly introduces a motif about the inconveniences women in the entertainment industry face compared to men. Reinforced by Harvey’s character throughout the film.
- Harvey wants to replace Elisabeth with someone younger and “superior”. Their lunch is incredibly dismissive and reinforces the uneven male/female dynamics initially set-up by the bathrooms.
- Constant reminders of Elisabeth’s age. It’s her 50th birthday. She fixates on liquid going down a drain because it reminds her of what youth she still has disappearing (another foreshadow). The fly in the glass of water—symbol of a slow death. Then her face ripped off her billboard. The car crash becomes a manifestation of the crush of emotions she’s feeling—the vulnerability, pain, fear, sense of being damaged, etc.
- Fred from high school still makes Elisabeth feel valuable.
- Introduction of the snow globe, one of the dominant motifs of The Substance. Recalls Citizen Kane. Opening scene of that movie shows Kane, as an old man, on his deathbed. He holds a snow globe in one hand, says “Rosebud”, then passes away. We come to find out he was reflecting on his childhood, when he had a sled, called Rosebud, and was happy. Snow globes, with their fixed depictions, tend to, in art, symbolize memory, time captured, stasis. Same is true here with Elisabeth. For her, the snow globe contains her memories of youth, beauty, and the height of her fame.
- Snow globe is in contrast to the giant portrait of a more modern Elisabeth, an older Elisabeth. It makes sense, then, symbolically, when she hurls the globe at the portrait. Youth and age collide. Afterwards, one eye of the painting is damaged. This foreshadows the duality between Sue and Elisabeth.
- Elisabeth still reads the paper, which is a nod to her age.
- Decides to try The Substance. Whole sketchy pickup process. Gives herself the injection. Splits like the egg. Sue emerges.
- The “Activation” has “single-use only” on the bottle. Definitely a Chekhov’s Gun.
Escalation
- Once Sue appears, the visual style becomes more subjective. Everything is glossier, brighter. More slow-motion. Shots of Sue’s body, especially her butt, are presented almost commercially, like a bottle of ice cold Coca-Cola on a hot day. It’s a thing to admire, to desire, to behold. The glory of youth. A great contrast to the previous shots of Elisabeth’s body, shots that were static, shadowed, almost clinical. The reality of old age.
- Sue goes to the casting call for Elisabeth’s replacement. Casting directors don’t like the previous girl and say “Too bad her boobs aren’t in the middle of her face, instead of her nose.” This is another set-up, essentially saying “That’s what men want? Well, wait until they meet Monstro ElisaSue. Boobs for a nose isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.”
- Sue gets the show. If you know anything about show business, Sue’s request to work every other week is ridiculous. But it shows the power of her youth and beauty that Harvey says yes to the request.
- The film structures the rest of the middle section around the switch between Elisabeth and Sue. Sue does it well the first time, takes a “little” liberty the second time, then steals more and more time from Elisabeth.
- Uses the New Year’s Eve show to establish a finish line for the narrative.
- Sue’s first Pump It Up show presents itself as an exercise program but is really softcore erotica. It exploits her youth and beauty.
- Elisabeth’s desiccated finger causes her to spiral. She thought she was old before and that’s why she took the substance. Now she’s confronted with something truly elderly.
- First seeks refuge via Fred, someone who still saw her as beautiful. But she can’t be herself. Looks great but then tries to look like Sue then gets angry at herself then gives up and blows Fred off. This gets back to the nurse (as the old man) who says that it “gets hard to believe you deserve to exist” and “Has she started yet? Eating away at you?” Yes, Sue did physically eat away at Elisabeth but is also mentally, emotionally, and existentially devouring her.
- Most obvious when Elisabeth is about to leave and sees her reflection distorted in the door knob. That’s how she sees herself. One of the film’s key images.
- Elisabeth turns to food, specifically entire roasted chickens, to make herself feel better. And maybe, also, to try and punish Sue. Which kind of works when Sue has the chicken leg dream. It’s the first crack in Sue’s confidence and sense of perfection.
- The whole thing comes to a head when Elisabeth sees Sue on the talk show and the host asks about Elisabeth Sparkle. Sue is ungrateful. Calls Elisabeth’s show “Jurassic Fitness”. Elisabeth’s relationship with food takes over. She also now idolizes the “old her” from the beginning of the movie, wishing she could go back to before the substance, which introduces a sad irony.
- Odds and ends throughout this section: camera lenses and lights increase in frequency and serve as a motif for the influence of media on sense of self; egg motif also returns.
Pay-off
- Sue decides to never switch back. And goes on a three-month offensive that is seemingly completely wonderful for her. Until she runs out spinal fluid. Has to switch to save herself.
- Elisabeth is now horrific. Bald, enfeebled, Golem-y.
- Operator for the substance keeps pointing out that Elisabeth and Sue are the same. Implication being that if Sue’s not respecting the balance then it means Elisabeth doesn’t respect herself. We finally get the line, “I hate myself.” Makes the whole metaphor of the film a bit explicit.
- Elisabeth attempts to terminate but can’t go through with it because part of her still wants to live vicariously through Sue. Elisabeth, at this point, visually embodies her true sense of self, how she always saw herself—an old, freakish thing—while Sue represents how she remembers herself and who she wishes she could return to. So these two aspects of her psyche fight. And the “worst” one wins.
- Sue attends rehearsal for the New Year’s Eve performance. Things seem great. But she doesn’t have the stabilizer fluid to keep going. Her teeth come out. She’s no longer perfect. So she runs back to take another activation shot to make a younger, better version of what was already the younger, better version. Introduces the cycle of defeat.
- We get Harvey and all the male executives asking Sue to smile and saying “pretty girls should always smile.” Re-emphasizes the gross dynamic between men and women in this industry.
- After the shot, Sue gives birth to Monstro Elisasue.
- Two very pointed things. First, when Monstro puts on the dress, she covers Elisabeth’s face on her back then cuts Elisabeth’s face from the giant portrait, puts lipstick on it, and wears it. So the real face is hidden. And a fake face is put on. That’s the whole theme, right there. Show business, media, Hollywood, society, asks women to hide how they really feel and present themselves as this glamorous, pretty, always-smiling being.
- Monstro gets on stage and tries to perform. But the mask comes off. And all hell breaks loose. It’s a riotous assassination of the unrealistic beauty standards put on women for the viewing pleasure of audiences. Right before this, Harvey even says “She’s my most beautiful creation” as a literal monster stands there on stage.
- We get the music from 2001: a Space Odyssey. Multiple things going on. The music in 2001 happens when an ape first learns to use a bone as a weapon. But the end of 2001 features a human transformed into a gigantic “star child” who comes back to Earth with all this implication of ushering in a new chapter of humanity. So the reference seems like a combination of the two scenes. The “breakthrough” and the “evolution” but turned from a positive thing into an entirely negative thing.
- Monstro Elisasue leaves the building after bathing the whole stage and hallway in blood (Shining reference?).
- Ends up out on the street. Body explodes. But Elisabeth’s face crawls away. Ends up on her star from the beginning of the movie. She looks up and the stars rain down like the gold sparkles from the snow globe. She drains through cracks in the pavement.
- A street cleaner wipes away all traces of Elisabeth. Only her name remains.
The Substance’s themes, meaning, ending, and real life application
The Substance is similar to Perfect Blue and Black Swan in that it reflects on a woman’s obsession with her profession. But also Pearl, X, and MaXXXine in showing the toxic influence Hollywood has on women and their relationship with their bodies, looks, etc. The main frame for all this is aging, which is a relatively unique offering. Mima in Perfect Blue is a young up-and-comer. Nina in Black Swan is a young up-and-comer. Pearl and Maxine are both young up-and-comers. The emphasis on youth in those films allows for an easy narrative contrast. You start in a place of innocence then see the character corrupted by the forces of the industry, its culture, and the demands of the profession. The characters lose their innocence.
The Substance, however, stars a character who has already been through it all. So the story isn’t about a loss of innocence. It’s about feeling past your prime and trying to recapture what you were, who you were, and the self-loathing that comes with it. Coralie Fargeat explores gives Elisabeth both an external and internal influence.The external influence is the Hollywood of it all and the beauty standards it instills. Harvey wants to replace Elisabeth with someone younger. Why? Because it would be better for ratings. Because society is vampiric when it comes to commercializing youth. People don’t love Sue for who she is. They covet her for what she represents. Innocence, beauty, vitality, superficial perfection. That’s why the cinematography becomes like something out of a Coca-Cola commercial. Instead of a dew-covered bottle of ice cold soda on a hot day, it’s Sue. Her eyes, her lips, her chest, her butt, etc. All this makes The Substance a brutal, brutal takedown of the entertainment industry and media. Not only how they use women but the standards they promote and how that affects women outside of the industry. Elisabeth is a beautiful, successful human. But she judges her value by whether she’s on a billboard, then judges her looks against who is on the billboard.
The professional aspect Elisabeth experiences as an actor in Hollywood is something most of us recognize but won’t go through. But Elisabeth’s internal struggle is incredibly universal. We tend to not appreciate what we have while we have it. When you’re in high school, it’s easy to think about college. And then in college you look forward to graduation and starting “real life”. Then you graduate and real life begins and it’s hard and you look forward to having more income, a house, maybe a spouse, children. Then you’re in your thirties and suddenly nostalgic for high school and college. And then in your forties, you think about your twenties. You’ve stopped looking ahead; instead, you focus on the past because the older you get the more eras and chapters you can look back on. And the more you may wish you could relive those times. Especially as your body changes and your opportunities narrow. Life goes from an open palm to a closed fist. There’s the you that exists and the you you had been.
When we pick up with Elisabeth, she’s already longing for the past and feeling like she’s too old. But after Sue steals time from her and Elisabeth actually becomes elderly, she quickly wishes to go back to how things were before the substance. 50, it turns out, wasn’t so bad after all. It’s not 20 or 30, but Elisabeth could have made the most of it. Except she was too focused on maintaining the shreds of who she had been rather than embracing who she had become.
That’s probably why we have the Citizen Kane reference with the snow globe. Charles Foster Kane, no matter how much he achieved in his life, always longed for that time he was a child with a sled. Neither his wealth nor his fame could soothe that part of him forever grasping for the past. It’s the same with Elisabeth. She couldn’t let go of the idea of what she was. A youthful icon who had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And she sacrifices the remaining decades of her life in a desperate attempt to turn back the clock, rather than accept its inevitable ticking on. Sue even does the same thing. She has her 15 minutes of fame, then suffers the first blows to her beauty and begins wishing for a “better” version of herself. It’s a never-ending cycle.
So the ultimate message seems to be that society not only sets unrealistic standards but actively causes us to grieve who we have been because it doesn’t celebrate who we’ve become. Elisabeth becomes a worst case example of dealing with aging. It’s impossible to regain the past. And trying to do so isn’t just costly, isn’t just a waste of time, but a sacrifice of time. The opportunity cost is massive. Weeks, months of your time gone. Don’t let that happen. Embrace yourself. Respect the balance. And don’t let outside influences—like career obsession or the media—cause you to lose sight of what’s most important. You.
A difference in tone
I want to talk about the endings of Perfect Blue, Black Swan, Pearl, X, and MaXXXine, and The Substance.
In Black Swan, Nina’s clearly presented as having crossed a line. But there’s still a sense of…nobility to it? Like she’s an artist who sacrificed everything to give the performance of a lifetime. To achieve “perfection”. And as much as the movie condemns that obsessiveness, it still renders Nina’s performance as triumphant. Rapturous. In a way to where someone might still admire what she achieved. And think to themselves, “Okay, Nina didn’t see the line. But I can.” Quick note that Nina’s mom is like Elisabeth in that she lives through her daughter.
In Perfect Blue, Mima (if the names sound similar it’s because Black Swan is essentially an American adaptation of Perfect Blue) isn’t obsessively dedicated to her role. She’s just so earnest in trying to grow her career that she doesn’t prioritize her own health and well-being and begins to lose herself to the work and also the industry. It’s a learning curve. One that she ultimately masters. The main antagonist is actually her manager, Rumi, who was a former idol and tries to live vicariously through Mima, to the point of replacing her. Rumi’s in the same position as Elisabeth. While Perfect Blue shows there are problems in the industry, the hero has agency to manage those issues in a healthy way and still find success.
In Pearl, you have this simple farm girl who can’t help but contrast the reality of her life on the farm—with a paralyzed dad and a strict mom—against the glitz and glam of “life” in movies. She wants that. To escape her reality and replace it with whatever Hollywood presents life as. But in the end, she has to accept the farm. And the fact that she isn’t special. There is no fairy tale Cinderella story for her. Where Mima’s realization is healthy, Pearl’s is crushing. Because of Hollywood, she’ll forever feel a bit disgusted by the life she has.
In X, Maxine is a foil for Pearl. The former wasn’t chosen in one contest and let that destroy her entire dream. Maxine won’t be so easily swayed. She’ll do anything to become a star. And part of that hurdle is a showdown with Pearl, who serves as a metaphor for a roadblock in Maxine’s journey. Overcoming that roadblock, Maxine makes her way to Hollywood, which is where we pick up with her self-titled film. And that story is a metaphor for the sacrifice it takes to make it in the industry. The previous film was what you have to overcome, and this one is what you’re willing to give up. And for Maxine, the answer is everything. Her friends, her family, her past, herself. She willingly gives up her humanity to become a commodity. An idea of a person that others will look at and think “I want to be like her,” When, in reality, she’s not really anything or anyone. Just someone who is obsessed with stardom for the sake of stardom. Which is why one of the last shots is of a fake replication of Maxine’s head.
The end of The Substance is by far the most condemning of these films. Perfect Blue is actually kind of reasonable about the industry. “It’s rough but you can figure it out.” And the others all place blame on the industry and show how psychologically contaminating it can be, while having various degrees of “but there’s almost a valid reason for their obsession.” For Nina, it’s to achieve artistic perfection. For Pearl, it’s to escape a really hard life. And Maxine is almost admirable in her single-minded focus to achieve star-status for no other reason than because she believes she’s a star.
The Substance doesn’t give the industry the same respect. Harvey is an entirely disgusting man and the other male characters aren’t much better. And not to disrespect fitness hosts, but there’s a sizable gap between ballet and jazzercise. Or being a leading actor and jazzercise. So the “nobility” factor of artistic craft goes out the window. The only reason Elisabeth has for hanging on to her show is ego, is because she hates herself for aging and having the show makes her feel relatively young and valuable. Without it, she worries if she’s anything.
Monstro Elisasue is a byproduct of the industry. That’s why Fargeat has Harvey say “She’s my most beautiful creation.” And why we have the absurdity of the monster even making it into the building, much less onto the stage. It’s Fargeat saying “Look at how dumb this industry is. This is what they create and they’re too blind to see it until it’s spinning around and spraying blood all over them.” And even once everyone sees the monster, is aware of the monster, what will change? What consequences will the industry face? Will there even be consequences? Or will Harvey, and the other men like him, just keep on keeping on? While the people they exploit slip between the cracks of the metaphorical sidewalk.
So The Substance is a slap in the face to everyone. It’s harsh. But some people will really need to hear what The Substance has to say. And will be better off because of it.
Why did Sue dream of the chicken leg?
The substance seller keeps reminding Elisabeth and Sue that they’re one in the same. But audiences will obviously start to wonder if that’s true. How much of a consciousness do they share if Sue doesn’t remember what Elisabeth does and vice versa? So the dreams are a nod to the fact that, yes, despite not being physically connected, there’s still some sort of psychological attachment.
The dream of the chicken leg is a nice set up for Sue pulling her teeth out. Teeth falling out is a very common stress dream. Pretty much everyone has that dream at some point. So when Sue first pulls a tooth out, we might think she’s having a stress dream again. Except, nope, her teeth are actually falling out because she’s falling apart from the like of stabilizer fluid. The nightmare has become a reality. Her perfection is already gone. By using the imagery from something so universal, Fargeat heightens the sense of anxiety in the audience. “What if it wasn’t a bad dream? What if that awful thing was actually happening?”
That concludes our analysis of The Substance
If you have questions or thoughts, leave a comment below!
