00:00Now, we review the 2024 film, The Substance.
00:09Yes, Substance.
00:14Ladies and gentlemen, I have seen what I believe is my top film for the year so far.
00:22And the year is almost over.
00:26Well, more than 90 days left, but that's not the point.
00:34The Substance is a new film starring Demi Moore,
00:39where she plays a 50-year-old who's in the entertainment industry,
00:44and she's passed her prime, she's losing jobs,
00:51and she gets the opportunity to do something scientific
00:59that essentially gives her two selves.
01:03Herself, and a younger, hotter version of herself.
01:15Wow.
01:18This is a movie about addiction and internal struggle.
01:23You've got two characters essentially playing the same person.
01:27One is the public persona that is making the money,
01:31and the other one is the true self, which is suffering from a poor life balance.
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02:01Now, one of the things I have to say, the poetic weirdness about this film,
02:08is that Demi Moore, I checked, I believe she's 61 now,
02:12and she plays a 50-year-old character.
02:19So it really does say something about just the world that is perceived here.
02:26Now, let me tell you that this is a body horror film,
02:31and not only does it earn its R rating,
02:34this film should be NC-17.
02:37This is going to give people nightmares.
02:40This film is insane.
02:43I mean, not only is there just a huge amount of nudity in this film,
02:49I mean, not only is it nudity,
02:52it's very disturbing nudity in certain scenes with the body horror elements.
03:00I mean, this is, it's not mutilation, it's not a splatter film.
03:04There's some blood in this, but wow.
03:07I mean, there are elements of the fly and the thing in this film.
03:15This is extreme body horror.
03:18This is the body horror that Cronenberg would truly love.
03:23But it's sane enough so that you're not just grossed out.
03:27You don't want to vomit.
03:29But I mean, just wow is the body horror in this film incredible.
03:35You know, it is really disturbing stuff.
03:40I will say that if I wanted to make it grosser,
03:43I would have made it a little less dry in places.
03:47But I mean, in the end there, it really, wow.
03:52This is disturbing.
03:55I mean, this film is shot like an art film.
04:00There are a lot of extreme close-ups,
04:03and there are a lot of odd scenes.
04:07There's one scene with Demi Moore where, you know,
04:10she's talking to this other character,
04:12and they make the conscious choice to show her from the nose down,
04:16not showing her eyes,
04:18which, I mean, removal of the face of a character tends to be very dehumanizing.
04:23That's one of those symbols there.
04:25So it's almost like this person dehumanized her,
04:29and it's just very artistic in terms of its shooting.
04:33And I will also say that the sound score for this film,
04:37it's exactly what it should be.
04:40I mean, really, they don't use a huge amount of music in this film,
04:45but what they do use is very appropriate to set the mood
04:49and the surreality of this picture.
04:51But, I mean, the mainstay of this,
04:54the center stage product is the body horror,
04:58which is truly, truly incredible.
05:01And I have to ask, you know,
05:04did they use a body double for Demi Moore?
05:06Because that does not look like her hiney.
05:10I mean, her hiney has been in a lot of things,
05:13and it's always been a spectacular hiney.
05:16And, you know, one of the things about the hiney
05:19is that it is one of those parts of the body that you can tone.
05:23You know, this is a woman who's always taken very good care of herself,
05:27so I think she might have, if that was her real hiney
05:30in that particular shot where they showed off the hiney,
05:34I think that she probably looked at her hiney and said,
05:37this is why I'm going to make this movie.
05:40Because, you know, I mean, it just doesn't look like her hiney.
05:46You go and you Google her hiney,
05:49and she just has a much better hiney than that.
05:52So that's just one of those things, you know,
05:55and it's like the other actress, I forget her name,
05:58she has an incredible hiney.
06:00And, I mean, yes, you see a lot of her hiney.
06:03Her hiney is very, very prominent in this movie.
06:06There's a lot of hiney going on.
06:08And you're just going...
06:11Demi Moore is a very attractive woman, even still.
06:14You know, she hasn't really lost that attractiveness.
06:17She's not like, okay, you know, perfect,
06:20but still a very attractive woman, you know,
06:24for being a person who's done as much work as she has,
06:29been under the stress she's had.
06:31It's really surprising she can take really good care of herself.
06:34And that's just one of those things.
06:36It's just like, yeah, that's the person you want in this movie
06:40because, you know, she looks great.
06:43Yeah, someone goes, well, yeah, but, I mean, you know, she's not 25.
06:48Yeah, okay, but she looks a lot better than a lot of 25-year-olds I've met.
06:52Anyway, Dennis Quaid also is a real standout for this movie.
06:56He plays kind of a secondary antagonist to the self.
07:01He is a D-bag.
07:03And, I mean, there's just one scene where he is eating shrimp.
07:07He is making that shrimp utterly disgusting.
07:11And, I mean, it is just incredible how well he does that.
07:16The close-ups of his mouth, the rudeness of the body, and eating
07:20are very much on display in this film.
07:23This is a painful film to watch.
07:26You are glued to it.
07:28This is like George R. R. Martin part of
07:32you're afraid to see what happens next kind of filmmaking.
07:36How they got this under an R rating, I just do not know.
07:40But he is just this horrible sleaze character.
07:47And then, in the end, you know, it's one of those things about this film
07:51is that the central theme is the internal battle and balance.
07:55Finding balance in your life.
07:58Finding balance between who you want to be and who you truly are.
08:02And it's one of those things, you know, it's like
08:06this woman has this sort of second lease on life.
08:10But, in order to enjoy the second lease on life,
08:14she's killing herself.
08:16And, you know, it's like there's a development of an eating disorder in this movie.
08:21Which is very prescient to these particular people.
08:26And, I mean, there are these scenes where
08:30she's almost taking out her anger on food.
08:35It's just really, like, yeah, I get it.
08:40You know?
08:42Taking out your anger on food.
08:45Consuming as a form of control.
08:48Of gaining a lexicon.
08:51It's one of those movies that is almost existential
08:55in its brawness and the scope of the pain that it displays.
09:01I think a lot of people are going to be able to see this movie
09:05and understand what is going on and what is happening.
09:10So, look, this film, it is an art film.
09:13So I can give it the art film rating.
09:17But it's a really great art film.
09:21So this gets my very rare must watch rating.
09:25This is one of the best films I've seen this year.
09:29It is really, I mean, I don't think I could watch it again
09:33because it is so emotionally draining.
09:35But this is a film you really should see.
09:38But just be prepared for the fact that it is a gross movie.
09:43It is an agonizing movie.
09:45It is a Requiem for a Dream level movie.
09:49Wherein, you may not be able to watch this a second time
09:54because it is so disturbing.
09:57And I will say that I have watched many body horror movies multiple times.
10:02I have watched The Thing maybe five or six times.
10:06I have watched The Fly at least three times.
10:09This film, I don't know if I could do it again.
10:13It is that horrific. It is that good.
10:18So yes, The Substance is a must watch film.
10:23Go out and see it.
10:25It is probably going to be much better in theaters
10:28unless you have a really big nice TV at home.
10:31And that's my opinion.
10:33I'd love to hear yours down in the comments below.
10:35I, of course, am Richard.
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