Barbie in Requiem for a Dream - The Substance

Ioana Satmari • 10/9/2024

She twirls the toothpick in her martini glass, piercing the olive deeply. She pulls it out, spins it, and gazes at it like a trophy. She drinks it all and tosses it back in the glass. In front of her, five or six already empty glasses are lined up. Shot almost entirely in wide angle, with atypical transitions and perspectives ending in tableau-like frames, The Substance, directed by Coralie Fargeat, guides your eyes into screen corners you rarely look at.

The story is hypnotic and twisted. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. The plot is deeply piercing, reminiscent of the myth of Circe and Medea. Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) has had her American dream terminated: youth without old age and life without death. This fear of aging, in a ex-star who’s just been dismissed from TV, unleashes the film’s mise-en-scène. Elisabeth no longer has smooth skin. She must be replaced with a younger, sexier version. Thus, she becomes greedy, and everything spirals into a hedonistic exchange between the two main characters, Elisabeth and Sue (Margaret Qualley), her younger version. Wait, wait, how does she get younger? She acquires the substance that lets her live one week in Sue’s young body and one week in her old one. The film’s dualism and character swaps skillfully weave the story… until the final moment. Let’s not forget it’s Halloween season and that time of year when more profit-oriented films are released. The Substance straddles the line of being a good concept, but spoiled by trends. It doesn’t completely fall short, but the horror movie label had to be slapped on.

Driven by female rage, pumped-up self-love, and hypersexualized visuals, the film is a spectacle. A spectacle that could have remained remarkable if it hadn’t ended, like every horror movie, with a Scooby-Doo-like monster scene and a bloodbath. With an epic James Bond-style finale, exaggerated by an all-out brawl and a catfight, you end up frowning hard at the screen (careful—you might get wrinkles).

The Substance perfectly fits the saying: “A man complains about living in a cramped space, and the wise man tells him to bring the cow into the house; now he has no room for it. When he takes it out, he’ll be very happy it’s gone.