Coralie Fargeat's 'The Substance' is rapidly making a very strong case for itself for becoming the hidden gem of the year for 2024. With a production budget of just over 50 million dollars, the film is currently taking the global box office by storm and will have a strong hand to play when the awards season begins in the new year.
One thing that Fargeat accomplishes within this film is establishing a very clean and aesthetically pleasing cinematic style. The usage of bright colours contrasted against blinding white backgrounds, provides a unique style for this film which for me, as an audience member, boded very well and made the film astonishing to look at.
The creation of Elizabeth Sparkle just may go on to be the best thing that Fargeat will do in her career. A character that should seem completely unrelatable to the general audience member (famous, beautiful, talented, wealthy etc.) is brought right back down to earth when we learn about her ongoing mental troubles with her perspective on her appearance and where she stands in current society.
It is clear to see at the start of the film that Elizabeth is a character that has already lived the best days of her life, and that the time she has left on this planet will feel similar to what a rocket must experience as it plummets towards the surface of the earth after running out of jet fuel mid-flight. But, as any protagonist does in any film worth watching, she takes action.
And when there are great characters, there come great performers. And after seeing this film it becomes difficult to imagine anyone other than Demi Moore being tasked with the responsibility of bringing Elizabeth Sparkle to life. The actress delivers a courageous and relatable performance in this film that will undoubtedly go down as one of the best of her long and illustrious career.
Alongside Moore, Margaret Qualley is very much tinkering if not matching the standards set by her co-star in this film. The young actress does a great job of portraying the much younger, better looking, and more exciting version of Elizabeth Sparkle, also known as 'Sue'. These two roles demand so much of the actors that are tasked with the responsibility of bringing them to life, and on this occasion they certainly deliver.
The commentary of this film is very much a dark and chilling take on the consequences of what can happen if we refuse to love ourselves for who we are. Whilst we are unlikely to experience the same kind of consequences we see Elizabeth come to face with for her actions in this film, the same lesson still applies.
Throughout the story, we constantly see Elizabeth feeling jealous of Sue and the kind of treatment she seems to receive from external people - especially the male gender. And this all stemmed from a lack of self-love that she possesses when we first meet her. It could be argued that with this film, Fargeat is stating that the root cause of this problem originates from the way men view women as they get older.
Clocking in at 2 hours and 20 minutes, 'The Substance' is a film that hangs around for much longer than is necessary. For a story that has few characters, takes place in few locations, and contains no sub-plots, it definitely doesn't need to cross the highly-feared 2 hour mark in order to be told.
Whilst it doesn't necessarily feel as though there are many scenes that need to be removed from this film, it does feel like they definitely could be removed, and the film would reach it's natural conclusion anyway. The 140 minute runtime is nothing but a flag against the film's title that could potentially result in a lack of interest from your average moviegoer.
Regardless of this, 'The Substance' is not only the hidden gem of the year, but arguably one of the best films of the year and this will definitely be made clear when awards season comes around in the new year.
PrimeTime Films Score: B
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