the substance (2024) movie review
Saturday, November 30th, 2024 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lumemiruuuuuuuuuuueveryone has been talking abt this film and while im definitely late to the party (on my own defense, the movie lasts 2 hours, and its hard to watch it in secret due to it ;-;) id like to share my thoughts on it having watched a few seconds ago :3
as always, spoiler alert for the substance!!!1 if ur planning to watch this film :)
im not sure whether i like it or not, is certainly quite unique but well…id describe it more as smth shocking lol. i adored the way it was directed like…the exaggerated angles/prespectives, whatever shit was going on the face planes, how meaty everything looked (good descision, since the film has body horror), the contrast with those excessively clean places with some of the grittiness or more shaky shots of the film, MARGARET QUALLEY’S SHOTS WHERE HER EYES LOOK WEIRD AF, the random flashes of text (i also love the font chosen, is very thick and “over the top” idk i love it);seriously it worked extremely well with the tone of the film; adding to that, i also really liked the set desing, specially the (as i mentioned b4) the extremely clean and angular places, i saw someone say they kinda look like backrooms and honestly it makes so much sense :0, it does give a feeling of unreality to it and god…i really need to study its technical stuff, since those are the ones i liked the most :D
regarding the actual story, is quite simple, but at the same time pretty interesting ngl; the whole concept of the substance is rlly fascinating (even if it would probably dont make sense…) and ngl, id be happy to dive more into its biological aspects (even if it, again, wont make sense lol); i also liked elisabeth’s character, u rlly can feel her despair there and her relationship with sue, even if we get told much of it its still interesting hehe (now having watched the movie, the interpretation that says that elisabeth used to be as bitchy as sue in the past, and now sue, since she’s the same as elisabeth is committing her same mistakes now that she’s in her glory days again), regardind the other characters harvey is a bitch and ig he’s very caricaturized (srry 4 the bad english) but he was shot beautifully hehe, and i also wonder who tf is managing the substance thingy; only thing we know is that they’re very…simple-minded yet cryptic? i cant describe it very well, but anyway, cool promo video though
finally, the themes :D!!!…ngl, i dont have much to say abt it, i was mostly mesmerized by the technical aspects 😭, BUT OTHER THING THAT THIS FILM NAILED (imo) was the body horror; maybe if bc i havent seen much body horror in my life (if u have any recs tell me pls this seems like an interesting thing), as i mentioned b4, most of the shots make the characters look very meaty (or it was the shitty quality), specially with the emphasis on elisabeth’s wrinkles or the “volume” of sue’s ass, i also liked the shots where elisabeth or sue are laying down on the bathroom when they arent living…they just look so still, like if they were just a lump of meat there who can easily be discarded fuck i love this; finally, the sequence of monstro elisasue colapsing was very well done…is more “liquid” (obviously since monstro elisasue is covered on some weird liquid and there was a literal blood explosion) but like it remains more “solid” on the crowded shots of everyone running covered in blood….i cant explain myself rn, but im just going to say i love textures and this films focus on them is awesome for me. seriously, if body horror is this cool (or even cooler) managing the human body i need to see more. maybe is just that i see my body as an object frequently, or smth easily hurted idk BUT GOOD THAT WAS MADE FOR ME :D. seriously give recs
also id like to talk abt its comparisons with helter skelter…i do think this movies are different enough on its execution to be fully distinct, but i do appreciate that the substance made the consequences of beauty standards more…gritty ig, unlike helter skelter, which just put spots (ik they are ugly, but god i would love to have seen them as more “rotting” ig, like if we could’ve seen some skin slightly falling off, revealing some of the surgery marks or smth like it, it would’ve been very cool); i do need to rewatch helter skelter anyway
thats all ig, have a nice day :)
as always, spoiler alert for the substance!!!1 if ur planning to watch this film :)
im not sure whether i like it or not, is certainly quite unique but well…id describe it more as smth shocking lol. i adored the way it was directed like…the exaggerated angles/prespectives, whatever shit was going on the face planes, how meaty everything looked (good descision, since the film has body horror), the contrast with those excessively clean places with some of the grittiness or more shaky shots of the film, MARGARET QUALLEY’S SHOTS WHERE HER EYES LOOK WEIRD AF, the random flashes of text (i also love the font chosen, is very thick and “over the top” idk i love it);seriously it worked extremely well with the tone of the film; adding to that, i also really liked the set desing, specially the (as i mentioned b4) the extremely clean and angular places, i saw someone say they kinda look like backrooms and honestly it makes so much sense :0, it does give a feeling of unreality to it and god…i really need to study its technical stuff, since those are the ones i liked the most :D
regarding the actual story, is quite simple, but at the same time pretty interesting ngl; the whole concept of the substance is rlly fascinating (even if it would probably dont make sense…) and ngl, id be happy to dive more into its biological aspects (even if it, again, wont make sense lol); i also liked elisabeth’s character, u rlly can feel her despair there and her relationship with sue, even if we get told much of it its still interesting hehe (now having watched the movie, the interpretation that says that elisabeth used to be as bitchy as sue in the past, and now sue, since she’s the same as elisabeth is committing her same mistakes now that she’s in her glory days again), regardind the other characters harvey is a bitch and ig he’s very caricaturized (srry 4 the bad english) but he was shot beautifully hehe, and i also wonder who tf is managing the substance thingy; only thing we know is that they’re very…simple-minded yet cryptic? i cant describe it very well, but anyway, cool promo video though
finally, the themes :D!!!…ngl, i dont have much to say abt it, i was mostly mesmerized by the technical aspects 😭, BUT OTHER THING THAT THIS FILM NAILED (imo) was the body horror; maybe if bc i havent seen much body horror in my life (if u have any recs tell me pls this seems like an interesting thing), as i mentioned b4, most of the shots make the characters look very meaty (or it was the shitty quality), specially with the emphasis on elisabeth’s wrinkles or the “volume” of sue’s ass, i also liked the shots where elisabeth or sue are laying down on the bathroom when they arent living…they just look so still, like if they were just a lump of meat there who can easily be discarded fuck i love this; finally, the sequence of monstro elisasue colapsing was very well done…is more “liquid” (obviously since monstro elisasue is covered on some weird liquid and there was a literal blood explosion) but like it remains more “solid” on the crowded shots of everyone running covered in blood….i cant explain myself rn, but im just going to say i love textures and this films focus on them is awesome for me. seriously, if body horror is this cool (or even cooler) managing the human body i need to see more. maybe is just that i see my body as an object frequently, or smth easily hurted idk BUT GOOD THAT WAS MADE FOR ME :D. seriously give recs
also id like to talk abt its comparisons with helter skelter…i do think this movies are different enough on its execution to be fully distinct, but i do appreciate that the substance made the consequences of beauty standards more…gritty ig, unlike helter skelter, which just put spots (ik they are ugly, but god i would love to have seen them as more “rotting” ig, like if we could’ve seen some skin slightly falling off, revealing some of the surgery marks or smth like it, it would’ve been very cool); i do need to rewatch helter skelter anyway
thats all ig, have a nice day :)
