i watched The Substance and holy shit...had I known about the body horror, i would never have watched it. But I'm glad i did.
It felt viscerally real. Some people are turned off by its direct, on-the-nose approach. But it works. We are obsessed with looks and bodies. Butts here, butts there. Boobs. Flat tummies. Yes, the movie is over the top and fucking ridiculous, but so are we. My brain has been in that space. The entirety of instagram and tiktok are in that space. It's stupid because we're fucking stupid.
The scene where Elisabeth just wants to go out on a date but she cannot get ready....i almost cried. I have tears in my eyes just thinking about it now. It hits so close to home. I have a moment like that at least once a week. No matter what you throw on, how do you do your hair, your makeup...it's never good enough. You're never satisfied. You think about what others will think. You look at yourself and you wince. Fuck.
The visuals of the film are unsettling, psychotic. Very Kubrik-like (hell, they even did the thing with the moving lights and the tunnel and the colors). It works. It's stilted, uncomfortable, upsetting. Just like the whole premise.
The gollum-like monster she becomes near the end, when Sue decides to steal 3 months of her life. That hit me so hard. I'm scared of getting old. I don't want to see my face get wrinkled, my body become frail. It's so, so, so painful to watch her and recognize that the monster she becomes is a monster that haunts you in real life. I could barely look at it. This is you. This what you fear you will become. Oh my god.
In the end, when she disintegrates and is finally free...don't i wish sometimes i didn't have to think about my body at all.
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