Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Substance

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

The Substance is a bloody, campy, fiercely feminist body horror film. Demi Moore plays a TV aerobics instructor who learns of a mysterious drug that causes another younger, entirely separate version of herself (Margaret Qualley) to splurt out of her back and assume her consciousness. The movie has earned Moore her first Oscar nomination, and she's the frontrunner in this year's best actress race. So we thought it would be the perfect time to revisit our conversation about the movie.In the run-up to the Oscars, Pop Culture Happy Hour is watching all 10 best picture nominees – and you're invited to join us! Sign up for the NPR Movie Club newsletter series and tell us what you thought of the movies you watched this week.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

The substance is a bloody, campy, fiercely feminist, and completely Bonzo, banana pants, body horror film. Demi Moore plays a TV aerobics instructor who's fired when she turns 50. Desperate to stay in the spotlight, she avails herself of a black market drug, a substance that births from her body a younger, entirely separate version of herself very squelchally. The movies earned Demi Moore her first Oscar nomination, and she's the frontrunner in this year's Oscars' best actress race. So we thought it would be the perfect time to revisit our conversation about the movie. I'm Aisha Harris.

And I'm Glenn Weldon. And today in this encore episode of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're revisiting our conversation about the substance. It is just the two of us today in the same studio. Yeah. East Coast, West Coast. Look at this. Look at what's happening. Yes.

Combucha and Duncan is what's happening right now. Wow. The Substance stars Demi Moore as Elizabeth, an actress turned TV aerobics instructor, who's fired from her job by her cartoonishly sexist boss, played by Dennis Quaid. She learns of a mysterious drug she can inject that causes another younger, entirely separate version of herself to sort of violently splurt out of her back and assume her consciousness. This version names herself Sue. She's played by Margaret Qualley.

But whenever Sue is out and about, live and large in these streets, Elizabeth's body lies dormant and vice versa. They must switch back and forth every seven days without exception, or some very bad and bloody and spurty things will happen. Guess what happens? The substance is directed by French director Gorely Farje. It's her second film after the bloody revenge film called, well, Revenge. It is in theaters now. Now, look, this movie doesn't have a twist per se,

but what it does have is one hell of an ending. And who boy, do we want to talk about that? So we'll start with general thoughts and give you plenty of warning when we're about ready to go all in on how this movie wraps up. But Aisha, you wrote the NPR review, a great review. Tell me about this movie. Look, Glenn, subtlety, it's overrated. That could be the tagline for this movie. You know, some movies are meant to be all about plot. They're meant to be about deep, lore, narratives, all that thing. And some movies, like The Substance, are meant to be visceral, tactile, fully immersive experiences.

And, you know, there are moments where I think it goes further than I wanted to. And the point is like there from the very beginning up until the very end. And I, you know, this movie is about two and a half hours, a little less than that. Around the two hour mark, I was like, I think I got the point. But overall, I just admire how audacious this film is. And, you know, subtlety is not the point. And I appreciate that. What are your thoughts?

did I text you as soon as I walked out of this theater. Do you remember what I texted you? Oh, no, I don't remember. It was like one word. No, it was hoot and a half, which is a term of art that we critics reserve for films that are hoots and a halves. I said Camp Classic, I said Baby Jane 2024. Oh, baby Jane with a special effects budget. This film is an angry film. Oh, it's very angry. Yeah. And it has the courage of its convictions. It's angry but funny. But DeMe Moore goes all in. This film would not work. if she didn't. Talk to me about Demi. You said Baby Jane. It is definitely giving late period Betty Davis. It totally is. It is also giving

you know, Mommy Dearest, Fay Donaway, no more wire hangers, except like add in lots of food. Yep. Because this movie is not just about body parts, but it's also about relationships to the body and food. And there's something funny about Demi Moore who is, you know, in her

early 60s playing a 50-year-old who was ousted, which to me says a lot about, you know, how we perceive womanhood, especially in Hollywood. And I think it's interesting because, like, in the real world, she does not look her age or, like, how we expect someone her age to look like. But, of course, like, we think of someone like Demi Moore or even, you know, J. Lowe, Halle Berry. They are these ideals of hotness, you know, it's because they don't look their age. And so I think when you think about those layers and what Moore is doing here, fully committing, but also it's just like, at the same time, look at the way you look.

And those are unrealistic expectations of like what we think we're supposed to look like. I think she's great. And I think that, like you said, we need her to commit and she goes full-throated. These are not like well-written characters. And I don't mean that as a slight. We don't know really anything about these characters. So it really calls upon her and Margaret Quali to really give the vibe, give what Farja is doing here. And I think they deliver.

They do. And I want to pick up on two things you just said. First of all, the thinness of these characterizations. This movie won best screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. And it's not because there's a lot of wildian wordplay here. This is not a talky script. This is a very squelchy script. And in fact, when I see this again at home, and I will, and I'll turn on the subtitles because I will.

Squelchy noises is going to be a lot, is going to be a lot of the subtitles. Yes. But you also brought up something about feminine self-loathing in your review. And what happens here is these two people are the same person, but they have this mutual antipathy toward each other, which becomes what the film's about. Yes. And that self-loathing, externalized, is kind of the throughline that goes to the entire film. Yeah.

And I think that's what makes this such a unique film. One of the films that came to mind when watching this and after the fact was Alex Scarlin's men. Okay. Remember that movie? I do. We actually did an episode on it. I was not high on this film. And part of the reason why was because that movie, same kind of concept of like, we're going to pummel you over this, like, with this idea and just lots of vibes.

And there's also like some really disgusting body horror in that movie. But the issue for me with that movie is that, you know, it's this perspective of like, and what we get out of a lot of me too stories of like, we're just going to talk about how terrible men are. And we're going to, you know, keep hammering that home. And I think the genius of this film, of the substance, is the fact that this is really focused on, you know, the Dennis Quaid character is on the periphery. He's only in a handful of scenes. It's really he's the catalyst. And then it's all about how the psychological and like emotional toll of what men have done and of misogyny and the patriarchy and all those things, the internal becomes external in every way possible. And I think that is the key difference and why this movie works. so much better, even though they're kind of coming at the same sort of, like, conclusion about how, like, terrible misogyny is. Right. I would push back a little bit because I think men's target was misogyny.

This film's targets are all over the damn place. Well, sure. Let's take them off. Patriarchy, kind of writ large. Yes. The beauty industry. Yes. Plastic surgery in particular.

What else? America. This is kind of a satire of America. Yeah. From an outsider's perspective, from a very French perspective, I think. And the thing that is. you also brought up in your review is when you go this big and you're satirizing, when do you stop satirizing and when do you just start doing something else where you're not really being incisive,

right? You're not using a scalpel, you're using a sledgehammer. This film is definitely in the sledgehammer category. But what happens to the satire when you go that big? I mean, for me, it got to the point where my senses were just completely dulled. Yeah. And I was just like, okay, but are we saying anything new here? And I do think it kind of, of fumbles in the last third act where we've got we've reached like the pinnacle of what we're going to do but then we just keep going even further as it was I was just kind of like this is I get it I guess in my older age as well I feel like I get even less I'm less desensitized in a way by violence and there is a lot of just like violence upon the self in a way that was

just too much for me. But I can also see why other people might just be like, this is a vibe, I'm going to go with it, I'm all in. And I also, again, I think that the idea of this internal, just how much self-loathing you have, I mean, there is a moment. And I think there is a moment in this film that, like, is quieter, but really, really works well in Hammers home, hammers, pummels, all these things, the point that she's making where, you know, the Elizabeth character, Demi Moore's character, is asked out on a, date and she spends a long time getting ready for that date. There's a lot of standing in front of the mirror, you know, looking at your skin and how like not supple it looks anymore, like seeing

the wrinkles and then looking at your whole body. And I'm not 50 yet, but I have already started to feel those things and I've already been in that exact position. And to me, like, I love the way just like that very sort of quietish moment in the film gets that point across completely. I felt that because it was dealing with something real. But the rest of this film, as you allude to, it's a very hyper-styelized world. It's like an L.A. that doesn't actually exist. You know, the production design is gorgeous. Yeah.

But it also, we're living in a world where there's pagers and USB drives. And the triggering action for this movie is TV ratings for an aerobics daytime show. Yeah, she's like a Jane Fonda-esque. And also you have the Dennis Quaid character. giving this very stylized performance. You know, the director uses the fish eye lens a lot, and Dennis Quaid leans into the fish eye lens. But even when he's not leaning into the fish eye lens,

he's giving a very fish eye lens performance. It's very, at one point, I actually watched him prancing across the screen. And the only real people in this movie are Elizabeth and Sue. Everybody else is a cartoon. And so the film itself becomes a cartoon. And I guess is the director's point I want to slice away at this beauty standard and expose, or is it just to make everybody in the audience squirm and laugh, which, you know, a mission accomplished? At the risk of being boring, I do think it's a little bit of both.

And the question is, like, can she actually have it both ways? And I think it's just really your mileage may vary. I think some people might be able to see both. And I think some people might just be like, this is just too much. But I like that sort of disorienting sense of, like, what time period are we in? Because I think there's a way, like, if I was going to put on my, like, we're in film school hat and we're going to analyze everything about this. I think there's a way where you're just like, well, I think the reason why we don't really know what time period is is

because everything comes back to itself and we're always repeat. And we still feel like we live in this like 80s era even though we are in the present day. All right. So we touched on Demi. Let's talk about Margaret Quali, who's the other half of this film. She has even, I feel like, less of a character, of course, because like she is born out of Elizabeth. So there's also the sense that. Again, she is the younger person.

She is the more, quote, unquote, perfect, desirable version. And I think this movie has a lot of nudity, but none of it is, I don't think, enticing. It's not meant to be enticing. There's moments in front of the mirror. And the first time she emerges out of Elizabeth's body, she spends a long time looking in the mirror and just being like, oh, man, look at this. And I love the way there's this contrast between, you know, the younger version feeling, not having those feelings yet of not being perfect or not being good. And I think Kuali sees clearly playing that role in a way that I think is very dynamic and interesting.

Yeah, this film goes hard on practical effects. There might be some CGI in there somewhere, but it really feels like these are physical, tactile, puppity, gross tumor kind of things going on. I also like the logistics of the substance, how you get it, how you administer it. Yeah, it's cool. It's very cool. And it's something that might be contributing to the fact that it won't screenplay because this film escalates. It doesn't, as we said, it doesn't twist.

And it goes bigger and bigger, but it builds in moments like that moment you talked about in front of the mirror, moments where we figure out exactly how we do these logistics of administering the drug that don't ground it. I wouldn't call this a grounded film in a million years. Yeah. But give you something to hold on to as the film's getting bigger and bigger. Yeah. I think for me, there's a world in which you could see this movie playing out where the substance is like she has to go see like a plastic surgeon or a doctor or whatever. And the fact that it's self-administered kind of adds to this just like layer of how unscientific this is. And it kind of relates to this sort of trend that we have of mostly women going to get, you know, BBLs like butt injections and whatever and going to different countries to do it.

And there's a person who she calls on the phone various times and we only hear the voice of this person. We never see them. There is world building here. Even if the characters are not fully fledged out, there is a sense of what this world is, even if that world is like very disorienting and confusing. But it does keep going. You're right. It does keep going and going. Until we get to the ending.

And here, folks, is where we're going to not spoil the ending, but talk about the ending because you can kind of see where this movie is going. from the jump and it goes there. It goes there big. It goes their heart. She becomes a monster. She becomes like a tumor with teeth. What did you think of that? Yeah. It was one of those things where I was just thinking to myself, I just got to go with it. This is what are we doing here? I guess we're going to keep going. At one point, someone in the audience literally yells, there's a monster. She's a monster. I'm like, okay, this is, we're doing very Mary Shelley, Frankenstet Lake. Why not? This is where I, kind of tuned out, but also the thing that I found more interesting was the final shot, which sort of mimics the opening shots.

There's a lot of shots that are sort of the cameras directly above, and it happens for several moments. And after she's become this monster and like basically exploded all over the audience, spurting blood, spurning blood, all over the audience to implicate them, we get it. Yes, we are the problem. It's us. It's us. We are the problem.

She just kind of becomes this glob that I think is supposed to look like a Medusa head. Right. A blob with a face. A blob with a face. And also kind of looks like a cracked egg. Sure. And eggs are a big part of this film. That's true. And she just kind of crawls across the ground, goes outside onto her Hollywood star.

I loved that final shot. In part because it does feel kind of quieter. I guess I wasn't expecting it too. Comparatively, yes. Yeah. It's relatively quieter or just like. just a little bit more subdued than everything that immediately preceded it. It's a shocking final image.

You know, there's plenty of movies and shows that have done, like, the final image where the character's looking into the camera. This is, I think, taking it in a different direction that I think totally works. And I really dug it. But I'm curious what you thought about it. How did that feel to you? I thought it was a perfect bookend, right? I mean, it's exactly how, like, I couldn't figure out how this film was going to end. I mean, I knew something bad and splirty.

Exactly. And Squelchy was going to happen. I didn't expect that to be such a mirrored thing. And at the very beginning of the film, she uses that shot to take us through the passage of time as Elizabeth's star fades, right? And her Hollywood star gets cracked and overrun. At one point, it's snowing for some reason in L.A. This is when I knew. This is what I know.

Okay, what's going on here? Yeah. Did you think that the Dennis Quaid character needed more of a comeuppance, given how awful, cartoonishly awful he is? He's just one of the people in the audience who gets sprayed with blood. And other stuff. This is where I kind of come back to, you know, the movie men, but also just what we're supposed to expect from these types of stories. And I kind of like that he didn't get a comeuppance because, again, it's not about him. It is, but it's not about him.

It is about how much women we have been taught to hate ourselves. And at one point, Elizabeth does say, I hate myself. Like, it's kind of crucial to what Farjaat is trying to do. What do we do with that information? I don't know. But, yeah. I loved it. You liked it.

Would you agree, though, that the most important thing, if you're going to see this film, is to see it with a crowd? Yes. I do think it is the type of movie that you need to see with, like, a lot of other people. Right. Yeah. And even if you wait to see it when it gets on streaming, see it with friends. Yes.

So that some of your friends will be crawling behind the couch and holding the cooking. up to their face as things happen, but that's the fun part of this movie. Yeah, I have to say, like, I'm not the type of person who puts my fingers over my hand. I just kind of look down. And I was looking down for a lot of it. It's like, I can't, I can't. And covering my ears because, again, the sound design is on a whole other level. Yeah.

The secret is always to look at the lower left-hand corner of the screen. Just the lower left-hand corner. Nothing ever happens down there. Ah. That's my secret to you. Thank you. Tell us what you think about the substance. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com slash P-C-H-H.

And that brings us to the end of our show. Aisha Harris, thanks so much for being here. Thank you, Glenn. Being here with me in-person, IRL. And just a reminder that signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus is a great way to support our show and public radio, and you get to listen to all of our episodes, sponsor-free, so please go find out more at plus.npr.org slash happy hour

or visit the link in our show notes. This episode was produced by Liz Metzker and edited by Mike Katzif. Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy, and Hello, Come In, provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Peechew. Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Glenn Weldon, and we'll see you all tomorrow.