I wriggle in the seat, sweat and consider walking out, it was too uncomfortable to see this, the fight-or-flight response kicked in, full force. I was looking away from the screen but could still picture very clearly what was going on due to the nerve-wrecking soundtrack. This happened around three times during the first part of the film in Háskólabíó cinema. I managed to hold out in my seat and didn’t regret it at the end of the film. In a few of the weirdest scenes, several people in the room started laughing and a person in front of me clearly got upset at one point and said out loud: “Stop laughing, this is not funny!” All these reactions seemed spontant and natural. Something very weird can make people laugh, it doesn’t have to be exactly funny per se. Never before have I experienced reactions like these to a film nor seen such strong reactions from others in the room.
The Substance with Demi Moore, Margaret Qually and Dennis Quaid is shown at RIFF, the ongoing film festival in Reykjavík. Elisabeth Sparkle is the host of a popular but superficial aerobics show on TV. Her boss, Harvey, is an old-fashioned and amoral male chauvinist. He fires Elisabeth on the day she turns 50 in order to rejuvenate the image of the show and find a much younger host. Losing the job makes Elisabeth desperate and receptive to an ad for The Substance, a shady and illegal but powerful drug that temporarily creates a younger and better version of herself.
This psycho-thriller is a razor-sharp criticism of some of the blights of modern society:
- Pretentiousness
- Age discrimination
- Idolisation of youth
- Escapism
- Patriarchy
The vulgar and excessive narrative did in some ways remind me of films like Kill Bill and Sin City but neither of these triggered reactions anywhere close to this one. It is not a perfect film, but the pros far outweigh the cons, so it’s a 10 out of 10 rating from me. An outstanding cinema experience.
