sharp-lemons

[sharp-lemons]

maybe it’s because it’s “too obvious” but im surprised how few readings I’ve seen of the Substance (2024) that discuss the themes of addiction and substance (ha) use & abuse.

in moderation you can use the substance to become a better, more fun, easier, happier version of yourself. then you realize you no longer want to be who you are when you’re not on the substance. then taking the same dose that used to be enough before isn’t enough anymore, so you want to take more, and just a little bit more couldn’t hurt, right? so you start to take even more. but this is only taking away from sober you, which is painful and difficult and even scarier than what compelled you to take it in the first place, so of course you can’t stop now. now you want to take even more, you NEED to take even more. sober life becomes harder and harder to bear, especially compared to how much easier everything is on the substance. now you’re not only using it to enjoy that feeling anymore, you’re using it to hide from what you’re turning into without it, from what you’ve already turned into.

every minute that you’re sober is spent counting down the days until you can use again, and the ends of being high are spent dreading going back. the sober self is upset and jealous at how irresponsible the high self is. the high self is upset at how much of a buzzkill the sober self is, and wishes they could exist on their own, without requiring their sober tether to existence. but the sober and high selves are the same person, you are one, and you become jealous and angry at yourself for ruining your own life in a vain attempt to become an impossible version of yourself that you most desire to be.

you want so badly to have all—and only all—of the best parts that you milk yourself dry, until you end up with all—and nothing but all—of the bad parts. by the time you truly feel that you have indeed lost everything and know you need to stop, the damage is already done, and there is no going back. you wish you had stopped at the first chance, you wish you had never started to begin with. and even then for many people the only way to deal with this terrifying, painful reality is to use even more, because you have made this terrifying, painful life without your substance feel unliveable, even scarier yet than what had made you use in the first place. there is nothing left to do but to hide from your own life, and the only ways to do this are to stop, to love yourself and take care of the person that you are now… or to keep taking more and more, using until there is truly nothing left, not even yourself.

[sharp-lemons]

I do think people who comment on how THE SUBSTANCE discusses aging and specifically calling it ageist are kind of off base. On one hand, that is not how people age, nothing that is happening to Elisabeth is "natural" to the aging process. She is filled with so much self-loathing and anguish and internalized everything that she is choosing to allow Sue (who is also still Elisabeth, remember) to destroy her physical self, in this artificial way, rather than simply aging with her body's own time-line. Does her body become more grotesque as she eats up more and more of her own time? Yes, but less as a commentary about aging and far more as a metaphor for self harm and the dejected feelings of a woman forced out of her lifestyle by an ageist industry.

[sharp-lemons]

Genuinely don’t know if it’s been said before but I love the commitment to not naming anything. The program is called The Substance. The talk show is called The Show. The New Year’s Eve special is called the New Year’s Eve special. Sue is just Sue. The most intricately-named thing is a cookbook that maybe gets 15 seconds of screentime. If you want details fuck you. It’s great and I love it

[sharp-lemons]

One of the most interesting details in The Substance to me, that I don't see anyone talking about is that the person who introduces Elizabeth to the Substance program, the person who pulls her into a living nightmare under the pretence of helping her, was not only a man, but one also using the substance and hating it too. To me this felt like a really smart way to acknowledge that yes, men are absolutely affected by unfair body standards to some degree, but those same men are more likely to be apathetic to the issues women face and enforce those same body standards they pretend to care about.

[sharp-lemons]

I hate posts like what if there is someone out there who takes the substance and respects the balance and just has a good fucking time. No there isn’t because you take the substance when u hate yourself and you’re sick of yourself and you’re lonely because you hate yourself so u let literally nobody into your life. You destroy yourself because you HATE yourself. You would not take the substance if you were going to respect the balance. You wanted a better version of yourself and its addicting.

[sharp-lemons]

Another thing that really stands out about The Substance is that it wholeheartedly kicks realism to the curb for the sake of Artistic Vision. It snows in LA just for the sake of showing the passage of time. An exercise program airing on morning network television is basically softcore porn. A New Year's special also airing on network television has topless dancers. The instructions you receive alongside The Substance, for the medical procedures you have to perform yourself, are just flash cards that say shit like "do this every week" without ever saying what or how. Nearly every man seen is a satire where the only reason Monstroso Elisasue makes it to the stage is because the security guard didn't notice the starlet was actually a walking teratoma since she glued a cut-up poster to her face. The poster wasn't even of the correct identity.

[sharp-lemons]

one of my favorite parts of “the substance” is how clear the movie makes that the men you’re destroying yourself to impress are so utterly gross and not worth it at all. how it shows already beautiful women tearing themselves apart to reach the standards of males who can’t even be bothered to wash their hands after using the bathroom.

[sharp-lemons]

What I loved about the Substance was that it took impossible body standards imposed on women seriously. It didn't treat me like a kid throwing a temper tantrum about not being sexy. It didn't try to tell me "everyone is beautiful" and "every body is a beach body" in a pitiable voice that makes it all worse. There's no one singing to me about how "I cannot see my own beauty", as if validation from men will ever be enough to cover the black hole in my stomach drilled by years of self-loathing, binging-purging cycles and appetite-suppression pills. It haven't stopped for a second to congratulate itself for platitudes.

The substance threw an ice bucket on my head, grabbed me by the shoulders, dragged me to the mirror and told me "look at what violence you're inflicting on yourself!". It showed me a perfect body, the carrot on the stick, and then it hit it with a sledgehammer in white neon light. Is it worth it? Aren't you mad? Look at how he eats shrimp and doesn't wash his hands - is this the person you want to be liked by? Is this what you deserve for being human, really?

I've seen this movie on Friday and it's been stuck in my head ever since. I haven't looked in the mirror the same again. Somehow this made me kinder to myself.

I've seen reviewers say that this movie counts as "male gaze" and "violence against women" but I think they don't see the forest from the trees here.

First the male gaze: it felt like a deconstruction, in the best way. Sue's butt was the least erotic thing ever put to screen. The soft porn dance studio was shot in a lifeless manner, I felt like my mom was reading the browse history. Personally, I'd never want to have Sue's job. Even the sexist dudes that watch the movie seem to "get it", that their overly sexual media diet looks embarassing under the microscope. The medium is the message, and the sound and visual cues are all there to make sex appeal look very unappealing and immature. There's nothing sexy in "Pump it up", it's catchy and fun and has sexual undertones, but not a hint of sensuality.

Then the violence against women: there is only one scene where a man attacks a woman, and I'll not spoil it, but i'll say it's so bizzare it feels too cartoony to count. The rest of the violence is all self-inflicted. Every step of the way. Women don't just suffer abuse under patriarchy from men, they self-inflict and reenforce the structures of their own suffering onto others. Elizabeth is a fitness coach actively making bank off of other women's fears, and in the process of telling everyone over x kg to skip lunch she's grown her own self-loathing too. It wasn't really the horny men watching the fitness show, isn't it? Sue is even worse, she goes on talk shows to tell women her looks come from being kind, a silly statement considering she injects herself daily with an old woman's spine liquid while loathing her for existing. Elizabeth and Sue are both victims and perpetuators of violence, and it's gruesome because it's not a silly feminine thing, it's all-encompassing and a matter of life and death. Without violence, what would be the message of the movie? "It kinda sucks to be a woman hating your body". Doesn't sting, isn't it? This is not chopping women and putting them in refrigerators to give the good guy a reason to kill the baddie, this has to be violent to show the depth of pain of the protagonist. It's necessary. And I like it, because crying and wallowing in pain is not the behaviour you want to see on screens, it feels lethargic and leads to the problem not being taken as seriously.

[sharp-lemons]

baffled by all the people who have been like "weird that they cast demi moore in this role when she's still gorgeous idgi" that's literally?? the point?? that you could be the most beautiful older woman on earth & still be devalued and made to feel ugly by society & then internalize those feelings regardless of any objective beauty??

[sharp-lemons]

honestly more media should portray the anti aging industry as horrific and decidedly unhuman. it IS body horror it IS grotesque it DOES go against nature. it WILL kill you. yes.

[sharp-lemons]

"Finally, it’s the moment where she’s free from her human body and appearance. It’s the first moment where she’s able to love herself. It’s the moment she sees herself, and it’s not disgust, but in fact, it’s as if she’s seeing her true self for the first time. Finally, she doesn’t have to care what she looks like, she doesn’t have to care what people are going to think. For the first time, there’s self-indulgence, tenderness. It’s the first time she looks at herself in the mirror and doesn’t criticize herself. She decides, okay, ' I’m going to go out there, this is me, I have my right to have my place in the world. ' "

-- Coralie Fargeat, interview with Entertainment Weekly about the ending of The Substance --

[sharp-lemons]

THIRTEEN (2003) dir. Catherine Hardwicke JENNIFER'S BODY (2009) dir. Karyn Kusama ORPHAN (2009) dir. Jaume Collet-Serra BLACK SWAN (2010) dir.Darren Aronofsky HELTER SKELTER (2012) dir. Mika Ninagawa I, TONYA (2017) dir. Craig Gillespie LAST NIGHT IN SOHO (2022) dir. Edgar Wright THE SUBSTANCE (2024) dir. Coralie Fargeat

[sharp-lemons]

The Substance did for my self esteem and perception of body image what years and years of self love propaganda couldn't in two hours

[sharp-lemons]

The number of people laughing in the theater, during the penultimate scene of The Substance, made me feel like I was in the goddamn twilight zone. Look at what she’s become, she did it all for you. She’s still trying to put on a perfect show so you’ll love her. Her hair is burning off in the curling iron, she can’t put on her earrings, and you’re laughing at her. Where’s your empathy for the monster? Haven’t you ever hated yourself that much? It’s still her. It’s all you. Her despair drags ever deeper and you’re laughing

[sharp-lemons]

BBC Ghosts: Ghosts having the ability to interact with the physical world is extremely rare. While some ghosts can be glimpsed or heard or smelled, only two of the main ghosts can affect objects, and even they took years to harness their powers.

CBS Ghosts: YOU GET A GHOST POWER! AND YOU GET A GHOST POWER! AND YOU GET A GHOST POWER! AND YOU GET A GHOST POWER!

[sharp-lemons]

Ghosts + Ghostly Texposts

I know Trevor didn’t live to see 2007 but shush

[sharp-lemons]

need more of the fact that thor, issac, and sasappis watched hetty’s entire life and that dynamic

even small things like hetty claiming she was a calm and quiet baby only for one of them to pipe up in the background with a “you cried constantly and very loudly. it was actually one of the years where we were sleep deprived.”

​i need all of them interacting with hetty as a weird little girl who could see ghosts