The Substance - 5 nominations

 

• • Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

  • Pierre Olivier Persin 
  • Stéphanie Guillon 
  • Marilyne Scarselli
• 
  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

  • Coralie Fargeat 
  • Tim Bevan 
  • Eric Fellner
• 
  • Best Achievement in Directing

  • Coralie Fargeat
• 
  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

  • Demi Moore
• 
  • Best Original Screenplay

  • Coralie Fargeat

Well, I haven't exactly been panting to write this blog post. I saw the preview for this film and I thought it looked like a brilliant and scathing commentary on aging and fame. What I got was a horror movie with a basically interesting idea (though if you take one moment to think about it, the premise is deeply flawed) with a seriously questionable ending. 

The basic plot is that Demi Moore (who is pretty wonderful and who ironically looks amazing) is a middle aged former model and current fitness show star and her creepy boss/studio exec gives her notice that he is shutting down her show and tells her that she is no longer marketable because she is too old. She comes upon a handsome young man and his seemingly older counterpart who explains that they are same person and that they are taking a substance that gives back youth. She tracks down the "company" and begins a regimen. What they don't tell her is that she isn't going to go back in years and that a younger version of her is going to be birthed from her body and they will have to switch off one week at a time. (and for my taste, that scene... ew.)

The plot hole is that she doesn't know what happens in the weeks that she is lying dormant, and her younger twin doesn't know what she is doing while she is lying dormant. So, why would anyone recommend something that they themselves don't get to experience? Moore's character doesn't recapture her youth, the mutant she births does. She doesn't get to live a new younger life, she gets to lie on the floor being fed intravenously while her mutant lives the younger life. Why would anyone recommend this once the bait and switch has happened for the first person in the experiment?

At any rate, of course things don't go exactly to plan and the ending is possibly the only plausible one they could muster but I'm betting there are a bunch of act threes somewhere in a garbage can. Many people are raving about this film and it has a more than decent chance of winning this prize. My only theory is perhaps they watched the movie while on substances of their own.