I have developed a habit of watching all the movies nominated for Academy Awards. The Brutalist was surreal, Wicked was thoughtful and empowering, but The Substance was truly eye-opening. I was excited to see Demi Moore in a new film, as it had been a while since I’d seen her in a movie. Her nomination for Best Actress and Golden Globe win for the movie was also fantastic.
Although Demi didn’t win the Oscar (Mikey Madison won for Anora), her portrayal of Elisabeth Sparkle is raw, tragic, and painfully beautiful. The film’s narrative revolves around Elisabeth’s struggle to age in Hollywood while remaining relevant. This struggle is not unique to her or Hollywood but is emblematic of the societal pressures faced by women all over the world. The Substance takes a nose dive into themes surrounding youth, beauty, self-esteem, and self-loathing. This movie still haunts me. My friend Monica and I have talked about it for weeks.
The Substance Coralie Fargeat (2024) – The Shining Stanley Kubrick (1980)
The Shining Stanley Kubrick (1980) – The Substance Coralie Fargeat (2024)The Substance had so many Easter eggs that pointing them out would take days. Still, the giant photographs of Elisabeth in the hallway with a carpet that resembles Kubrick’s The Shining says everything without saying a word. Other nods include the Black Swan, The Fly, Carrie, and Alien. All refer to a normal person’s slow, maddening transformation into a monster.
For many women, beauty is a commodity bestowed at birth or paid for. When I say “beauty is a commodity,” it means that beauty, particularly female beauty, can be bought, sold, or exchanged for economic value, and baby…sex sells. Don’t get me started on 72-year-old Bill Belichick and his 24-year-old girlfriend.
The film’s powerful critique challenges the traditional notion that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and most of the time, it’s men beholding. Meanwhile, women are inundated with beauty products, botox, lip injections, boob jobs, nose jobs, fake hair, fake lashes…the list goes on and on. With its haunting narrative, the movie serves as a powerful critique of the societal beauty standards that often reduce women to nothing more than their physical appearance.
In the movie, Elisabeth is influenced by these standards, wishing to remain young. She takes “the substance,” and then her younger self, Sue, emerges. They must change places every seven days. But soon, Sue wishes to prolong her youthful transformation and begins stealing fluid from Elisabeth to stay young. In doing that, she causes Elisabeth to start rotting. But they can’t survive separately, as Sue soon finds out. She took and took until there was nothing left. The scene where Elisabeth is getting ready for a date made me cry.
The monster at the end shows how and why women go to great lengths to be beautiful. What drives them to pursue beauty turns them into nothing short of monsters—women who deface themselves don’t look human anymore. Seeing Elisabeth wear a printed copy of her old face and smeared lipstick was heart-wrenching. It was a tragic reminder that maybe her old face wasn’t that bad.
The movie’s quote, “Remember, you are one,” starkly reminds her that her young and older selves are the same people. How much of her older beauty was she willing to sacrifice to remain youthful? The Substance is genuinely a work of art. It is existential, graphic, provocative, and, like The Brutalist, brutal.
More importantly, it is a wake-up call for women. We are so much more than what you see on the outside. My mother always says, “Beauty is as beauty does.” We have come so far thanks to the suffragists, feminists, and brave women who have fought for a place for us beyond mopping the kitchen floor up to our necks in diapers or being relegated to working behind the make-up counter at Macy’s.
My sisters, we cannot go backward. There is nothing wrong with taking care of ourselves. Myself, I’m a lipstick feminist, but I will never get fillers, botox, or plastic surgery. Demi’s transformation, her decision to dissolve her fillers and embrace a raw vegan diet, made my heart happy. None of us want to see our bodies break down. Physical decline, vision changes, skin changes, weight gain, hormonal shifts, and many more can be slowed down by exercise and the foods we eat.
A vegan diet, including raw “living” foods, may help slow the aging process at a molecular level, potentially reducing the estimated ages of various organ systems. Raw plant-based foods are rich in antioxidants, which can help protect cells from damage caused by free radicals, a process linked to aging. Vegan diets are naturally lower in inflammatory foods, which can contribute to overall health and potentially reduce signs of aging.
Raw vegan foods’ antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties may contribute to healthier, younger-looking skin. We are what we put into our bodies. And isn’t it better to extract life from plants than from ourselves?
This recipe is dedicated to Demi Moore.
