OSCARS WATCH 2025 – The Substance: Youth, Body, Women, Success (Part Two) — Pop Junctions

This publish is a part of a collection of important responses to the movies nominated for Greatest Image on the 97th Academy Awards.

On this in-conversation piece, Do Personal (Donna) Kim, Utsav Gandhi, and Gabrielle Roitman change important, intercultural, and private readings of The Substance (2024). In Half One, Donna opens the dialog with the “love your self :(“ South Korean (henceforth Korean) Web meme. In Half Two, Gabrielle and Utsav develop on her studying by exploring different connections, from American popular culture to immigrant experiences and queer our bodies. “Have you ever ever dreamt of a greater model of your self? Youthful. Extra lovely. Extra good….The one and solely factor to not overlook: you’re one. You’ll be able to’t escape from your self.” (excerpt from “The Substance” product introduction video) Is “love your self” the answer? Can we? How? We welcome you to hitch our dialog.

Donna:

What do you assume? Is “love your self” the answer? (Can we? How?) I’m interested by what got here to your thoughts whereas watching The Substance. 

Gabrielle:

Generations of People have come into contact with the “That is your mind on medicine” PSA. The Substance’s opening and continuous return to an analogous shot of an egg invokes this cultural staple. The 2024 movie suggests, ‘that is your mind on internalized misogyny’ within the type of the literal drug that Demi Moore’s Elisabeth takes, recognized within the film as The Substance.

The Substance is now a Greatest Image Academy Award-nominated, campy, patriarchy-addressing movie, like Barbie earlier than it in 2023. Notably, each movies happen in numerous however extremely satirized Hollywoods and make use of robust visible references and sensible results that commemorate the medium of movie. Importantly, although, American audiences have usually interpreted each motion pictures as if they’re meant to encapsulate womanhood.

By this normal, these motion pictures, which deal with points associated to feminist concepts, will inevitably fail. Womanhood is huge and diversified and clearly can’t be summarized in a decent 2 hours. Nonetheless, the crew behind Barbie by no means got down to outline womanhood. That film, in an fascinating flip of phrase, is self-aware. The Substance is, too.

With reproductive rights on the road in a approach they haven’t been since 1973 and politicians overly all in favour of policing the boundaries of womanhood, it will possibly really feel like media (extra broadly) have a job to carry out, to offer steering for residing in patriarchy. I ponder, although, if it’s truthful to count on a easy how-to information from cultural merchandise which have taken years of labor and luck to get to the purpose the place we will devour them on our variously sized screens.

The Substance could be boiled all the way down to its commentary on magnificence requirements and the way they hurt our selves. Critiques of the movie typically put ahead that it didn’t do sufficient. Sufficient of what? Sufficient for advancing feminism within the mid-2020s? And in our present political second, I perceive the urge to need extra, however a film isn’t a frontrunner. It can’t change something about our political wellbeing in and of itself.

I return once more to Barbie – a doll, like a film, is an inanimate object; it will possibly tackle feminist and misogynistic projections, however it will possibly by no means take motion. As a result of it’s not a residing participant in our society. However persons are.

Within the pivotal lavatory mirror make-up scene, when it turns into clear Elisabeth will spiral inwards towards her demise, she turns into paralyzed by the specter of perfection. The intelligent visible cue of the satan on her shoulder within the type of Sue’s billboard looms giant as a reminder that there’ll all the time be one thing higher. Elisabeth covers up an increasing number of every time she goes exterior and continues to maintain herself caught in her house. She provides up her willingness to work together with the world as a result of she believes she is now not good and consumable.

When a film facilities on a feminine expertise, is it nothing however a vessel to spoonfeed The Viewers a lesson? The Substance supplies metaphors depicting “your mind on internalized misogyny,” however is it perfect? Does it should be?

Utsav:

I’m usually all in favour of why audiences place this burden of expectations and interpretations on what’s finally only a two-hour journey to the films. There could also be some advanced structural components at play right here of the place we see and establish position fashions in society. Or maybe it’s the long-standing chokehold that the movie business has on audiences as an audio-visual medium with broad publicity and inroads into society (particularly with the rise of streaming platforms and the ubiquity of short-form film clips on YouTube and social media).  

Nonetheless, there’s additionally a thread right here about how motion pictures are marketed. The case of Barbie is extra comprehensible – a first-time main movement image primarily based on what’s well-ingrained mental property, common film stars/director combo, a blitzkrieg advertising and marketing marketing campaign selling quite a lot of “distinctive” Barbies (corresponding to physicist Barbie), and naturally the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon that finally helped each movies. I ponder if there was something comparable within the advertising and marketing for The Substance which will have arrange these expectations and interpretations from the general public. What do you assume, Gabrielle?

Gabrielle:

Such as you stated, there are undoubtedly societal components at play with the reverence we give motion pictures and the way we take into consideration their affect to alter tradition. With concern stemming from failures in political management, many individuals are additionally in search of somebody/factor to point out the best way ahead or to scapegoat what’s gone fallacious so we will smart up and keep away from these pitfalls in our continued combat. The advertising and marketing aspect additionally certainly performs a job in how a lot time we take into consideration these movies. Once we’re frequently uncovered to hyperbole both from advertising and marketing campaigns or from social media posts that acquire traction, it will possibly construct expectations about how life-changing a film will actually be.

Curiously, among the critiques I’ve learn of The Substance bemoan its lack of tackling social media’s position in our struggles with self-loathing and wonder requirements. I didn’t have this concern. Elisabeth’s buying of The Substance from a faceless entity and the packaging it arrived in felt eerily much like TikTok Store advertisements promising merchandise that can change your life. Moreover, the film hones in on the specificity of self-loathing because it exists in our personal heads and our bodies. Once we purchase merchandise that can supposedly clean our pores and skin or reduce bloating, we’re dreaming of a greater, upgraded self, with our flaws fastened. 

A film can’t deal with all of our ideas and emotions about physique picture, patriarchy, what it’s to be a girl. I feel it’s reductive to assume that every one of that may be addressed in a single film. What it will possibly do is seize a snapshot of a cultural phenomenon. The response to those so-called “flashy feminist” motion pictures in a approach demonstrates an argument they attempt to make. The Substance as a drug doesn’t impact a change that “fixes” something for Elisabeth, nevertheless it displays the tradition through which she exists.

Utsav:

Sure, tremendous insightful ideas! I agree that I additionally didn’t have a problem concerning the lack of social media’s position. I attributed that to the film not having a timestamp for when it’s primarily based–it’s fairly timeless in that sense. The New Yr’s Eve manufacturing on the finish truly makes it seem to be it might be the Nineteen Seventies! On that remaining word, the manufacturing additionally jogged my memory of one other subtly feminist film I watched just lately, additionally set within the showbiz of Nineteen Seventies Los Angeles, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour (on Netflix). No reverse growing old or daring pink feminism in that one, however gritty, real-life psychological horror about patriarchal violence – besides that it flips the standard narrative by specializing in the ladies, not on the perpetrator.  

Donna:

Dwelling by way of our our bodies is a shared but in a different way skilled pan-human phenomenon (see Kim (2025) on homosexual bodily experiences in Seoul, Korea). What could be another methods to learn Elisabeth and Sue’s relationship? 

Utsav:

“She left. I’m the brand new tenant.”

Consider an immigrant’s journey over time. We depart a spot behind and enter a brand new one, slowly trying to redefine dwelling and perceive our place in our new setting. Even when some immigrants may materially depart every thing behind, a lot colloquial (generally literal) “baggage” will get moved throughout. Nonetheless, possessions aren’t the one objects in flux as this journey continues. So are numerous features of identification. Within the Fifties, linguist Einar Haugen coined the time period “code-switch” to explain individuals’s propensity to transition between languages, accents, and self-presentation within the face of adjusting societal norms and expectations. These expectations can differ throughout contexts, however as an immigrant I’ve felt them extra strongly whereas navigating on a regular basis conversations or trying to make acquaintances in my new nation. I, too, have engaged in a good bit of code-switching over my fifteen years of being an immigrant, corresponding to “rolling my R’s” or “enunciating my V’s and my W’s” while talking to People. Nonetheless, I’ve all the time seen my code-switching as an train in assimilation – not in alternative or substitution. I feel it bears repeating, particularly in as we speak’s politically fraught instances and populist rebellion in opposition to immigrants, that I’ve by no means heard an immigrant discuss “changing” somebody by taking on their spot at a administrative center or residence, even when they try and mix in. Quite the opposite, in The Substance, Sue is brazen about being “the brand new tenant” after changing Elisabeth.

There are different allegories between the immigrant expertise and Elisabeth/Sue’s story within the film. When Elisabeth tries to manage and wrestle again entry she has left to The Substance as a perform of how a lot further is being consumed by Sue, Elisabeth will get instructed on the telephone, “What has been used on one aspect is misplaced on the opposite. There is no such thing as a going again.” There’s a clear parallel right here to immigrants shedding time as a consequence of leaving their group or family members behind for a brand new dwelling. What can also be “misplaced” are the immigrant’s skills, successes, progress, and particular person improvement, that are in restricted provide and may’t be used to service their earlier group (or the concept popularly referred to as “mind drain.”) Time is relentless, and decisions and selections can appear irreversible – in financial phrases, I additionally conceptualize them as “sunk price.”

“There is no such thing as a “she” and “you.” You each are one,” each Sue and Elisabeth get instructed at totally different instances as they attempt to extricate themselves from their alter-egos. Once more, this appears like a parallel with an immigrant’s altering sense of self and identification. Immigrants include multitudes, however they’re additionally, in some ways, blends of their outdated and new selves. Because the film’s tagline says: “You’ll be able to’t escape from your self.” 

Other than the feminist, neoliberal, and immigrant lenses mentioned above, the film has additionally been described intimately as an allegory for queer and transgender expertise – author Emily Cameron in Homosexual Occasions points out that “an injectable that brings to life a beautiful model of you that you’re happier with is extraordinarily acquainted for trans individuals.”

Gabrielle:

May you communicate extra concerning the concepts surrounding time as a finite useful resource when shifting between locations? It’s fascinating that many individuals will solely know the “you” the place you’re from and others the “you” the place you are actually. Internally, although, it’s a must to cope with each “yous.” Do you assume this may all the time exist as some type of loss? Or is there an internal peace relating to this double existence for immigrants that Elisabeth/Sue was by no means in a position to exemplify?   

Utsav:

Sure, after all. That’s truly a deeply shifting and poignant query; thanks. The internal peace feels extra like a call, not a “given.” You have to transfer past the “grass is greener on the opposite aspect” mentality and be at peace with the place you’re, the product of decisions inside and outdoors your management. You’re proper: Elisabeth/Sue couldn’t exemplify that what they have been going by way of was straight a product of their very own selections. They even appeared to have misplaced observe of their bigger objective (to keep up fame and adulation with their viewers and fanbase). As an alternative, they obtained swept right into a vicious circle of instant gameswomanship – or attempting to rescue themselves from their alter egos. They by no means appeared to concurrently cope with their “yous,” maybe as a result of they have been two fully totally different bodily our bodies.  

Biographies

Do Personal (Donna) Kim is an Assistant Professor on the University of Illinois Chicago’s Department of Communication. Donna research on a regular basis, playful digital cultures and mediated social interactions. She is especially all in favour of norms, hybridity, and what being human/synthetic means in rising technological contexts. She has written about subjects like video video games, digital influencers, cellular applied sciences, and Korean digital feminism. Her work could be present in journals corresponding to New Media &Society, Communication Monographs, Worldwide Journal of Communication, Lateral, and Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Pc Interplay. Donna acquired her Ph.D. in Communication from the College of Southern California’s Annenberg College for Communication and Journalism. You could find her on doowndonnakim.com or @doowndonnakim.bsky.social.

Gabrielle Roitman is a second 12 months grasp’s pupil within the Division of Communication on the College of Illinois Chicago, the place she research social media, tradition, and identification. She is within the intersection of the rising influencer business with extra established artistic industries corresponding to movie and the performing arts. You’ll be able to comply with her at @gtroitman.bsky.social

Utsav Gandhi is a first-year Ph.D. pupil in Communications and Media Research on the College of Illinois Chicago, the place he’s broadly all in favour of enterprise fashions and regulation of social media, information media, and generative AI. Initially from Mumbai, India, Gandhi was beforehand a pre-doctoral Analysis Skilled on the College of Chicago’s Stigler Heart. You’ll be able to comply with him on the Fediverse at @utsavpgandhi.bsky.social or on Letterboxd at utsavpg (for his novice film opinions and exercise).