Tuesday, January 14, 2025

The Substance's Best Scene

The Substance

Elisabeth Sparkle's pre-date breakdown is an award-worthy moment for Demi Moore.

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In my previous breakdown of Marisa Tomei's Oscar winning performance in My Cousin Vinny, I noted that award-winning performances don't always come with a signature scene or moment. But when they do, folks tend to take notice. Cut to the this weekend's Golden Globes where Demi Moore won for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical for The Substance and a scene that everyone, myself included, highlighted amidst the buckets of blood, body horror, and monstrous images. Elisabeth Sparkle's pre-date breakdown. So today I'm going to do a deep dive into the scene, why it works as well as it does, and why Moore's performance is essential to its impact.

The Scene

Well into her use of the titular Substance, Elisabeth Sparkle has determined to make the most of her night out as herself and accepted a date invite from an old high school classmate: the run of the mill, but very sweet Fred. But there's a problem. She can't get out of the door. 

Every time she's about to leave, Elisabeth sees the billboard with Sue's youthful face and body. Suffers a crisis of confidence. And goes back to the bathroom mirror to add a bit more makeup. Or cover up a part of her chest. And the process repeats. And repeats. And repeats. Until pretty soon Elisabeth is smearing Sue's lipstick and gloss across her face while raging into the mirror at what she sees. 

Pretty soon the sun has set. The billboard is even more inescapable in a neon glow that overlooks Elisabeth's bedroom. And her phone dings with messages from Frank wondering if she's running late. But Elisabeth is in bed. And while we don't know it yet, Elisabeth is unlikely to leave the house ever again...

Why It Works

How We Got Here

In my description of this scene for my "Favorite Movie Scenes of 2024," I noted that this is Elisabeth's point of no return. But that needs a bit of background to make sense.

The whole premise of the movie is that via the titular Substance, Elisabeth has a younger idealized version of herself, Sue, emerge from her body and live out the life of a young sexy person for six days before swapping back with Elisabeth for a day. 

Something that Elisabeth was inclined to take up because she was just canned from her job after turning 50 and is feeling supremely unconfident in how she looks and how the world sees her. And right when she's at her lowest she runs into Fred, an old high school classmate that treats her like a goddess that he's lucky to even be around. And he asks if she'd like to go out sometime and gives her his number, just in case. Very sweet, even if Elisabeth doesn't feel the way Fred sees her.

So once Sue is out there killing it, and Elisabeth starts to feel a touch more confident about herself in general, she calls up Fred to take him on his offer, which they both seem to feel great about.

But the day before Elisabeth's date, Sue behaves recklessly and delays the switch back, which ages one of Elisabeth's fingers in a decay version of what it was before, permanently. We can already see the confidence Elisabeth had start to wane as she sees what something truly disgusting looks like. 

And now she has to get ready for her date. Right when her self-image is at its lowest and her connection to Sue is starting to fray. Either she goes out for this date and tries to live a life of her own, or she becomes a shut-in, afraid to face the world. And Elisabeth chooses, shut-in. Because she doesn't feel beautiful. How do we know that? Showing not telling

Showing Not Telling

"Showing not telling" is a pretty famous phrase in regards to art like literature, theater, film and television, that's not always explained. Basically it's a storytelling conceit that puts the emphasis on actions and visuals over explanation via dialogue (i.e. exposition). If you want to convey that a character is selfless, "showing not telling" dictates that said character will do something selfless versus another character or narrator telling us that they're selfless. This is where you get tropes like "save the cat" moments where a rough talking character does something heroic to show their true values.

And The Substance is really really good at this idea. The entire process for how the Substance works is a great example. Instead of being told what's going to happen, we're shown how the process works and what Sue needs to do to keep Elisabeth and herself at full capacity. This works really well here, because there's a constant air of mystery as to what's going on and what the rules are, which means that Elisabeth and the audience are learning in real time. 

This scene is a bit different. We know that Elisabeth has a date, but her thought process is never stated out loud. It's all told through visuals via Moore's acting or the shot selection/sequence. 

For instance, when we see Moore prep in the mirror, it seems fine. She puts on gloves to hide her now gangrenous finger, but she's carrying herself with her shoulders back. And then she walks to the door and we see her looking out the window. And then we see what Elisabeth sees in the next shot which is a brand new billboard of Sue. And then Elisabeth heads back to the bathroom to readjust herself looking noticeably flustered.

Without being told directly we've just been told why Elisabeth went back to the bathroom mirror. She doesn't feel confident. A fact that's reaffirmed every time Elisabeth attempts to leave, makes another adjustment and then sees the billboard again and comes right back where she started.

And after that pattern is established Moore digs into Elisabeth's pain by raging out at her own body and face. Finally all of that pain and frustration that's been internal is made external and as Moore breaks down at the sight of...herself. It's a deeply upsetting and relatable piece of acting from Moore that also touches on a universal experience.

We've All Been Here (Especially Women)

I've seen a lot of reactions to this scene from all kinds of women that all have the same thought. I feel the same way.

What I love about The Substance is that it highlights so much that's messed up about how our society treats women based on how they look. Yes there's the surface level stuff which is that women who aren't deemed "hot" are treated like non-people, especially as they age. Like it's wild to say that Demi Moore, a 62 uyeard-old woman who plays a 50 year-old woman in the movie, isn't attractive or fit enough to the point that she'll try something like The Substance to stay relevant of keep her job.

But what's not discussed as much is how detrimental this pervasive emphasis on physical attractiveness is to the mindset of women (and people in general) of all ages.

Almost every woman you know has had moments where they hate everything about their appearance. They're too fat or too skinny. They have too many wrinkles. Their hair isn't right. Nothing fits how they want. They hate themselves for looking like they do, or because they didn't eat well enough or work out enough. Regardless of what happened in their life, this is somehow their fault. They should look better.

And in the most insidious twist, this often manifests through comparisons to other women, which our culture and society constantly encourages. So even if Elisabeth felt good before she went out the door. She didn't once she saw the image of the woman who has her old job. Because she's not her. And she can't be her. And why isn't she like her. And on and on it goes.

I've experienced moments like this. I've tried on clothes that used to fit and been so mad at myself that they didn't anymore. Despite the fact that I bought them when I was five years younger. Or that a little weight gain is perfectly normal as you get older. I so rarely look at photos and like what I see. And that sucks. We shouldn't feel this way.

That's what makes this scene hit so hard and feel so tragic. Because so many of us know how Elisabeth feels. We know there's nothing wrong with her. We knows she's beautiful. SHE may know she's beautiful. But she doesn't feel like it. And she can't get out the door because of it.

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