The Substance (2024) Movie Review

Hello

boys and girls and welcome to the concession stand here on the KB Radio Network.

I am your host Kevin Reed and this is the review or should I say

late to the party review of the substance which is a satirical body horror film which stars demi more margaret crowley and dennis quaid this film follows a fading celebrity played by demi more who uses a black market drug to create a much younger version of herself with unexpected side

effects this is a film that uh

saw the trailer for

I don't know around beginning of summer or whenever it was I saw the trailer and I was a little excited for it because

I'm a big fan of Demi Moore uh haven't seen her much lately she pops up in things every now and then but as far as being the lead of a film

I haven't seen her in much you know going back to the

80s and 90s uh

I mean

Demi Moore was the bee's knees man

I mean you know uh G.I.

Jane um what was that scripted movie she was in I forgot the name of it uh Burt Reynolds uh co-starred with it but all all those type of films going back to the

80s with she was part of the brat pack and all that there and being married to Bruce Willis and all this here you know she was a major star a big star in Hollywood couldn't do any wrong

loved me more and so her disappearing not so much from the spotlight because she stayed in the uh pop culture zeitgeist of course you know being married to ashton kutcher and

all this other good stuff she she she stays in the known for the most part but as far as her being on the big screen or something like that it's been sparing and it's

Especially when it comes to leading a film.

So when this film was announced and saw the trailer and what this film was about.

And she's the lead.

I'm like,

oh,

sign me up.

This looks very interesting.

And a horror film?

Now,

before we get into the review,

I wanted to kind of touch in on what is a horror film?

I know this is a body horror,

quote unquote.

And it has...

disturbing images all throughout this film but nothing i would consider hard now there was there are some horrific moments uh you know with the transformations and stuff like that yeah i wouldn't classify it as horror at

least not a horror in the general sense you know there's no slasher there's no masked man running behind you with a machete and that like that there's no uh killing sprees in here but it is some

very um horrific stuff so i guess it is a horror but in any event i i took my time with this review i watched this movie with my wife my wife really wanted to see which kind of shocked me of

course she's not into movies like i am and so she doesn't know the backstory and all this other stuff with and kind of i kind of kept it from her

that it was going to be plenty,

plenty gory.

You know,

this is a body horror,

somewhat in the vein of a David

Krattenberg film.

You know,

this is going to be,

you know,

like the fly or scanners type horror,

you know,

imagery on the screen.

But I kept that from her.

And so

I made sure we didn't eat nothing.

Thank God.

I made sure we didn't eat nothing when we watched it.

But this film really caught me off guard.

I was so surprised even though my expectations were pretty high

You know hearing the reviews reading the reviews and you know seeing people's reactions who have seen the film

I was kind of bucked up My expectation level was pretty high and it met it did this film met those expectations.

What a film

You know,

to the degree that I had to take some time.

Normally,

I'm fresh.

you know with these reviews you know so i won't forget anything you know so i can get give you my immediate reaction to a film but this one i had to let sit and the more i let sit and i've done it you

know for films in the past that i've reviewed i let sit because it affected me in a way that i really wanted to kind of formulate my words intelligently so you

i kind of let it sit in this one i had to let sit because at its core the substance has a bit a very basic message throughout the film you know it's nothing that's so innovative in this sense of what they're trying to tell you it's really right there literally right there i

think everybody can get this message i think a six-year-old will understand what's being told here but i wouldn't recommend a

six-year-old watching it you know it it's hard for me to recommend a 56 year old why i mean it's some disturbing images throughout this film but um yeah it's not it's not uh super um

complicated you know what what the what you're seeing but it is innovative in the way that the story is told i've said it throughout

the first six minutes of this review that it is very gory it is very uh i mean think about think about the fly you know the old jeff goldblum film from 1986 think about how gory that was or disturbing the body horror was in that and

dial it up to 11 that's that's how disturbing it is

but it needed to be.

And it fits this story.

It's not just being this way for the sake of being this way.

It's to tell the story.

And so you can get a deeper understanding of the story.

And

I truly appreciated it for that.

I appreciate the fact that this was a,

this is something everybody can relate to,

even though it is.

centered around this woman and it affects women far more than a man and let me just put that out there this this really tells that story and understandably i i felt it from the woman's standpoint here but

everybody in some sense can understand what the me more's character is going through you know it is like uh soul crushing what she is going through or you

what she had to put up with in order to make this decision to participate in this experiment,

if you will,

to take this black market drug that she did.

Let's start off with the acting.

Let's start off with Demi Moore.

Without a doubt,

hands down,

this is not hyperbole.

This is not me just flying off the handle,

making this outlandish statement.

I'm saying this with my whole chest.

This is the Meemaw greatest performance ever,

ever.

This is probably one of the greatest performances of the year.

I cannot express this enough.

I was so moved by her performance here.

There's a scene in this film that towards the middle,

maybe close.

to the third act of this film that she has when she's preparing to go on this date with a guy that she known i'm gonna tell you and it was no dialogue it throughout that scene but it was so powerful

through her performance what she was experiencing what she was going through looking in the mirror and trying to be satisfied with what she looked like you know and what she uh

envisioned herself to look like but not coming to the realization that who she is is enough you know but she just could not accept it you know and it was heartbreaking to see her just go back to that mirror every time and you knew it was

I mean it was soul crushing

I mean I was I was I'm getting goosebumps thinking about that scene it's probably my favorite scene in the film it was so powerful

And throughout,

throughout the move,

I mean,

she was just.

firing on all cylinders there was moments of liberty moments of comedy that she displayed um she was being funny without being funny and that's the best type of funny you know and she did it effortlessly i mean it was spot on perfect loved

her performance uh margaret quinley i believe that's how i say her last name seeing her in a number number of things and in case you don't know

uh margaret is the daughter of andy mcdowell yes uh uh the actress and man she she she blew my mind in here this movie i did not know she was that good of an actress she was really really good i mean unbelievable

and unbelievably sexy in this movie didn't know she was that sexy i mean and to me more too

let me go let me swing back to her real quick to me more at her age is gorgeous unbelief i don't know i don't know um if this is imitation of life if she feels like this in real life what her character felt at

being an aging actress but she she has she has no reason to believe that feel that way she is gorgeous in this movie

uh margaret quinley is gorgeous in this movie and does an excellent job uh portraying the younger version of demi more in this film uh dennis quaid dennis quaid comes through in a big way and dennis quaid uh lately

you know i was a big dennis quaid fan but lately i i'm not really much of a fan of you know it's more political reasons but it's you

but his acting too he's not really in a lot of good things as of late but he was awesome in here because he was supposed to be this slimy disgusting individual just misogynist just

the head of the patriarchy type villainous character and he ate it up literally he was just disgusting a disgusting human being uh you

hated his gut now originally he wasn't meant for this role it was ray leota who was cast but we all know ray leota uh passed away last year or uh a couple of years ago right before they started filming i know that much but uh yeah um unexpectedly i think like two weeks before they were supposed to start filming and

uh dennis quaid came in at the last minute but it he did an excellent job to say he came in late

he did an excellent job in this role all the actors here a plus acting and they had an amazing screenplay to work off of this was written written very well uh i

love the story i love the pacing the direction here was excellent just the use of the camera you know the use of certain shots in it the shots in this movie

that you would probably look at as b-roll or or pickup shots in other big blockbuster films they they're focusing on the little things throughout this film you know like the scene with dennis quaid was talking to demi

more at the restaurant and he's peeling the shrimp and you get a close-up shot of him peeling the shrimp and him chewing it and the it was just disgusting and it was meant to look

disgusting and make you feel disgusted and it worked you know every little scene every little shot worked you know and that's the direction and the editing perfectly

done here this um oh speaking of uh uh making you feel uncomfortable the sound design this probably had the best sound mixing of a film i've heard

scene all year.

I mean,

you hear every crunch of the,

not crunch,

but slurp of the shrimp that Dennis Craig's character was eating.

You hear the body twisting and crackling from the transformation scenes and stuff like that.

It's just little things to unsettle you throughout the film.

And it was,

I mean,

it was just well put together.

well made just perfectly done i i am so happy that i watched this movie i plan to do a deeper show

a bigger show where we just dive in spoilers and talking everything about this movie because it's a lot to dive into uh concerning this film uh but for the time being the substance gets

a letter grade of an a plus i really find no problem with it when initially when i when the movie went off i was kind of upset i didn't like the end you

And like I said,

I let,

I let it sit for a minute,

you know,

a couple of days.

I let,

I let it sit.

And then as it kept replaying through my head,

even when I didn't want to think about it,

it kept coming up in my head and I'm like,

wait,

okay,

I get it now.

Okay.

That makes,

oh,

all right.

This is,

oh,

this is,

I think she was trying to go for this.

Okay.

Now that makes sense.

And that's where I settled on.

It was just something that just.

had to play out in my head and a couple of movies did that that i reviewed and later on i thought about it because i reviewed it and said i hated the ending and then later on when i thought about it i was like wait no i get it now so

and you know i'm slow i'm sorry but for this one it wasn't slow i got it and the substance gets an a plus we will do another show about the substance because there's a lot more i want to dive into

concerning this film a lot of uh uh social issues uh a lot of uh satire uh issues that we go through especially women go through daily as

they age and the uh the stigma that society has put on women when they get a certain age the way they supposed to look and how we objectified women and stuff like it

It's a deep,

deep discussion that this film brilliantly touches on and makes a powerful,

powerful message by doing so.

The substance gets an A plus.

Clearly one of the best films of 2024.

I would love to know,

what did you think of The Substance?

Did you check it out?

Were you grossed out by this film?

Do you think Demi Moore deserves an Academy Award nomination?

When that comes out in a few months,

I know that the Academy kind of shoes away from horror films,

but they really need to take a look at Demi Moore in this film.

She deserves her flowers.

I would love to know your thoughts.

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Network. Everybody,

thank you for joining me for this review of The Substance.

Want you all to know that I love you.

Continue to love everyone.

And until we speak again,

you all be blessed.

The Substance (2024) Movie Review

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