วีดีโอ

It’s the internal conflict we have within ourselves but displayed in the physical form. The lack of substance, depth and gratitude. The pursuit of perfection over spirituality, wisdom, knowledge.

Justine Triet said at National Board Awards "I think many of you are still wondering whether Sandra killed her husband or not. My advice to you: look at the dog. He's an animal, he has instinct, maybe he knows"

You’ve earned yourself a sub, darling!

This is such a fantastic video

Wow! I’ve been watching a lot of movies lately (including this one) and watching pretty shitty reviews of them. I’m so happy to see a really good one and not feel like I wasted my time. I hear “like” and “subscribe” almost every day and this may be the first time I actually do 😊 👏🏽Bravo!

THANK YOU I’ve been SAYING

Where can I read the screenplay

De-monster-ization was the best 👏 youre an EXTREMELY poetic and gifted writer ❤ 👏

Intelligent, thought--provoking video!

I cried so hard once she was bald and through the entire end, especially when monster elisasue or whatever said don't be scared it's still me. It reminds me of losing my beautiful mother to cancer, it reminds me of being a mother, of addiction, of obsession with nostalgia, and I'm catching up to forty. It was brutal to watch. It felt like that was her and definitely alluded to her having a relationship with a mother that maybe got her into show business. Even the pump it up dance was nauseating and anxiety inducing.

This video essay is amazing. I saw the film last night, I think it might be one of the best and worst films I've ever seen, I came out feeling very agitated indeed. I then wanted to find out what people were saying about it, and most youtube reaction videos were the usual opinion based bilge and then saw this - brilliant analysis, keep it up!

What a beautiful take on the movie!!❤

The Substance should be retitled, 'Revenge II : More Girls in skimpy Outfits' or 'Exploitation with a Social Conscience'.

Amazing analysis !

Best take I've seen, scouring through 10+ of the film's "analyses". Good on ya 👍

This guy gets it! But seriously very insightful review, good job.

Good job on many points. I haven't picked up on the double meaning on the card on the roses so far, what a clever trick. About the choice of names, maybe it's just a far-fetched wordplay, but the result of using the substance is 'Sue inside'. Read it out loud.

This is a brilliant analysis!

And just like that... SUBSCRIBED! By far the most insightful and erudite analysis I've seen on this movie. Your depth of thought and clarity are remarkable. Can't wait to explore more of your content!

I watched this movie too. For some reason it kind of reminded me of this book "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. I read it a while back and it's about a young man obsessed with his own beauty and he sells his soul to be young and beautiful forever but just like in this movie, it has bad consequences not loving and accepting ourselves.

13:21 oh okay lol

Outstanding analysis. Thank you. Am subscribing to your channel. Your explanation was really good and it much increased my appreciation of the film itself. I prefer a film where the answers are not just served on a plate, where you have a feeling that there's another storyline going on, and it forces you to think. I agree there are still some connections missing. On the face of it, his story and the DA's story are not fully straight. Probably she did not know about the drugs - otherwise she would have taken the evidence away. Also - how could the hotel woman be in on a blackmail attempt? A dead kid w the DA in the room was just what she needed to get leverage... yet she ordered the cleanup. So maybe it was a simple planned 'kompromat' situation, with cameras, w a boy making money on the side as a gigolo, which went wrong. The 'father' was So old skool gangsta! I mean, come on... Those scenes revealed a lot. An article is titled 'The Voice'. The film titles on the shelf were Contract on Cherry St, The First 40 Years, and The Man. My main thought, though, is that they are twins, separated at a young age. Their body language, mannerisms, expressions and back aches are all the same. Then, the shot of the bar mitzvah twins was just a bit too long... with Clooney looking like it triggered some deep memory. And then there is the title, suggesting they are both called Wolf. More layers to be revealed w film #2 !

This is such great analysis! Well done! New subscriber.

Great video 👏🏻

Such a great analysis!

I'm sure someone mentioned this but...I haven't heard any references to Cinderella, and her time being up at Midnight. The New Years BALL was coming to a close, but she refused to go home. So the Fairy God Mother had to get in that ass! LOL

had to run the whole channel back after finding your recent video on the substance, amazing stuff man

AWESOME analysis. your empathy and insight are next level, ill definitely be following your work!

Like Demi Moore said in an interview; "The Substance is about self-accepting", and also the constant fighting yourself when you refuse to get old as long as you're a celebrity and have to follow beauty's standards, on the other hand Demi absolutely nailed it, frankly we're in front of the rebirth of her career as an actrees. Regarding Margaret Qualley, the more I see her in movies, the more I'm a fan of hers and in this film her performance amazed as much as her co-star Demi Moore, who still looks stunning at her 60's. Thank you for letting us know about some hidden details of the movie very few people noticed.

The dog have a best acting, insane.

One more thing - just realized how those three palm trees at the end seem to maybe symbolize a peace between the various selves - past, present, future - and the universe itself in the stars. Like they're her loved ones looking over her death bed as she leaves, finally together just as she is, thanking her as much as the light of the stars and the golden sparkles she hallucinates not unlike her childhood trophy. I think the only thing that bugged me was when she begins pulling out her fingernails, teeth, ear, etc - in what world, except a horror movie, would someone voluntarily do that to themselves?? Especially before the biggest moment of their life that has depended on their looks the whole time?? I could see a motivation and psychology behind every part of the movie except doing that.

I just want to point out that what you call 'society' is perhaps more accurately described as The Patriarchy and it's ripples into the thinking and operating of all people regardless of gender. Still, really enjoyed this video - you had me consider some things I hadn't before about how we can dishonour our past self by trying to preserve it - or really, preserve anything vehemently. Lots for me to unpack there as I've entered my 30s and my status I had in my 20's crumbled at the same time.

Haven't seen anyone talk about this movies obvious parallels to the classic book 'The Picture Of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde... perfect subject for a video essay, or really, a paper in University.

Great analysis. Honestly agree with all of it. When you say that Elisabeth is a metaphor. That’s it. Neither Elisabeth nor Sue are real people. They’re ideas. They’re a representation of the objectification of women and the damage it does to women. As you put it, the conflict between a woman’s past, present and future.

Very interesting fresh analysis!

I really liked this analysis. I have to say that it appealed to several points I under noticed the first time I saw it, but that kept me thinking about the film and the possible interpretations. I have to say the script detail is very relevant, but i never doubted they were the same consciousness... I really loved that the film is not subtle in many moments, but it does not try to over explain the nuances.

I'm really happy to finally watch someone who also saw them as one! It was so clear to me! Maybe it's because the people who didn't see them as one hadn't been so unfortunate to experience a self hatred so viscous, or maybe the movie was actually vague. Nonetheless, you said it so well. To me, Elizabeth seemed so lonely... I felt bad for her and felt physically unwell up until the last 20 minutes. I saw a woman do unto herself the worst selfharm I've seen in a movie. Forget Antichrist and what... She does to herself, gore does not compare to a woman destroying herself, mocking herself and hating herself as much as Elizabeth does. I feel like the comedy in the last part of the film was necessary, but it also underlined how much what Elizabeth did to herself was... Meaningless. She didn't gain happiness, she ran away and died in a spotlight. It was absurd, funny and deeply tragic. "I came out of the theater feeling like I only had one choice - to love myself" said another commenter, I agree. This movie felt vastly empowering to me.

The comparison between Fight Club and The Substance. ❤ This whole video was awesome. Consider me subscribed.

You lost me at EOS. Big stretch.

Well said.

Thank you! Your analysis was a very interesting watch 😊 and also… I LOVE the accent :)

I love this video so much, I always feel something was missing or misunderstood in this film and this video shows it all <3

One thing that I found but barely talked by everyone who watched this movie is Fred, some people mentioned him as meaningless entity in the movie but I think Fred is symbolize something big. Fred symbolizes love and self acceptance. Love that she actually need to accept herself. Sometimes, for us to love and accept ourselves, we can't just try to do that from inside but we need also an external factor, someone who see our inner self, for who we are, and loving us just the way we are, we need those kind of people and we found them most of the time, it's not something hard to find those people and so is Elizabeth. When she ran into Fred in front of the hospital, you can see Fred undoubtedly showed his admiration for her, for most of us, a person like Fred would've be enough to makes us feel better, to bring back our self esteem, but instead, she decided to avoid him and still depressed out of insecurity. When she decided to go on a date with him, that was a brief phase of self acceptance from her, and look what happen when she decided to ditch him, she is utterly frustrated, keep looking in the mirror, applying make-up over and over again when she doesn't need to because Fred adored her for who she is. This is when insecurity takes control over her, she can't even see the inner beauty that Fred can see in her, that's why she move to a phase of self hatred that will be the beginning of her downfall.

I can't believe I almost missed this movie. I just read a comment about it in a terrifier 3 video review and come to find this movie came out 2 months ago.. So glad I saw that comment, absolutely loved this movie and can't believe it flew under my radar

This is the best review for this I've seen, good job!

Wow, beautiful video!! ❤

It's men's fault! It's society's fault! All those repressive patriarchal standards! Or maybe just maybe she is a flawed human like us all that contributes to that same repressive society. The movie was excellent but I can't believe how superficial and fatuous the director's supposed "message" of the movie was, at least as described in an interview. Excellent analysis, I couldn't help but notice how she only considers to go on a date with her class mate after she becomes slightly deformed and closer to "his level," she would not give him the light of day when she was healthy. To me that shows her own egoism and haughtiness. Overall, I think this film characterizes the inherent flaws of the individual human condition more than it does societal injustice, or anything like that.

Best interpretation

I enjoyed this a lot but the final act was so jarring and over the top in my opinion.

It also reminds me of having DID but the body changing each time there’s a switch as in, alters are one consciousness but they’re separated parts of one person. Everything experienced is experienced by the consciousness as a whole in the condition, it is feeling similar