The Substance2024

Coralie Fargeat certainly has a style, and I for one love it. The star earring is her calling card. Beautiful images pop with color onscreen, but the dark undertones remind you of Kubrick (the bathroom's secret room and the friggin shining carpet and that one hallway scene being the most in-your-face). And the other metaphors are just as obvious. But I'm okay with it because they should be obvious. In fact, it's so obvious that we share responsibility for refusing to address our ridiculous beauty standards, or worse, participating in it. We all have. And that's why the blood is on our hands. Or as Coralie Fargeat thinks, we should all be soaked head to toe in blood. In addition to Kubrick, there's obviously influences from Cronenberg, Carrie, Old, Benjamin Button, Lair of the White Worm, Jack, Titane, and a lot of the VHS horror from the 80s I cherish so much. Oh and the entire vampire sub genre. And yes, I know I’m conjuring Kubrick, Coppola, De Palma, Ken Russell, Cronenberg, and Fincher, but these new auteurs in the making love paying homage to the greats. For me, those new auteurs include Ti West, Julia Ducournau, Brandon Kronenberg (maybe?), Oz Perkins, and Rose Glass. I think Coralie Fargeat just moved to the top of that list. As an aside, I'm loving all the direct references to Kubrick in commercial movies as of late - looking at you, Greta (I didn’t include her since she makes Barbie money now). Anyway, this is a four star movie for me because of one particular 80s movie I haven't seen anyone reference in The Substance discourse .... You guys, it'll be obvious when I ask this question. What if Stanley Kubrick directed Society (1989)? The answer to that question is playing in cinemas this weekend.