While this wild ride of cockamamie sci-fi events happened, I was entertained by the super-stylized set design (shades of The Shining), the ominous score and I can’t lie, the close-ups of Lycra-clad and naked body parts of Margaret Qualley, who plays Sue, Sparkle’s “Substance sister.” It’s clever the way that filmmaker Coralie Fargeat pulls the viewer into a world where we, like Sparkle and her new girl Sue, are complicit in the superficial appreciation of humanity, the slick surfaces of appearance. As a viewer I fell for the grift—look at all the pretty ponies!—and then felt guilty for being part of the problem that Sparkle tries to remedy to disastrous results.
There’s one scene that I felt especially connected to (big spoiler alert here). After Sue has taken extra days of consciousness in order to achieve her dream of hosting her TV network’s New Year’s Eve show (not my career goal but hey, it earns a really big billboard advert), she desperately tries to preserve her looks by injecting more of the drug, a violation of The Substance procedure. Here’s when the movie truly got me—when Sue is reborn as a grotesquely lumpen Sparkle Sue monster, unrecognizable as a human with limbs jutting at odd angles and a head resembling Marvel character The Thing, she catches sight of herself in the mirror and reels…then continues to ready herself for her big hosting gig!
At this point in my viewing audience, a dude across the theatre was groaning openly as Sparkle Sue monster (now without ears) took rhinestone earrings, stuck them into the bloated flesh on opposite sides of her head and admired them. She clipped a curling iron on her one ribbon of hair left, then waited a few moments, only to have it snap off as she released the barrel. Watching all this I felt my boyfriend sighing in disgust beside me; meanwhile I’m not ashamed to say I teared up and laughed in compassionate connection. Oh my god guys, I wanted to stand up and say—this is what it’s like! And I’m not talking aging, necessarily—but as a 50-something I’m not not talking aging—however this is what the beauty industrial complex asks of us at all ages. Spackle on that makeup, Sparkle Sue monster, and show up to be judged.
Later, when our problematic heroine shouts to her audience, “I’m still me!” the movie lost me. That’s a claim that's hard to believe, since the character never establishes any connections to any people in the film. We don’t get to know anything of Sparkle’s inner life, presumably because she never developed one. Early on in the movie, there’s a heartbreaking scene in which Sparkle gets ready to go on a date with an ardent-if-clumsy admirer. Again she’s in front of the mirror, trying on various outfits and makeup, only to reject each one in frustration and ultimately miss her date. I felt this scene deeply, too—the brutal experience of social presentation (hello, looksmaxxing) is no joke. I was rooting for her to just get over the fear of not being good enough and connect with another human being. That’s my takeaway from this grim fairy tale, and that message totally makes it worth checking out.
Just, remember not to bring snacks.
