If this business is good at anything, it’s jumping on a bandwagon when something winds up being an unexpected hit, and few movies had as big an impact last year as The Substance. Personally, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the movie and felt there were places where it fell considerably short, so I welcome the knock-offs and copycats to see what other creatives can do with the basic idea, and we have two such examples here today. Do either of these recent attempts to one-up The Substance prove to have the right stuff, or do they wither away to nothing in its shadow? Let’s find out!!
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Him
Him is owned by Universal Pictures
Directed by Justin Tipping
Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) is an up-and-coming quarterback who just got drafted to his favorite team; the one led by the GOAT himself, Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans). Cameron has the potential to be just as good, if not better, than his hero Isaiah, but to find out for sure, he’s sent to train with Isaiah on his private compound so he can learn just what it takes to be the best of the best. Of course, with Isaiah’s own career on the line now that there’s a new guy in town, is he truly willing to start passing the torch or will this training camp prove far more dangerous than Cameron is ready for?
I suppose the first question many people had coming out of The Substance was what a guy-coded version of it would look like, even though much of what made The Substance work was the perspective it was coming from; not just the style it used to tell that story. Still, given how badly an idea like that could have gone, I’d say that this movie is worth celebrating despite falling short in a few key areas. It certainly picked the right angle of approach, as the history of sports is littered with preventable injuries, cover-ups of horrific behavior, and the exploitation of players, with the movie draws explicit parallels between sports stars and older figures of strength and power such as knights, gladiators, and conquerors. A linebacker may not be slaughtering his opponents in the arena, but we lionize sports stars for what they do on our TV screens, while off the field they struggle with all the pain and sacrifices it takes to get there. It paints a viscerally compelling portrait of obsession that spirals out from a simplistic, if gruesome, view of sports training to the true gut punch realities of superstardom and immortality being shouldered by mortal men. It shares much of the same headspace that The Substance occupied, but where that film relied on its allegories and metaphors, as well as Demi Moore’s performance, to carry us through to the end, this tells a straightforward story and lets the more abstract and esoteric ideas fill out the margins of the script and the unique compositions of the cinematography. It also helps that this is a much more robust cast, with two primary forces pushing and pulling against each other with a smattering of supporting characters to prod our protagonist in conflicting directions. Marlon Wayans is the definite standout as an aging lion that is threatened by the young new cub in the pride, and while you’re never able to trust him, his performance has enough charm to it that you hope there’s more to all this than just an attempt to destroy his younger counterpart. Said counterpart, played by Tyriq Withers, is another strong point in the film’s favor, as he’s more subdued of a presence but is still a fully fleshed out character with his own hopes, dreams, flaws, and responsibilities that connect you with his plight and gives you a reason to care about this specific person as more than just a vessel for the movie’s themes. I did ultimately like this more than The Substance because of the more grounded storytelling, but there’s no denying that the film still feels a little half-baked; especially when compared to that movie’s tight structure and sharp satire. It’s not quite as clever as it hopes to be and indulges in silly moments that don’t heighten the tension but undercut the seriousness of the situation. The idea of fans being equivalent to religious zealots is not without merit, but here it comes off as comical rather than insightful, and while the cinematography is top-notch with fun details and unsettling architecture, it’s also a little too blunt and obvious for its own good. The movie cleverly provides an in-universe justification for the bizarre imagery that pops throughout the story, and it’s without question that a lot of thought went into using abstraction and symbolism to get its point across, but it never quite goes for broke the same way The Substance did, so while the ideas are interesting, the execution feels slightly muted and simplistic; never reaching the heights of heady excess that you want for a movie like this. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention how some of the imagery, especially towards the end, hews a bit too closely to conspiratorial thinking and makes allusions to some very negative stereotypes even if it doesn’t explicitly name them. I understand what they’re going for, and what they are discussing is a legitimate problem in the sports world, but there’s also a way of expressing that frustration that can easily be hijacked by bigots and this is just a bit too loose with that kind of imagery to completely dissuade such interpretations. It is indeed a flawed movie in ways that undeniably make it a lesser film than The Substance, but it does have more of a heart to it which counts for quite a lot in my book, though maybe leave a bit of that anger at the door; especially if you’re still working out the finer points of what it is you’re trying to say.
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The Ugly Stepsister
The Ugly Stepsister is owned by Scanbox Entertainment
Directed by Emilie Blichfeldt
There once was a girl named Elvira (Lea Myren) whose mother (Ane Dahl Torp) married a suitable widower with a palatal estate, a daughter named Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), and various bills that go unpaid when he suddenly dies not long after the wedding. With nothing to keep the family afloat for more than a few months, Elvira is left with no option but to try and marry the local prince, who will be holding a ball very soon and is looking to share his wealth with a suitable bride. Sadly, Elvira doesn’t stand out much, especially compared to Agnes, but that will not deter her mother as she enlists her in every beauty regiment and alteration that will mold this homely young girl into a beautiful princess. Will Elvira be willing to pay whatever price is necessary to live every little girl’s dream, or will reality prove to be far more painful than any archaic plastic surgery and terrifying diet plan?
Where Him had significantly different themes in a similar stylistic vein, this has its own unique voice while covering similar ground to what The Substance did, and of the three I’d put this one up as the clear winner even if, once again, I feel the messaging falls a bit short of its predecessor. What starts as a dark comedy about an oft-vilified character archetype becomes one of the most biting satires of the patriarchy and the roles that women are often forced to embrace. The utter degradation and abuse that Elvira is forced to suffer through is as absurd as it is horrific, and is portrayed with a cold and dreary banality that will occasionally peak with fantastical excesses in body horror but ultimately brings us back down to the dismal reality of it all. It’s a sharp script with the right amount of shocking violence that rings true for the word that the film establishes and as well as a commentary on modern day beauty standards. It’s utterly cruel and heartless in the way that a movie about the machinery of society should be, and the forces that are pushing these characters to the edge of sanity are as relevant as relevant today as they are in the time period this ostensibly takes place. The tools, methods, and operations may have become more advanced, but the motivations and pressures that guide these decisions; most overtly embodied by the Evil Stepmother, who certainly earns her title throughout the movie, and is as genuinely nuanced as she is utterly terrifying. It’s hard to ignore the social and economic realities that are at stake throughout the movie which doesn’t excuse any actions taken by our cast of characters, even those of the beleaguered and put-upon Elvira, but gives us a reason to care about the fates of everyone beyond their utility to send a message. Even so, I did find myself feeling a bit put off by its ultimate thesis, at least at the end and at least as far as I could understand it. While I agree with the movie’s messaging about the unrealistic fantasies that underlie gendered expectations for women and how they can lead to significant self-harm, there’s a streak of anti-femininity throughout that is reflected in the only character that the film sees as rational, relatable, and more or less correct about things. It’s the difference between saying that girls shouldn’t be forced into pink things and the pink things themselves being the problem, and while I can’t say for sure that the filmmakers feel the latter, the movie itself doesn’t have much room to argue for the former. Still, out of the three movies in this little sub-genre we’ve created, I found this to be the most satisfying to sit through; giving me the characters and heart that The Substance was lacking and feeling more pointed and polished than Him’s somewhat muddled execution. It may not stand out in quite the same way as those films, especially with its smaller budget and lack of star-power, but I believe this is the one that will stand the test of time; even with its lack of goo-monsters.
The Reviewers Unite 