Episode 266 - The Substance

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Salutations! Welcome to Podmortem. I'm Renee Hunter-Vosquez, joined as always by my co-host, my husband and my brother. Hi, I'm John Paul Vasquez. Hi, I'm Travis Hunter-Syappan. This week, we're recording live from the New Year's Eve show discussing the 2024 body horror film, The Substance. This film was written and directed by Coralie Farge. Propelled by her own experiences and frustrations as a woman in a patriarchal society, Farge had something to say with her second feature film.

Dripping with social and feminist commentary and featuring incredibly brave performances, shockingly realistic practical effects, and a uniquely unexpected story, the substance would go on to stun its audience. Its impact was even felt on a critical level, garnering deserved recognition from the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, a feat that is unfortunately seldom accomplished by horror films. Bold, brutal, and beautiful, the substance is truly a sight to behold.

This film was requested to us by friends of the show, Daniel Taylor, Alexis Roberts, Sophie Wilson, Sophie Hodson, Steven Junius, Haley, Girl That's Scary, Itsy M. Hannah, Brittany Cat, Lisa Misfit, Halisa, Beth Myers, Kristen Lofton, Mike Eight. Seth Schaaf, Smelly Poopoo Head, Cookie, Gordon Sutherland, Morgan Novello, Destiny Faulkner, Wholesome Chaotic, Danielle Wright, Daniel Spruill.

We want to thank them all for their support as well as this suggestion. So what did you guys think of the substance the first time you saw it? I don't remember the exact date. When we watch this, but I know, babe, you made me watch this. And I really I did really enjoy it. The very first time I remember thinking this was different. This was the second half of it or the end of it. I'm all for.

I know I seen online there was some controversy or kind of people didn't, you know, some half people didn't like it. Some other people did. I am one of those people who did like enjoy the ending. I thought it was fine. But this movie, watching it for the show and everything, this movie was really good. There's a lot of cool things and effects they do in this movie. I know there is messaging in the movie and it really is there.

Some things did make me feel a certain way and it's just like, oh, okay, that's crazy. You know what I mean? To look at it from that way or to whatever, that feels nuts. But damn, the one thing I will say constantly that made me uneasy in the very best way. was the effects god damn what a great job these effects they did and everything looks fucking wonderful

No, I couldn't agree more. I remember the first time that I watched it, there was just such a buzz around it. I remember Jules had seen it before I did, and they told me to watch it so we could talk about it. And I was... Honestly, it was a great excuse to finally get Mubi, the streaming service. Not a sponsor, but we're open to it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But I was just so intrigued by it, just the idea of it. And Demi Moore.

I was very interested in seeing her in a lead performance. And Coralie Farge, I had seen Revenge, and there was a lot of that film that I really appreciated. visually and thematically. And so I was intrigued to see what she was going to do with this film. I don't know how to describe it because there is... I know that every single film that is ever made... A lot of thoughtful work goes into it in order to craft something out of nothing.

But I kept coming back to this term that I may have invented. I'm not sure. Intentional filmmaking. Yeah. And I feel like a lot of times you watch a film, you're like, yeah, OK, that's digestible. It's whatever. It's good. It's fine. This. The care, the thought, the attention that goes into every single frame of this film. Yeah. And every single aspect of this film. And so I just I think it's just so carefully crafted.

Almost to like an admirably obsessive degree. Okay. But as you said, there is a lot of very poignant and potent social commentary. There are very important discussions of societal standards of beauty, this quest for physical perfection. aging treated as like a death sentence specifically and especially for women and this pressure that can kind of push you in directions that you didn't expect to go. in your pursuit of this accepted ideal. Right.

And also the idea of comparison and how it can be the thief of any kind of joy in life period. Okay. And almost become addictive in a way. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that the message is just... very very important i think it's kind of universal kind of like we talked about last week yes where the ideas and the commentary within it are very timeless yeah and

Unfortunately, I feel poignant in any era. Yeah, that is one thing watching it. I was like, I know that I can relate to some of it, but I can't relate to all of it. You know what I mean?

I am a man and I am living in a world where a lot of men are... they feel entitled or they whatever and that you know it does suck that there's people like that but watching it and getting like I said some things made me uncomfortable and it is kind of like oh That sucks looking at it from that way so that you shouldn't be treating people.

Nobody should feel that way. Right. And there's something very interesting going on as far as who you would view as the villain in this film. Yeah. Because honestly, the person that seems to be acting in a villainous way... is only responding to the environment. Yes. Yes. And society's demand for what it is expecting of her. But I think that the world created here is very incredible.

oddly and i said i know i said the message is timeless but this film feels oddly timeless yeah like there are things that you see that you can't really point and pin Oh, this is 2020. Right. Or whatever, because there's so many different ideas in the design where you're like, oh, that could be from the 1960s. Yeah. 90s or whatever you know which is very interesting yeah but not a clamshell phone inside no so jp's on board yeah that helped a lot

But when you think of things being out of time or things being timeless, it does lend perfectly to the themes within the film. True. But I think the production design is brilliant. I think that the cinematography is incredible. As I said, Demi Moore is just on another level. I think honestly everyone is, including the crew. Yes. Yeah. Because I think Farge just goes for it. Yes.

and it's something that is really really bold and remarkable and very powerful I also appreciate all of the references to Kubrick and Cronenberg. And even David Lynch. Yeah. Carpenter too. Carpenter. It's impressive. Yeah. Yeah. But, and I think that's what I love so much. Obviously Farge discussing these influences. Yes. But creating something so wholly original all her own. Right. I think the first time I watched it, I was part of the group that...

didn't really care for the finale, I guess. But watching it the second time, I grew to appreciate it more, understanding the symbolism of what is happening here. I do think that the film works. as a satire in a lot of ways as well. And the absurdity of that last bit. And some parts in between are more a matter of exaggeration to hold that mirror up to society and say this is reality in this world. Yeah, for sure. And in our world in another way. Yes.

I will say just about how some things work a little. I have fewer questions than I did. so maybe we can help each other okay okay that's good i have some ideas and i thought i was coming up with some answers but i'm not really sure but that's why we're here to talk about it yeah but i think all in all and i liked it a lot the first time but i think i've actually actually grown to love this film okay through the second viewing

Yeah, I agree. It's odd because this it does have a pretty hefty runtime. But I feel like repeat viewings do reward you like you do get a deeper appreciation for it. The first time I saw it. My best friend, Kristen, I mentioned her a lot on the show. She moved away over a decade ago. She just moved back. And so we had this list of movies that we wanted to watch together since she was back. The substance we had in our theater for like three days. I had planned to go see it on my own. It was gone.

Um, so I felt robbed and the requests were trickling in. I mean, you heard the fucking laundry list, like Santa Claus, not your nice list at the top. So we got Mubi, like you said. And when she got here, I was like, OK, can we start with the substance? So we did. And luckily, like I kind of inadvertently was aware of some of the themes. just from existing online in horror spaces. But the ending was not spoiled for me.

I had no idea what I was in for. It completely blew me away. We both loved it. Within a couple of days, I was like, John Paul, we have to watch this. I need you to watch this movie. So I watched it again a couple days later and was like, I liked it even more because it's like it's almost like a bucket of water in the face. And you're like just still processing what the fuck you watched and then watching it again, knowing what's coming. It's like you do.

At least I was able to dig in more to these themes and this messaging that is obvious and apparent. But when you're not being fucking shocked. Yeah. You're able to internalize it a little bit more. Or I was. So watching it for this to work on my script was my third time watching it. And yeah, it went from really, really like to absolutely love. I think that it is such an important film for everyone to watch because I think.

A lot of people can relate to the experiences within it. And even if you can't, I think that it is necessary. Like you were saying, John Paul. to even as a man to view some of these characters and be like oh my god yeah one character yeah in particular yeah and i mean it's I think it is very important. I think it has a lot to say. I think that it is, to me, pure brilliance. And I do understand people

having issues with kind of the third act because it really does pull the rug out from underneath you. And maybe we were rooting for a certain kind of story and that's not the story that is being told. But that's, I think that's also what's important. Ari and I were talking about this the other day about like books being banned in classrooms and stuff because they're uncomfortable. And it's like, yeah.

That's the point. This film, you should feel uncomfortable in aspects of this film. You should. Like, you're not receiving the message if you're not. Aside from all that, I am a huge fan of body horror. I think that this film, one of the, I mean, I can't think of a current one that has really like. My jaw just dropped the things that they were able to accomplish practically. It's beyond impressive. Yeah.

It's truly just a sight to behold. The effects, just like you were saying, T, the shots, everything does feel very intentional. It is stylistically gorgeous. costumes even I mean like down to everything it just Every frame is dripping with something to dissect, to kind of meditate on, to dig further in the performances. Demi Moore is beyond. I mean, I can't imagine how difficult this was.

I did so much reading about this. I told John Paul, it was like two days straight of nothing but researching the substance. I was like, I am Elizabeth Sparkle now. I'm too deep in. So I do want to get into production a little bit because we have a lot to talk about. As I said, I've read a lot to put together this production as well as a lot of things within. another laundry list of sources very quickly.

So we have Variety, The LA Times, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire, A Rabbit's Foot, Deadline. Cinema Daily, Awards Watch, Rue Morgue, Cinema Blend, Vulture, Back Row, Vanity Fair, Definition Magazine, Marie Claire, The Daily Beast, The Sunday Times, The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and MUBI. So these are articles, interviews and videos. Throughout. Throughout. So Coralie Farge grew up obsessed with film, specifically American films.

She knew she always wanted to make them, so she goes to film school. After she finishes the three years of general academics that was required, she approached an assistant director for a film that they were shooting on her campus. She said that two months later, they finally called her back and offered her a position, but just as a trainee. She did not care. She was thrilled. She just wanted to be on set and learn. The film?

Passion of the Mind starring Demi Moore. Really? Farge was making copies and getting her coffee. Wow. Okay. It feels like such a full circle moment that I was like, reading the article, I like gasp. But she did learn a lot. She started making her own short films and having no budget kind of forced her to think outside the box. No money for explosions means that you need to get the point across in a different way.

And she learned to use that different way of thinking to her advantage. Her first feature film, Revenge, was very well received. But as she approached her next project, she's also approaching her 50th birthday. The thought that this impending birthday made her think that her life was going to be over filled her with, she said, violent thoughts. She transformed these thoughts and feelings into what she called a twisted feminist fairy tale.

She was also fueled by a sentiment that she had once read. Being a woman is body horror. According to Farge, Universal had financed the substance with $18 million and had planned to distribute it. But once she'd finished filming, she had a screening with three producers. She said two men and one woman. And allegedly it did not go well. They were not happy with the runtime and they wanted drastic cuts to the film's content.

It comes up a lot on this show, but I'm really getting sick of this shit. Yeah. Because it just why are you going to hire a creative person? And then try to tamper. Clip their creative wings. Yeah. I don't get it either. Farge had even passed on directing Black Widow because she was told that she would not have final cut. Not having Final Cut was a deal breaker for her. Well, yeah. Yeah. She refused to make any changes.

Adamant to also act as a producer, she found a production team with working title. She said that the producers there, Eric Felner and Tim Bevan, understood her vision and they also appreciated her previous film, Revenge. And most importantly, they gave her final cut. Good. But with no distribution now, Farge decided to submit the film to Cannes. It had been a dream of hers to show a film there ever since she saw David Lynch's Mulholland Drive screening in 2001. Amazing. They accepted it.

So it's here that the substance received a 13-minute standing ovation. It would win best screenplay at Cannes. Have you seen that screenplay? Yes. It's incredible. Yes, it is. And it breaks all the rules that they tell you to follow in such an incredible way. Okay. And that shows you like, why are these rules here? Yes. Why is it? No, this runtime is too much. We need to go. Why? Why? Like if we've not learned by now. But this is where Mubi picks it up.

With Farge's vision completely intact and uncompromised. The substance would go on to make over 77 million worldwide wins at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. It would be one of the most talked about films of 2024. It became our most requested film and it started some very necessary conversations, including the one we are about to have right now. Very good.

Now, before we stabilize this film, we would like to issue a warning for spoilers. Podmortem is a very in-depth podcast, and in thoroughly discussing horror films, we have no choice but to spoil a thing or two. If you don't wish to be spoiled please go watch the film then come back and enjoy the show. If you've already seen the film or don't care about spoilers then let's respect the balance.

After the production vanity plates, the film begins with a cracked egg. Its orange yolk is vibrant. The white's translucent against the powder blue background behind it. Black gloved hands gently guide a syringe filled with a bright neon green liquid into the frame. The tip of the syringe pierces the gelatinous yolk, and when the plunger is depressed, the green liquid is emptied inside.

Very quickly, the yolk begins to quake, a new orange bead emerging from its side. This bead swells and breaks free, becoming its own separate yolk lying on the expanded blanket of egg white. The new yoke is perfectly round, perfectly symmetrical, perfectly orange, while the original still wears the puncture that produced it. We linger on this before cutting to black. Two eggs? Two?

There was something so visually pleasing about this. I was very impressed. And just whenever you consider all that's to come, this was the perfect opening. It really is. And again, I... I knew, again, thematically, some of the commentary. I had no idea what we were about to see watching this for the first time. So starting with this egg, it's like... What? That doesn't seem good. What you just did. It's a bigger breakfast. No.

But looking down at the ground, there are dark and marbled tiles with a pink one at its center. A team of three construction workers, played by Jean Miel, Paul Descoyne, and Benoit Levesque, strategically play shiny lines in the shape of a star. A name is carefully added onto it, Elizabeth Sparkle, before a small emblem with a golden film recorder is added beneath.

The men section off the new tile with bright red tape before pouring in the dark mixture to match the tiles around it. It dries hard and the workers sweep the remnants away, leaving Elizabeth Sparkle's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We still watch from above when a cluster of photographers capture a young woman, played by Cecile Vogt, standing on this star, the surrounding ones covered with red carpet.

The woman poses, waves, and spins in her sparkly gold dress as the photographers vie for her attention. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, we love you. This fades to pedestrians stopping and admiring the star. A woman with very big, blonde 80s hair poses as her partner snaps a photo of her with it. We fade into other groups, stopping to take pictures, rest their foot on it, until finally they're just casually pointing at it, not breaking stride as they walk past.

When no one is around, a crisp orange leaf denoting fall lands on it. At its arrival with the soft crunch, the pink star cracks. The leaf blows away. Now passerbys wonder as they walk by. Remember her? Wasn't she in that movie? It grows dark and rain pours down on the star covered only briefly by big black umbrellas when pedestrians trample over it without a thought.

It brightens and people walk by in warmer weather with shopping bags and baby strollers and dogs passing over the even more cracked star. When a pigeon scampers on, it's promptly scared away by incoming walkers. The score grows darker as does the weather and a cold wind blows in dusting the pink star with snow before finally blanketing it with the thick flurries.

The snow dissipates and an unhoused man with a trolley rolls over the star, shouting. Behind him, a clumsy man played by Yannick Garan wanders through, but he loses his grip on the takeout box in his hand. A burger and a cup of ketchup splatter onto Elizabeth Sparkle's cracked pink star. He mutters, shit, and stoops to clean the mess, using the paper to try to wipe away the worst of the ketchup.

The rest, he tries to rub clean with the sole of his shoe, but the star remains dirty and streaked with red when he gives up and wanders off. Beeping horns echo, mingling with the incessant hammering of a construction site, and we press in on this filthy cracked star. smeared with thick ketchup and wilted red onion, but still boasting the name Elizabeth Sparkle. The city noises fade away to upbeat music and we cut to stomping tennis shoes crowned with blue leg warmers.

I just want to say no hyperbole. This opening is one of the most impressive.

bits of economical visually dazzling storytelling I've ever seen yeah it's just it's done so simply yes and Farge in so many interviews talks about really using visuals to tell her stories she doesn't really like to use a lot of dialogue and I think The passing seasons, the passing time, the way that the pedestrians... reactions to this change like it does tell you everything without any well elizabeth sparkle what like you don't you don't need the expository

you know, E true Hollywood story of Elizabeth. But like, you don't need all that. And I feel like a lot of other films would take that route of over explaining. Yes.

And I loved, you know, Late Night with the Devil, but something like that where it's like, let me give you the crash course on this bitch. And then, you know what I mean? But this was just like, no. this is the story like we get it that's what i was gonna say or a narrator but you late night with the devil yeah that that this was really cool to see and i'd be so pissed i bet that burger was expensive oh you know it was we're in hollywood yeah That ketchup was probably 20 bucks.

I did want to say to your point, I saw this interview with Benjamin Kraken. He was the cinematographer. He had said to ARRI, who interviewed him, that the screenplay was 130 pages, but only 29 pages included dialogue. Yeah, you can find it online. If you take a look at it, I've never seen one that looks like this. No. It is a very visual film. Yeah. But this opening was actually made on a very small set inside of a studio.

And they did film exactly as you see, just top down on this little platform of this Hollywood star. Yeah. And they just had environmental shifts and changes, people coming in and out, weather machines, all the things that they need to. display this passage of time but it was such a smart approach to telling this story in such a visual simple and kind of montage sort of way yeah But these stomping feet belong to Elizabeth Sparkle, played by Demi Moore.

Now, Demi Moore, I don't think I need to say a lot, but I will. Just a few, because I mean, again... She's been around for a long time. Yes. Ghost in 90, A Few Good Men in 92, Indecent Proposal from 93, G.I. Jane from 97, and so much more. Striptease. There's a bunch of different stuff she did. Yeah. And really, really good stuff.

Farge had said that she and her team were talking about who could play Elizabeth Sparkle and Demi Moore's name came up and Farge was like sure we can send her a script she's never gonna do it so let's not waste a lot of time waiting around So Demi Moore read it and was like, She said this could either be part of a cultural shift or it could be a fucking disaster.

But that either or is really what interested her in doing it. So plus the fact that she related to Elizabeth, like she's like, this is not me, but I understand a lot of what she is going through in the trajectory. So she met with Farge in Paris and gave Farge a copy of her memoir, Inside Out. So Farge reads it and is like, oh, like she gets it. The fear and violence that I'm trying to portray in this film, she has lived it and she understands it in a way that I didn't expect.

So she meets with Demi Moore and tries to explain how severe this is going to be. She shows her mood boards. They used a lot of mood boards, a lot of Pinterest boards for like the look and feel of the film. But she shows her mood boards of... what imagery she's going for and she's like this is not a hollywood shoot we have some money but for what we're trying to accomplish it's not a lot

We're going to have to shoot this indie style. It's going to be physically and emotionally taxing. And there's not a lot of time. So if it affects you, we still need to keep moving. Yeah. And obviously she was game. And she does a fucking incredible job in this film. Oh, yeah. It is mind blowing. And so much is asked of her. Yeah. But she delivers in a way that is just truly remarkable. Yeah. And I would invite anyone to watch her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes because it is powerful.

But she wears a blue leotard accented with a sparkly silver belt. She stands centered, flanked by backup dancers wearing garish leotards and enthusiastic smiles. Elizabeth assures us, you got it, encouraging the ladies watching to feel the power as she dances. We see a sign over them, sparkle your life with Elizabeth. before zooming in tight on with Elizabeth. Elizabeth continues the routine, leading her dancers and the viewers at home in a march with a warm smile.

She goes through it, marching back and forth, moving their bodies in a disciplined square and reminding the viewers to think about their bikini bods. Do you want to look like a giant jellyfish on the beat? She continues as upbeat as the music as the light on the watching camera buzzes. Elizabeth finishes the routine with a long sigh and her hands at her heart center, pressed together in a quick namaste.

She applauds, commending everyone on a great workout in the hopes that the viewers will join her next week for Sparkle Your Life when they'll be working on the hardest part to sculpt, the lateral abs. She tells her audience, but in the meantime, take care of yourself. She plants a kiss on the tip of her fingers and blows it to the camera before ending the show with a big smile.

The lights finally drop with the loud click and Elizabeth drops her pose, complimenting her backup dancers on their work. She gratefully takes a towel and a bottle of water from her assistant, played by Kelly Harrell, and pushes the studio doors, entering a very long and very orange hallway. lined with geometric carpeting that does bring to mind another carpet. Take a shot. Indeed.

Before I get into this design and the carpeting, I thought it was very interesting to see how Elizabeth interacted with her dancers. Yeah. Because you see this Hollywood star who... seemingly the story is that she's somewhat fallen from her stature that she had previously. So I didn't know how she was going to be with people that she might see as beneath her. Right.

But she was very kind. She wasn't like, get the fuck away from me. Which was really good to see. I thought, you know. Farge had said to that point that she wanted a. career that gave her the opportunity to film kind of our obsession with bodies okay and she was inspired by Jane Fonda's career when she was doing the aerobic stuff after being a huge Hollywood star. Right. And I was like, yeah, like you totally see that and it totally fit.

But as far as this carpet is concerned, you talked about these mood boards. It was always the intention for this hallway and this carpet to reference the Overlook Hotel and The Shining. Okay. And so Farge wanted not to completely just reference it. wholesale and just put it there right she wanted to do her own thing with it

And I did read this interview with Stanislaus Redier. He was the production designer for the film. Okay. But he had said that whenever they were coming together to figure out this idea for the design. He actually came up with 30 different proposals for the carpeting. Damn. To show to Farge. Yeah. And what ended up happening was that the design that we see in the film is kind of a mix of that classic.

And a lot of the designs that we see in the gold room of the overlook. Okay. And so it's a mix of both. Yeah. And this hallway. becomes another homage to the Overlook at the very end of the film. Right. Which is very interesting. But this is not where the homage ends. And I feel like there has to be a reason to want to connect. The shining to the substance. Right. I think it has to be something along the lines of this psychological pressure.

Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. Because it is very interesting and it's not the only reference. There's another one in just a moment. Yeah. There's one later on, too. Yeah. But Elizabeth pauses in this hallway, flanked on either side by huge framed publicity photos of herself advertising sparkle your life. But in these photos, she is younger, staring at the camera, confident and proud.

Elizabeth starts down the hallway, and as she passes these never-ending posters, she grows older, but no less fit and no less fierce. Multiple people pass her, each wishing her a happy birthday, and as Elizabeth blots away the sweat from her workout with the towel, she thanks them warmly. She finally stops at the blue door of the women's restroom but is dismayed to find a sign warning that it's out of order. Do not use.

She pivots instead to the men's room right across the hall, and we follow as she glances around guiltily before heading inside. I did like this hallway seeing that she's kept busy and stayed doing what she likes and in her position. It is weird. I guess later as the movie goes on, how they talk about age, whatever, because she's kicking ass. Look at all this stuff she's done over the years. She is. But I think that's part of what makes it so frustrating. Yeah.

Did that tracking shot down the hall remind you of the airport scene and Jackie Brown? Oh, yeah. And I know Tarantino is referencing The Graduate, so I guess also The Graduate. Right. The interior of the bathroom is red and white, once again strikingly similar to the bathroom from The Shining. Take a shot. Yes. But Elizabeth sets down her water and her towel before disappearing into one of the stalls. just a sidebar that i thought was kind of interesting the long hallway is on a studio set

But that bathroom was actually a real bathroom in a French administrative building. Okay. And so all they did was do a little bit of redecorating and repainting. That's wild. That makes sense, though, because I heard her talking about hiding her hiding in one of the stalls a gaffer in another stall and somebody else hiding underneath the sinks and that makes sense if they're like really filming in a bathroom

But no sooner does the red stall door swing shut behind her, do we hear a man's approaching voice. I don't care if we have to see every fucking young girl in this fucking town in the next few weeks. Bounding into the men's room is Harvey, played by Dennis Quaid. And Farge did say that his name being Harvey is not an accident or a coincidence. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

Again, I know we all know this man. Yes. But I'm still gonna give him love. I watched this movie all the time as a kid and I loved it. Inner Space from 87. He was in The Day After Tomorrow, another movie that I watched all the time, 04, Frequency, 2000, Legion, another movie I really liked, 2010. He was in Legion? He was. I forgot about that. Why do I not remember that? All I remember is that lady scrambling up the wall. And she was cursing quite a bit. That's all I remember.

And I just have to mention this role was originally supposed to be played by Ray Liotta. Wow. But obviously, unfortunately. tragically he passed away um but farge talked about dennis quaid bringing something different to his version of Harvey and we were talking off mic kind of theorizing what Ray Liotta how Ray Liotta would have played this character and I do think it would have been very different she said that Dennis Quaid has this like innate warmness that he brought to

you know, spoiler alert, a very fucking disgusting character. So I think that Ray Liotta's version would have been very different. Yeah. But Harvey stomps past the stalls and to the urinal that we are apparently perched right above. We are in tight as he unzips the pants of his ornately floral luxury suit. and he tucks the phone between his ear and his shoulder, a gold ring with a black stone on his hand.

When the person on the other end of the phone tries to offer a counterpoint, he interrupts them over the clinking of his belt. He offers to make it simple. We need her young. We need her hot. And we need her now. He adds that the fucking mystery to him is how the old bitch has been able to stick around for this long. The person on the other end offers an unheard reply and Harvey scoffs. Oscar winner my ass. He asks when that was. Back in the 30s for what? King Kong?

That, I mean, this guy's a real jerk. Oh, my God. I will say the Oscar winner, my ass line stings a little more now. Oh, yeah, it does. In a very upsetting way. I think that it is so just... Indicative of his character the way that this section is shot. Yes. They had talked about it in interviews how he is dominating the entire frame. Yes. It is claustrophobic. He's taking up the entire space and he's literally pissing on us. Yeah. He's gross. But such an apt introduction. Yeah.

But he laughs at his own joke as he releases his urine in sporadic spurts. And when the person on the other end tries to protest, he interrupts again, declaring that he doesn't give a fuck what they promised her. This is network TV, not a fucking charity. He yells for them to find somebody new now.

Finished. Harvey flushes the urinal and starts toward the door, passing the sinks where he does not stop to wash his hands. He laughs. Did you know that a woman's fertility starts to decrease about the age of 25? How old is Jennifer? He stops in the hall warning, you better get busy. Harvey's cackle fades away as the door closes behind him. And it's only in the resulting silence that Elizabeth finally steps out of the stall with her eyes lowered.

is heartbreaking already. Farge talked about just. Like you said, Harvey coming in. starting out small at the door, taking up the entire frame, leaving, and now it is the exact same shot of the bathroom, but it feels completely different. Yeah. Like he is coming, like you said, pissed on us. and changed the entire environment, even though he's gone. It feels empty. Yeah, it's like... It sucks. And it is. It sells like the bathroom with the red. It feels like a wound now. Yeah, it does.

But Elizabeth steps up to the mirror and raises her eyes to look at her reflection. After a pause, she turns on the faucet. And she stands there, watching the water flow down the drain before raising her eyes to the mirror once again. With a deep thud, the screen goes black, but emblazoned in huge white letters is the name.

specifically not using beauty lighting that they lit this bathroom like a bathroom and that continues throughout the film and that Demi Moore was like uh no like we can't shoot it like this And that she had to tell her that's this is the point they talked about because there's a lot of effects work that we see. We'll introduce him later. But he was like, this is not lit like a horror film. Like it makes my job a lot harder because it is harsh. real lighting yeah

Kraken had talked about going through a lot of different cameras and testing them, and they eventually landed on shooting on digital. But the reason that he picked the camera that he picked is because it... was the one that most accurately worked best on skin tones and gave that natural feel for moments like this. Yeah.

She talked about too. So they did 87 days of principal photography and 30 days of what they called the lab where Farge went in with a very small crew and they did all these close up shots like what we just saw with the drain. Because like you said, T, she doesn't use dialogue in her script. really very much at all. She said she was inspired by films like Star Wars and 2001 A Space Odyssey for their ability to build worlds solely through visuals.

So, again, not using words, using visuals, not she said specifically not using subtlety, but using excess to her. These these what they call insert shots like of the drain to her, they are hero shot. And these because there's a lot of close up shots in this. That's what her in the lab came back to do afterward. And a lot of these are what the producers allegedly from Universal wanted her to cut.

that it makes no sense why yeah and she was like no she's like to me that is the film this moment of she goes though that's her feelings watching this water go down the drain that is how elizabeth feels looking at herself now in this mirror deflated through Harvey's eyes and his words watching this water go down the drain she's like no you can't lose that that's the point yeah

So I thought that was interesting. There's another one coming up that she said is one of her favorite shots in the entire film. And they were like, no, we got to lose this. Like, why are we? What is this here for? But we hear Harvey's voice, reasoning that it's like when you see someone fart on screen. We join him at a table where a nagging fly takes residence on the back of his neck.

His greasy hands wrench the head off a shrimp and it squelches as it's pulled free. This might be a prawn. This is the biggest fucking shrimp I've ever got. But we're in tight on his mouth, disgusting with smears of shrimp. And he laughs with his mouth full that people just love that. He surmises that that's just the way it is before depositing the shrimp into his disgusting mouth.

I did read about the sound design and them intentionally working to make this scene even more disgusting, dipping the music and the ambient sounds down, except for the sounds of the smacking and chewing and disgustingness. Yeah. But I also want to point out that a fly is living on his neck as you said. And they have been known to land on pieces of shit. That's true. That's true.

To piggyback on what you said about making this as disgusting as possible, Farge said that everyone had such a visceral reaction to the scene. We see some crazy shit coming up. But this was the scene that everybody was like, you either need to cut this completely out. or severely tone it down. I understand the point, but I also understand the note. Yeah. She said, though, that when she was making revenge, she learned that when it.

If there's a scene that everyone wants you to tone down or get rid of because they're uncomfortable, then there's something powerful in that scene. That's true. And you need to leave it. Oh, no. Yeah. But she also said that Dennis Quaid did this. We see him eat more shrimp as we continue. He did this about for like 13 takes. Oh my God. Literally eating the shrimp every time, chewing and swallowing, eating the shrimp every time.

and that he was happy to do it usually there's like a bucket yeah yeah so that you're not doing that what was his order i'll have 10 000 trims like it's insane

I would, I'm not going to lie. I would try to eat it, but not like the way he is. He's like fucking rubbing it on his face and his hands. He's like, making myself sick yeah i think he's eating so much shrimp that the only thing that would make sense is that the shrimp was free afterward you know that's the amount this is a competition she said that he was happy to do it and that

She guessed that it was over four pounds of shrimp that he ate because they did the scene again and again and again and that he was happy the entire time. All right. I would never eat shrimp again. But the sound slows as his teeth crunch down and it speeds back up when he offers a bemused, c'est la vie, people are just people.

Elizabeth sits across from him watching his filthy hands as he beheads more shrimp. Dunking it in sauce, he declares with his mouth still full that he has to give the people what they want. That's what keeps the shareholders happy. And people always ask for something new. When a server behind him, played by Louise Gregory, bends over, lifting the hem of her already mini dress, he can't help himself but to glance over his shoulder and take a long look.

He tells Elizabeth that renewal is inevitable. He spits out a shrimp's head as he chomps down on its body, and he reasons that at 50, well, it stops. elizabeth sits coolly in her blue suit across from him she speaks for the first time what stops The gentle music in the restaurant goes silent and Harvey doesn't seem to understand the question. So Elizabeth repeats it.

Harvey's blue eyes dart around, making crude gestures with his hand before abandoning them and letting the limp shrimp flop between his fingers. He smacks the food in his mouth, struggling to find an answer for her question. But when he looks up and past her, he doesn't have to. The limp shrimp felt like a symbol to what he's trying to say. He calls out excitedly. Oh, George.

He locks eyes with the man across the room, George, played by Michelle Zuzkiewicz, who reacts in kind, calling out to him and walking over to the table. Harvey excuses himself quickly with the, sorry, I gotta run. He snatches his phone from the white tablecloth that he has littered with the heads of discarded shrimp cluttered around a bowl overflowing with them. Harvey commends George on his insane ratings and the two throw their arms around each other as they leave the restaurant.

I feel like aside from being disgusting, the whole shrimp thing. I think that maybe it is symbolic as well because I think that Elizabeth probably feels like a discarded. Yes. shell chomped down on what you wanted and he threw the rest away exactly yeah he devoured it and it is done moving on and this very boys club moment of why don't I have to answer your question hey George and then they just fucking leave that's wild that it's beyond it it is just why

Why not just have me help lead the show that I helped build? My show. Yeah, my show. Let me run it. It's wild him saying at 50 it stops and it's literally her fucking birthday. Yeah. It's too much. But Elizabeth is still sitting at the table, her eyes drawn to the fly that had been on the back of Harvey's neck. Only now it floats helplessly in a glass of wine. Its wings rendered immobile and its limbs stretching, pleading. We zoom in tight on the fly as it stops moving.

And this very zoomed in shot of this fly drowning in the wine. This is what they want to cut out. They said it was unnecessary. You didn't need it. And it's one of her favorite shots of the film because this is like this is again how she feels. Yeah. Like. I don't think it could be more necessary. Yeah. Yeah. It's just odd because it feels like.

Were you just trying to shave whatever you could to hit a runtime? Probably. Because that's what it feels like. It's such an odd thing to be like, you don't need that, cut it. Why? Or you just didn't want it to work because if you cut things off that explain things and they're not there, what we get is her sitting there and then that's it. There's no symbolism. There's no, I mean, yeah, we get it. Her looking at the heads of the shrimp, but that shot,

It's champagne and that fly is even drowning in that. It doesn't matter what the scenery, how pretty everything is around. If there's nobody helping you, you're still going to fucking drown in there. Yeah. And it also, it's her career. Yeah. It's Hollywood. It's like, I mean, there's so much in that one shot. Maybe there was just a matter of...

not trying to make the effort to understand. Maybe. And they're just like, we don't need to look at a fly. That's gross, dude. No shrimp, no flies. Can we cut that scene off? We join Elizabeth in her car as she passes a line of palm trees backlit picturesque by the sun. So I hate to interrupt you, but they were talking in an interview. They were asking Farge, what part of Hollywood did you film the substance in? And she said, no part of Hollywood.

Every single scene in this film is filmed in France. oh wow and it's very remarkable But she was talking about how not only did filming in France afford her the luxury of working with a crew that she knew a lot of the people and was just surrounded by a lot of people who are very passionate about cinema. But it also gave her the freedom to create her own Hollywood in France. That's outside of reality, but- kind of relies on what we

think of when it comes to iconography and symbolism in Hollywood. Yeah. Okay. She's like, we don't need to use all of these things. We can literally have a palm tree against a blue sky and you know exactly what that is. Yeah, that's true. You know, and there's some stuff that comes later that's also really remarkable, but I was just so impressed.

to see that this was filmed all entirely, I think in Cannes, all the exteriors. That's crazy. There's some parts where you think that it's like a Hollywood street and she was saying that it's like a parking lot. that's incredible yeah but again it speaks to she was like we're gonna do this the indie way like take what you have and make what you need But she glances up at a billboard. It's her in a toothpaste ad. With Toothbrite, you got it.

written optimistically beside her smiling face. But two billboard technicians, played by Romaine Caldera and Thomas Bartholomew, stand on the lift next to it. When one in a red helmet reaches up for the billboard, Elizabeth shifts uneasily in her seat, but he grasps onto the ad and peels it down. He rips off the rendering of Elizabeth's smiling face. She is fully distracted when the torn billboard flutters down, which seems very dangerous.

Just on someone's windshield. Oh, God. I'm just swerving. There's got to be a better procedure. Fucking final destination. But she doesn't even have time to react when she is T-boned by an oncoming car. She is thrown around as her red car rolls. Elizabeth is hunched over, her long black hair blanketing her as shattered glass rains into the interior. Finally, the crumpled car comes to a stop, but the alarm continues to blare. This was scary. Yes. I was like, oh my God, because she is distracted.

I don't know if she ran a red light or what the fuck happened, but that car hitting her and then her just flipping over. I was like, damn, it looks good because it looks real. Yeah. Yes. You're kept there in the car. Yeah. And it goes on for forever. Yeah. And what a horrible fucking day. Your birthday. Yeah.

But a doctor, played by Tom Morton, places x-rays up on the screen, assuring Elizabeth that it's good news. They've checked her from head to toe, and she doesn't have so much as a cracked molar. Elizabeth brings her feet together nervously, the backs of them worn and calloused from her years of dancing. She rubs them together, sitting with her back to the doctor and a male nurse played by Robin Greer. The doctor announces that she is good to go, but the nurse stands by pensively.

As the doctor checks her chart, making sure that her vaccinations are up to date, his voice goes low and muffled. But it's back to normal when he tells her candidly that his wife is a huge fan of hers. Elizabeth doesn't even react to this. She stays there, her head lowered, the back of her hospital gown parted. The doctor refers back to his chart and realizes that it's her birthday. He starts to wish her a happy one, but he cuts it off when Elizabeth breaks down and sobs.

And when his pager goes off, he starts to leave, cutting himself off again when he starts to tell her to have a good day. Great bedside manner. Yeah. And again, the timelessness of it. We saw the cars that were waiting on the other side of the intersection before the car crash. Yeah. And then this dude's using a pager. That's true. You know? But Elizabeth continues to cry. And when she hears the door open and close, she starts to get up.

She's held in place by the nurse who places a gloved hand on her shoulder. The back of it sports a large port wine birthmark. He asks her for just a moment. There's one last exam to perform. I was immediately horrified. I was scared. Yeah. The doctor's gone. Like he said, I'm good. Elizabeth does protest that the doctor said she was good to go. But when the nurse opens the back of her gown wider and exposes her back, she gasps and leans forward, her eyes wide and untrusting.

The nurse presses the end of the stethoscope to her back, feeling around and listening intently to the low and rhythmic thumping of her heart. He takes the stethoscope off and pinches gently at her spine through her skin, manipulating it, testing it. Elizabeth asks if there's something wrong, but he answers no. It's perfect. She's a good candidate. I mean, you're good to go.

We get another shot of his birthmark when he hands her back her long yellow coat, maintaining eye contact. The nurse wishes her the best before leaving the room. So that's very unsettling. Yeah, that wasn't weird at all. And very peculiar. Yeah, just a little bit. And why my spine? Yeah. Yes. What's that? Specifically, why my spine? Outside, Elizabeth stands brightly in her yellow coat against the muted off-white of the hospital and the pale blue of the sky.

Reminded me a lot of that opening with the egg. Yellow, white, blue. I will say this visual of this building, once again, the architecture seems so futuristic. Yeah. But like in a strange way, I've seen a lot of people online compare it to the buildings and architecture in A Clockwork Orange, another Kubrick. OK. And it is very interesting because, again, we are so very interestingly playing with. Time. Yeah. Yeah. As far as aesthetics. Yeah. Yeah.

That kind of leads me into something that I wanted to say about this. coat this like you you're talking about this like displacement of like where are we Farge said that she was told more than once that this coat made no sense because It's L.A. Why is she wearing this heavy ass yellow coat? yeah you know also the snow at the beginning of the montage

Oh, that's true. Yeah. But she said in her mind that this is like a superhero cape for Elizabeth. It always looked like this. It was always yellow and she could not part with it. She couldn't see her without it in this. Beginning. Okay. Remember Jubilee's code in the X-Men? Yes. That's kind of what it is. Hell yeah. Yeah. I was thinking Carmen Sandiego. Hey, yeah. Both iconic. You know what I mean? Or Curious Georgia, the man with the big hat. Iconic. Also iconic.

But in an interview with the costume designer, Emmanuelle Yuzhnovsky, she said that she bought like 20 coats and she wasn't happy with the color and the shape. They wanted the color to kind of harken to the bright sun in L.A. and two egg yolk. So she ended up finding the right fabric in France and she made it herself in a month. Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. And Demi Moore said that she did keep this coat.

Okay. And I would have to. You got to leave the duster on. Yes. Absolutely. I'm not going to burn it. But she sinks her hands into her pocket, but stops when she feels something unexpected. She pulls it out, something wrapped in paper. Elizabeth unveils a black jump drive with the words, the substance on it in white. She flips it over to find a phone number, 909-555-0199. The paper it was wrapped in bears a handwritten note. It changed my life.

That's one hell of a sales pitch. I don't think you could ask for anything more. no i'd be very interested to know what the hell this was extremely and i i don't see this brought up in conversation so i am going to bring it up but her going to an appointment and it was a different kind of appointment But her going to the appointment and someone being like, hey.

let me tell you about something. I know that what you're going through right now. Let me, let me put you onto something was very death becomes her to me. Right. The first time I watched it, I was like, what are we doing? No, for sure. Yeah.

I do want to say, and of course, there's nothing against the film. It's just films in general and the necessity of having to do it. But I'm fucking over the 555. Just because somebody is at home and like, oh, yes, I'd like the substance, please. Like, can I please have the substance? It's like. You know, we got to be able to have a look at numbers. Yeah, it's that it does take you out of it a little bit because it's like.

Everybody, everything's five by five. Right, well, because you know it's not going to work. Yeah. Like, damn it. I really wanted that. That was me. Elizabeth stares at this, curious, as a low tone grows louder, but it cuts off when a man's voice calls out to her. She looks up to see Fred, played by Edward Hamilton Clark, adjusting his glasses and laughing in excited disbelief. Lizzie Sparkle? He says that he can't believe it. Elizabeth searches his face, confused, but he gives her an out.

He's Fred from 10th grade homeroom. It hits Elizabeth then. Fred gushes that she hasn't changed a bit. She's still the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world. He shares that he's been following her success and wow, wow, wow. Elizabeth smiles and agrees. Wow. Fred offers that now that they're reconnected, they can go out for a drink. Barely reconnected. Now that we're completely caught up. It's like, I don't know, man. Look, I don't play movies. He seems like a nice guy. He does.

And his way of speaking is like a 50s. Dude, he reminded me so much of Barry, who his wife left him, but now his golf game's better. What was his last name? Peterman or Peterson? Oh, yeah. That's true. I was like, who the fuck is this dude? And it reminded me of the late night with the devil. We're back to late night with the devil. Yeah. Again, out of time.

Elizabeth starts to answer hesitantly and Fred backs off, understanding that he's stupid. She's super busy. But Elizabeth concedes that maybe he could give her his card because you never know. Fred searches for something to write his number on and settles on lab results folded in his coat pocket.

He warns her to just not look at his cholesterol numbers because they're a disaster. But again, now it'd be like oh give me your phone or take out your phone i'll give you my number or whatever or put your number in my phone but yeah to search for a paper to jot it down it is a little a little interesting yeah Elizabeth smiles as he jots his number down. He rips it free from the rest of the paper but when he goes to hand it to her he drops it in a puddle.

Fred stoops and picks up the sopping brown paper and hands it over to Elizabeth anyway, adding with a big grin. Now you've got it. Elizabeth clicks her tongue and points at him and Fred hurries away, mouthing for her to call him. Once he's turned away and left, Elizabeth looks pensive. Bro, just write it again. Just write it again. He has a lot of paper there. No, he's like, I need these results. Yeah, I'm in a lot of trouble. This is the only copy my doctor needs it back.

Why did you take him out of the office? That's a good question. Well, I'm heading in there now. I was bringing him back. Yes. We cut to Elizabeth's apartment where a huge framed photo of her hangs from one of the blue walls She smiles brightly, her black locks hanging long and healthy, her toned body clad in a shimmering blue one-piece with a glittering silver belt at her waist.

Word choice. Word. Yeah. Elizabeth stands at the windowed wall of her living room looking out over the city. She seethes and we get a close up on the mocking word were from her thank you note. Elizabeth plugs the jump drive into the side of her TV and settles down into her chair to watch. I did want to talk about Elizabeth Sparkle's apartment for just a moment.

because it is such an interesting set and it evolves as the film does. The production designer talked about it being Farge's idea to make almost a metamorphosis of her living space. as she transforms as well. Okay. Spoilers. But this view from the window, it surprised me to learn that this is not an LED screen. Oh. This is not a green screen.

115 foot by 42 foot backdrop of fabric what yes they printed it and it's from a photograph taken for the production and when it is front lit sprawling, bright Los Angeles day when it's backlit. we get the nighttime scenes of Los Angeles. Yeah. But this is another thing that people were like, where in Los Angeles did you film this? Yeah. But it literally is this apartment.

built on a set in a window with a large backdrop, like these old Hollywood tricks that I think Farge referenced Hitchcock using. And it's not anything that you would expect in a modern film. It's part of Farge's idea of trying to make everything within the substance real. She says it's physical. You can touch it. This view, she says, is kind of more...

attempting to represent people's dreams of Hollywood more than the real Hollywood. Ah, okay. And it's also very interesting because from this view, she said, you see she's on top of the world overlooking the city. But Demi Moore said in an interview that it's also, when you look at it like that, very isolating. Yeah. Because you're alone up here and she is. Yeah. Damn.

Before we get into this video. Yes. I wanted to point out the suit that she's wearing. I think it's obviously the same one that she was at the restaurant in. They talked about this conscious decision to have Elizabeth in more masculine cuts. and darker colors, a lot of blues, even her apartment walls are blue. Yeah. To kind of have this baseline to compare to in a little bit. Okay. Okay. But the video.

A loud synth tone rings out and a deep voice provided by Jan Bean asks, have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? A techno beat pulses as he continues, his words appearing on the black screen in white, younger, more beautiful, more perfect. We get a close-up on an undulating cell and the voice explains one single injection unlocks your DNA, starting a new cellular division that will release another version of yourself.

The cell dimples and finally splits in two, four, eight, many. The voice says, this is the substance. We see it in large white letters, just like they were printed on the side of the jump drive. Oh, could be. Oh, okay. And roll credits. But there's a crudely molded ball of yellow clay on a table and a hand picks it up as the voice explains, you are the Matrix. Everything comes from you and everything is you.

The hands rip another ball free from the original and shapes it into a rounder and more pleasing ball. He sets it next to the first, which looks even more misshapen and lumpy by comparison. The voice assures, this is simply a better version of yourself. You just have to share. The yellow balls are picked up by the molder. One sits in a palm of each hand presented to us.

He closes a fist over the new one, leaving only the old visible. One week for one, and then he switches, covering the original and unfurling the new, and one week for the other. A perfect balance of seven days each. But the voice warns the one and only thing not to forget. You are one. We see these words in huge white letters before returning to the table with the yellow clay balls. The voice surmises, you can't escape from yourself.

The hands bring the balls together in a harsh clap and the screen dissolves to static before cutting to black. Elizabeth promptly removes the jump drive from the TV. strides over to her kitchen and we watch. from the bottom of the trash can when she drops it inside and closes the lid. I do not blame her in the slightest. That was the scariest fucking thing I've ever seen. But what was that? I'm sorry, Ann, what was it? You can't escape from yourself? No. You can't escape from yourself.

not a sales pitch that's a threat yeah that's how you chose to in the video and y'all added that static in like that was a choice with that and the clay i was like what the fuck does that mean i don't like any of this the smashing of the clay together was interesting yeah Oh, yes, it was. But I was like, this is not what I would think. Well, accompanied with the you can't hide from yourself or whatever. And then like, no, I don't know. Yeah, we're good.

Farge had said that they used her voice for kind of the substance voice as a stand in while they were filming. But when they found Yan Bean, the entire vibe changed with his voice. And Farge says that his performance is such an underappreciated aspect of this film. She wanted the voice to be tempting and powerful and mysterious. She called it the devil's voice. Okay. And I'm like, he did a great job. Yeah.

At a lounge, Elizabeth sits at the bar skewering the olive at the bottom of her martini glass and sending its juices spiraling. Farge stabbed that olive when they were doing the lab, all the close-up shots. I was like, that's pretty cool. But Elizabeth downs her drink, settling the glass next to its three identically empty brethren lined up on the bar. She chews the olive as she eyes a young blonde couple played by Manon Sashow and Baston Jarrell flirting at the end of the bar.

Her entire back exposed by the plunge of her dark dress, Elizabeth waves over the bartender played by Arthur Molinae as she tosses the skewer into the empty glass with the resounding clink. Costume choices on this exposed back. Very interesting. Yes. But we abruptly cut to the long hallway at Elizabeth's apartment, watching as she kneels on her knees before the toilet. Her body heaves with loud wretches as she vomits.

When she rises to her feet and flushes, we get a lingering look at her smiling face behind the glass of her framed photo in the living room. But now in the bathroom mirror, Elizabeth is not smiling. She has rinsed her face and smudges of mascara mar her under eyes. She pushes her hair away from her face to take a long, sobering look at herself. If this is all still her birthday, what a shitty fucking day. Unbelievable. I think it is.

In the living room, an entire row of trophies sits in front of the window, presiding over the glowing distant city below. Elizabeth scans over these before picking up a snow globe displayed with the accolades. Inside of it, a woman stands confidently, her hair pulled into a chic updo and her body draped in a flowing gold dress. The small plate on the stand reads, Elizabeth Sparkle.

She shakes it, causing a flurry of gold to rain over her smiling avatar. A twinkling rings out, as does the muffled memory of the paparazzi proclaiming their love for Elizabeth, begging for her attention. The shimmering, raining gold is reflected in Elizabeth's watching eyes, but she finally snaps back to reality. With a grunt, Elizabeth heaves the globe across the room. It strikes her framed photo, hitting the smiling Elizabeth directly in the right eye before exploding in glitter and glass.

As the shimmering slime oozes down the picture, Elizabeth digs in the trash past her offensive discarded roses to find the jump drive marked the substance. Did you think that it was maybe a reference to Citizen Kane, the snow globe situation? Oh! I can see that. Or that episode of The Simpsons with Mr. Burns. It's probably that. Bobo. Yes. in her bedroom she presses her red landline to her ear as a ringing drones the voice from the video answers with uh yes

I was surprised that it was the voice from the video. They got him hitting the phone. I'm the only one who works here. It's a one man operation. Yeah, clearly. Jim substance. Those are his hands too. Yeah. Surprised, Elizabeth says hello before stammering that she'd like to order. She's asked, address? And she responds with it. 1057 Beverly Canyon. The voice coolly advises her to write this down. 35 North Byron Alley.

Elizabeth grabs a pen, reciting the address as she jots it down onto the palm of her hand, but she doesn't get past north before the man on the other end hangs up. Elizabeth hangs up too, but she finishes writing the address. I believe the shot of her on the phone, the slice of light, her mouth is supposed to be a reference to David Lynch's Lost Highway. Another film we should cover.

In the morning, she wakes with wide eyes still in her dress lying atop her muted bedding. When she sits up, she groans and cradles her head. She stands under the steady jet of her shower before plopping two tablets into a glass of water where they fizz. She sits in a white robe at her table, holding her aching head while her housekeeper vacuums in the living room. After a moment, she unfurls the newspaper in front of her and she scans the pages, but she pauses when something catches her eye.

Casting call. Who will be the next Elizabeth Sparkle looking for youthful, vivacious, high energy women to be a part of a new TV show? Females, ages 18 to 30 only. Auditions at the studio this Friday. Dress to impress. So they fired her without even finding a replacement? Yeah. Yeah. They just wanted her gone. Unbelievable. Yeah. It's crazy. The time slot's just nothing. It's dead air. It's the test pattern.

But I'm like, how do you fire me and then cast for the next me? Yeah. Having her name in that. That's fucked up. It's a big fuck you. Yeah. I feel like that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. The whirring of the vacuum fades from Elizabeth's attention as she focuses in on her name, on youthful, on 18 to 30. It's only when she balls the newspaper up and tosses it away that the sound returns to normal. She shifts her attention instead to the stack of mail in front of her.

She flips through before she comes to a black envelope with the yellow symbol on the front. It's like two half circles that maybe could be a split egg yolk. But as Elizabeth stares at it, a synth note from the video plays. This is the morning. She made that call late last night. I'm impressed with the turnaround. Yeah. Jim's substance doesn't fuck around. People first? Yes. Elizabeth rips it open, but inside she finds a small plastic card with the number 503 printed on it in black.

She flips it over to the back, but there's nothing there. Only the number on the front. But she opens her left hand to reveal the address faded from her shower, but still visible. 35 North Byron Alley. We immediately cut to Elizabeth walking down the sunny street in her long yellow coat as tense music pulses.

That would cloud my judgment. I'll be honest. Everything that happened, me waking up, still living in the moment of what happened the previous day, then seeing the letter, still being on my hand. The ad, everything. I was going to say after the ad. Yeah.

But we follow close behind as she leaves the street to continue her journey into parking lots. And finally, nestled beside the stairs that lead up to the main street, a closed metal door with the address spray painted over it. 35 North Byron Alley. Elizabeth approaches and although the place is worn, dirty and graffitied, a card reader set onto the wall is brand new, shiny and black with the yellow substance symbol on it. The graffiti that's surrounding this card reader, it looks like egg white.

and then two yolks at the top, and then an arrow pointing down to one. Oh, my God. Oh, okay. Wow. Yeah. I was like, that's wild. Yeah. She fishes in her pocket for her 503 card and presses it to the reader. The metal door grinds loudly as it opens, but only up to Elizabeth's knees. She presses her card against the reader again. And when the door doesn't budge further, Elizabeth squats down to fit under the door. It felt almost like subjugation or like.

an act of lowering yourself to do this you know what i mean like being on your knees desperate like that's what it felt it felt like a almost like a symbolic like power play or something i also got like Farge said of this being like a fairy tale it felt almost like Alice in Wonderland yeah well we are certainly about to yeah to embark on some things.

But inside, she passes a yellow sign with a crossed out bug boasting extermination. But her eyes are focused ahead on the light at the end of the long hallway. And once she reaches it, she pauses. It's a room, white and brightly lit, empty, save for a row of sleek lockers on one wall. Elizabeth slowly ventures inside, finding most of the lockers smooth and blank. One has the number 207 centered in black, and then she finds hers, 503.

She presses her card against a small black button and the door flops open. There's a cardboard box inside, simply wearing the number large and black 503. So I've seen a lot of comparisons online of this set. to one of the sets on 2001 A Space Odyssey. There's this very pallid room at the end and the tiles on the floor look very similar to the white tiles here.

Again, I love the referencing constantly. Right. But one thing I realized that I actually really appreciate about this film is we really don't learn anything about this company, this science.

science anything that makes the substance that advertises and markets the substance it does seem like an exclusive club if there's only like this doctor or this nurse seemingly that is at this hospital that's like hey i can kind of yeah the lowdown on it or whatever but i like not knowing and not over explaining who the hell's behind this yeah well that's not what this is about no yeah i totally agree and farge had said it's almost like black market

like she's not she's not even Elizabeth Sparkle she's 503 yeah like it's very detached it's very like anonymous I like that too But we match cut to the box sitting on Elizabeth's coffee table. She opens it up and finds a thin divider with the number one on it. She sets this on the table, revealing what's underneath.

marked activator there's a shrink-wrapped tray including scissors thread a syringe and a vial of bright green liquid also marked activator Elizabeth picks it up and looks at it thoughtfully before flipping it over to find a red sticker warning, single use, discard after use. The divider underneath is marked with the number two and it's concealing the next shrink wrapped kit.

stabilizer, other self, a strange plastic device with a stack of vials marked one through seven. Three, this is marked switch with a shrink wrapped rubber tubing inside. She pulls out two bags, one marked food matrix and the other food other self. They're each comprised of seven pockets of an off-white liquid. Beneath all of this is a card instructing. You activate only once. The next card, you stabilize every day. The next, you switch every seven days without exception.

And the last card, unveiled with the low thrumming synth from the video, reminds in bold black letters, remember you are one. Elizabeth swallows hard as she looks at all of this displayed on her coffee table. After looking at all this stuff with like the fish tank tubes and the go-kirts and there's that little sushi machine, the one that helps you roll them. That thing's there too. I don't.

I don't know if I can go through with this. I don't know if we're working with the best materials for the job. This is what you gave me? What the fuck? That would be like, you're really overestimating my capabilities here. Like when I see syringes, like I... to move forward. Even if I were intrigued, the video would have scared the hell out of me.

seeing this equipment with I'm like where's the instruction manual thank you dude that's the thing is like you gave us all the materials and that's great I appreciate it, but I don't know where you can fucking start with any of this stuff. You got the serum from Reanimator. I don't know what the hell's going on. What do I do with that? I don't know. And how much? How much? Yeah. You know? What's the adult dose? I don't know. Elizabeth's like, I got this. Okay. Better than me.

That night, as the tall palm trees outside wrestle in the breeze, Elizabeth stands completely naked in front of her bathroom mirror. She meets her own eyes before stealing herself to look downward at the clustered triad of birthmarks on her stomach, at her breasts. She eyes herself before meeting her own gaze again. And despite the beauty that we can see, Elizabeth seems displeased.

She recalls the deep voice from the video. You are the matrix. Everything comes from you and everything is you. This is simply a better version of yourself. The vial of neon green activator sits on the counter in front of Elizabeth, next to the tray from the kit. Before we dive into this next sequence, which is a lot, I did want to talk about this bathroom. Okay.

I read in a few different interviews with Farge and the production designer. Okay. But Farge for the bathroom wanted something common but unsettling. Something that felt off. And so you talked about a lot of mood boards at the beginning. Her first idea was to reference an art installation from Jean-Pierre Renault, and it's called La Maison or Home. And it was this 25 year long project. of covering every single surface in his home with a small white tile. And it is...

Yeah. And I think what was the intention was the space was eventually demolished and then turned into flower pots with the rubble of what was created. Oh, wow. But I read in an interview in Film and Furniture. that this clinical, pallid look of this bathroom was meant to be a stark contrast from the flesh tones that we see. of what we're about to see. Right. And the production designer said, quote, the bathroom acts almost like a light box, a bright clinical space that reveals everything.

And this is echoed in Fargeau's ideas of it because what she had wanted was to have this space not even have any furniture. And you notice that it doesn't. Yeah. It's this wide open space that leaves room for everything that is about to occur. But in doing that, it is also meant to be this place of confrontation where Elizabeth confronts herself.

and has no room to look at anything else, only herself. Yeah. Okay. And kind of face every step of her metamorphosis through what, again, we're about to see. Yeah. But the interesting thing about it as well is that... We witness a lot of very interesting camera angles throughout all of this, where there are these interesting wides, these overhead shots, these close-ups, these different perspectives of different things.

And it was very important to accomplish all of this, that literally every section of this bathroom was removable. And so you can move the roof out of the... space completely to shoot these really high overhead shots. You can remove a wall over here so you can get a shot of whoever from this side and move in with the camera so you can put in a track. And so every single part of this space was movable.

that's pretty cool yeah well and they use all of it like you can tell and i did think that too watching it i was like this room closing it and being in here and how bright it is and it's very white yeah it is like that like the science is happening in here yeah And with any of the splashes of color of different colors that we see, it stands out so incredibly. True.

But from the tray, she plucks the syringe and uncaps it. The vial warns again, single use, discard after use, when Elizabeth flips it over and punctures the lid with the sharp point of the needle. She draws out the liquid filling the syringe until it beads at the tip of the needle. She ties her arm with the tourniquet from the kit and rubs it clean with an alcohol pad. Her hand is trembling when she brings the needle down, and we watch closely as it pierces her skin.

I did watch when they came back with the lab to do the close-up shots. Farge injects her own arm with the needle. Oh, wow. Yeah. I was like, damn. Elizabeth winces at the pain, but still she injects the neon activator into herself. Finished, she sets the syringe to the side and unties her arm.

Again, no direction. No. I hope I'm doing this right. Yeah. I guess you can assume what they want you to do when they give you a thing of liquid and a syringe and a tourniquet, but it's like... she's braver than me i'll just say that I probably would have went with the hip or like the butt cheek or something, like insulin. No, she went for it. I would have just drank it like a five hour energy. It's in a little thing. Just fuck it, you know?

Leaning forward onto the counter, Elizabeth watches her own reflection carefully. When nothing happens after a moment, she can't help but scoff at herself. She turns away from her reflection with a sigh, but she's only able to take one step before our view of her ripples with the resounding thud. Elizabeth doubles over, crying out in pain, and the pristine white bathroom swirls around her as she loses her footing and crashes to the floor.

Naked and helpless, Elizabeth writhes in pain, weakly grunting as low tones drone. We watch from above as she flips around, something unseen ravaging her from the inside, contorting her lips, widening her eyes in shock and horror until she finally goes still. She continues to stare helplessly as something undulates beneath the skin of her back. The tones continue, mingling with the squelching coming from inside Elizabeth, and the thing beneath her skin moves freely.

We close in on Elizabeth's vibrating pupil until it finally splits just like the cell in the video creating a second pupil in her single iris. Her back ripples and stretches and the second pupil finally breaks free from Elizabeth's iris and floats out of view. Elizabeth's back splits, revealing a second one beneath. And we close in on her eye once again, where the second eye battles for dominance. This one bright blue against Elizabeth's hazel one.

Her eye pushes its way to its rightful spot, but the new back being birthed from hers writhes. Finally, something pushes its way out and we dive into Elizabeth's pupil. Here, her strained breathing is echoed as we race through a dark abyss, passing blurry lights, blue, white, red. The tense music reaches an impossible crescendo before finally cutting off and a flame erupts in the darkness as a muffled beat echoes and it takes the shape of a heart.

Firstly, the lights are a clear reference to 2001, A Space Odyssey. Okay. And even some shots of the eye, I would say. But I did read that the fire that we see of the heart was actually filmed in a studio. Yeah, I watched them do it. Okay. When they came back with the lab, literally they lit it on fire and we're just filming it from above. It's unbelievable. It looks cool. Now that we have seen some shit, I did want to introduce the man who made these prosthetics possible. Yes.

So Farge was working with the studio for the prosthetics, but when they turned in work for a key look that we're going to see later when they had sketches and stuff, she was not happy with it at all. Pierre Olivier Persan threw his hat into the ring. He's done a lot. He even worked on Avengers Infinity War and Game of Thrones. Okay.

But he made a small sculpt of this look that we are going to see later, and Farge loved it. It would be fine-tuned and changed along the way, but just based on that, he got the job. Farge explained that the inspiration here is Cronenberg's The Fly, Requiem for a Dream, The Thing, and Scanners. He said that it was 11 months of sculpting, both leading up to and during the shoot.

They started the sculpts with this back that we just saw split up. Because the actors weren't even there yet to do their castings. So they just started with that. Persaud made a small version about the size of his forearm for Farge to approve, and then they made this bigger one.

And Farge was like, don't make anything that we're not going to see. This back cuts off at the knees. Like it's literally just the back and the tops of the thighs because she's like, that's all I'm shooting. But like you were saying to you about the removable set. They were underneath the bat. and operating it like a puppet. opening the back up and pushing prosthetics through for this birth.

And Farge was under the floor with them watching through a monitor and being like, faster, move it this way, blah, blah, blah. But she's like down there with them and they're using their hands to push shit through this prosthetic back. And it's the most horrific thing I've ever seen. But now in the POV of someone lying on the bathroom floor, we wait.

The muffled heartbeat continues, but we flip over, revealing that we are not Elizabeth, but next to her, her back still flayed open in a gaping wound. We raise our wet hand into view before using it to brace against the floor and stand up. We pass Elizabeth's motionless body and eye the steamed mirror on the wall. We approach, every step a muffled thud, and with a shaking hand, we wipe the steam away with a squeak. finally revealing the other self, played by Margaret Qualley.

Margaret Qualley. She was in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 2019 and Poor Things in 2023. Okay, I still need to see Poor Things. Yeah? Yeah, me too, actually. What are we doing? I don't know. Slacking. I did read a few things about the sound design of this sequence. I read it in a sound effect.com, but they interviewed the sound designers and they had said that this. Birth, I guess you called it? Yeah. I guess Far Joe wanted the initial movements of Sue.

for the sound to be reminiscent of... body fluids and specifically amniotic fluid, like inside of a sack. Oh, okay. Yeah, that comes through. And so you do get this like muffled liquid with her steps of her approaching this mirror. And the other thing that they did in order to give you this sound is apparently.

They put microphone capsules in Margaret Qualley's ears so that you could capture her breathing and what they called cranial resonance. Holy shit. But it feels, and I've always wondered, like, you know, whenever you have... scenes of people like going underwater and you kind of capture that sound that you know when you go underwater right and it's like i've always wondered how they do that but i think that it's basically that that's wild

But the other thing that was really interesting to me, the shot is so striking of her wiping the steam away. Yeah. What they did. is they have Margaret Qualley on the opposite side because it's not a mirror, it's a window. And so they have a double put her arm in front of the cinematographer's camera. Are you fucking kidding? Dead serious. She wipes it. And then when Margaret Qualley sees herself and then backs away, the cinematographer is mimicking her movements and making it.

appear to be pov but it isn't yeah that's brilliant it is it does look for a second i thought it was cgi because something it's really small looks weird yeah that is so cool that's fucking cool But young and naked, with long dark hair and piercing blue eyes, she inspects herself in the mirror, her breathing muffled and her clogged ears.

But she backs up to admire her entire body, twisting to get a good look. She comes closer again, inspecting the bright blue of her eyes, where a rippling and crackling gold shines. This new self flips her hair over her shoulder, flexes, and poses. She cradles her breasts, her hands going over a smaller clustered triad of birthmarks on her side. If I'm not mistaken, I feel like the birthmark was on the opposite side for Elizabeth. It was. Yeah. So it's almost like a mirror. Yeah.

And I was very surprised and impressed to learn that her breasts are prosthetic. Really? Yes. i was like that is amazing But she continues to inspect the smooth skin of her new body and her long, damp hair with her exploring fingers before finally looking down at Elizabeth, lying naked on the bloody floor with her back splayed open, her eyes staring. Her face on the tiles, it was very reminiscent of Psycho. Okay. Yes. Take a shower.

But at this, the other self suddenly turns and vomits neon green onto the floor. But she pulls herself together and plucks the tiny thread from the tray on the counter as she kneels down next to Elizabeth. Closer now to the flayed flesh on Elizabeth's back, the other self stifles a gag. She pinches the gaping wound together and brings down the hooked, threaded needle. The metal squelches as it pushes its way through Elizabeth's back, through one side and out the other.

Her brow knitted in concentration and disgust. The other self pulls through the thick black thread and ties it off in a knot. She snips this with the scissors. The first stitch in the yawning wound spanning Elizabeth's entire spine has been completed. This is a photo double lying on the floor and the stitching was done through a prosthetic applied to the photo doubles back.

oh okay but it is like oh you're like wincing oh yeah and isn't this a lot to ask on baby's day out it is yeah that's what i was thinking i wake up i see this i I'm still trying to come to, you know, what's going on. Yeah. And now I got to do surgery. Yeah. I feel like an important thing and something that got lost for me, I think a lot watching it the first time and even kind of the second time too, as it is reminded again and again and again, you are one. You are one.

This person looks and acts differently, but this is still Elizabeth. I get that and understand it completely. I also think that that might not be readily understood. So I have a theory about that that we can talk about later. Okay, because there's a lot of moments of... Not remembering anything. Yeah. I have a theory and I combed through looking for confirmation of this and I did not find it, but I still believe it and it explains away a lot for me. Okay.

But for me, it hits differently imagining waking up in this new body and looking down and seeing yourself. And to me, that's what I thought exactly was happening. Yeah. I think it's only later that I start to get a little confused. But in this moment, it is. It's like Elizabeth's consciousness has been transferred.

to this other self yeah right and i i um i agree with you that it does get a little bit muddy later on but the way that i am looking at it at this point i'm like i get why but we'll talk later please She goes in again bringing the flesh together in a knot. She ties it, snips it. She does this again and again as Elizabeth stares endlessly jostling with the movements of the procedure. Finally, the other self brings the last ditch closed and Elizabeth's back has been put back in one piece.

Her other self goes to the medicine cabinet and opens the door to reveal the packages of the food. She removes the one marked food matrix. And with a steady hand, she inserts the IV into Elizabeth's limp wrist. She twists a red knob, sealing the liquid food shut and the nutrients begin to flow. The off-white concoction makes its way from the pouch marked one down the rubber tube and into Elizabeth's waiting vein. Upon its entry into her body, she lets out a small squeeze.

Her job finished. Elizabeth's other self gets up and sits on the edge of the tub, lowering her head as we slowly back out of the bathroom down the long, dark hallway. But this is what I'm talking about as far as not, I would not know that this was an IV bag. I would assume that. And again, she just snaps right to it. Yeah.

I'm not qualified for any of this. No, and the way they're broken up, I get it for the days. Yes. The go-gurt. That's what I'm saying. What do I do with this? Is this porridge? Do I heat it up and eat it? What porridge? That night, Elizabeth's other self is in the middle of her bed bathed in a calming blue light, but she stares nervously at the ceiling. The next day, a palm framed in the center of the screen just as the other self was, sways in the gentle morning breeze.

The other self, though, is basking in the steady stream of the showerhead. As she explores her new smooth body with her hands, Elizabeth still lies in her own blood on the bathroom floor. The blood smeared beneath her and her back stitched together. You can't just leave you there like that. Yeah. It's that. Yeah. The blood's not even cleaned up. No. I mean, at least she sewed the back back shut. I guess. Kind of clumsily, I might add. A little bit.

After her shower, the other self stands in front of the mirror again, nodding a plush white bathrobe. She speaks for the first time, a simple hello. But the moment is broken by a high-pitched intrusive ringing in her ear. She winces at the pain of this and leans forward to find bright red blood dripping into the clean white sink. She looks back up at the mirror and finds that her nose is bleeding.

The other self rips the medicine cabinet open where the shrink wrapped stabilizer kit sits on the shelf. She removes it, the plastic crinkling in her hands when she reads the card. You stabilize every day. She rips the plastic open and removes the base and handle of the applicator inside. When she reaches in and pulls out the next piece an extremely long needle her eyes widen with concern.

She looks over at Elizabeth who still lies on the floor with her eyes open. But we see that the other self has done her the kindness of placing a soft towel beneath her head. She returns her attention to the package and takes out a stack of small vials marked one through seven. She takes out the last piece, a smaller applicator. The ringing intensifies and the other self picks up the pace.

She kneels behind Elizabeth's back once again and snaps the components into place. The needle at the end of the applicator, the stack of vials inside its opening. She readies the needle close to Elizabeth's back, but she winces at the pain of the ringing again. The thrumming of an elevated heartbeat takes over as the other self slides the tip of the long needle through the center of one of the stitches in the middle of Elizabeth's back.

The needle squelches as it finds its way home, and the other self pulls the plunger back, filling each of the vials with a clear liquid. Not to beat a dead horse. I never would have figured that out. No! No, hell no. Uneasy music crescendos. The heartbeat grows faster and the ringing's pitch climbs higher as the other self pulls the needle out, removes the vial marked 7, and slides it into the smaller applicator.

Her breathing is ragged when she raises the applicator and drives the needle into her thigh. She depresses the plunger and the anxiety inducing sounds fade away at once, dissolving into a satisfying sigh. We close in tight on the other self's eye where her pupil contracts. It's job finished. She lets the smaller applicator clatter to the floor and we watch as she opens the small bathroom trash can and throws the vial marked seven inside where it lands empty.

shot of the stab the side the pupil requiem for a dream um and something that we see later too is also and i know she said that it was an influence also very reminiscent of requiem for a dream and it was kind of marinating on that theme that I'm like, I feel like her inhabiting this other body as we go on is like her being under an influence.

And I start a fight or I do something horrible. Yeah, that was me. But in the morning, I'm detached from that. I might not even remember that I did it. So that is later on when things are like, but girl. that was you yeah i that is how it is to me and i was trying to find her saying this and i couldn't but watching this imagery from requiem for a dream which is very Hit for me is being like, yeah, that's me. But like I wasn't in my right mind. I wasn't fully there. I was under an influence.

And that's what this to me feels like. Yeah. Well, we talked earlier during the intro about maybe the theme of addiction. Yeah. So I guess that could fit into that. I think it was just later on when it's like.

having to constantly be reminded like no you are one yeah and it is that disconnect yeah of uh lack of memory to any of the events that occur period yeah so i was like what the hell and that's why i was like what the hell are you getting out of this yeah you know but i mean that question could also be asked of yeah you know yeah so to me that is how i explain it because watching it the first time i was like wait what i really had to keep reminding myself no that's her yeah that's her that's her

So to me, that's how it makes sense to me. Okay. I can get that. In the living room, Elizabeth still poses and smiles in her framed photo, but her right eye is missing from its run-in with the snow globe. The other self rises into view, hiding the photo, but she disappears again, folding herself into a side stretch. We watch her stretching effortlessly and expertly, savoring the magnificent view of the city through the window. But when she looks to the side, something catches her eye.

Crumpled but still legible, the casting call for the next Elizabeth Sparkle peeks over the rim of the trash can. See, for me, it was about right here. Because I, you know, watching everything play out. I was like, so is this an avatar for her? Or is this... Because I was still kind of questioning and wondering what was going on. Right. So then now you're stretching, you're whatever, you see that.

So it was like, that is Elizabeth in here? Like, oh, I'm going to go show these motherfuckers. Right. You know what I mean? But then again, it was like, is it not? I don't know yet. For me, yes. Okay. Yeah. Seeing that, I was like, this has to be intentional. Right. Yeah. Of exactly what you're saying. Right, right. Although it is pretty fucking wild to be like, you know what? I'll replace myself. I'm the next Elizabeth Sparkle. And you technically are the next Elizabeth Sparkle.

Wearing her long yellow coat, the other self walks down the street with a small smile. She stopped in her tracks, though, when she sees something in the store window that catches her eye. We're watching her through the glass and we back away to reveal the back of a mannequin, its fiberglass hand curled over its fiberglass hip as it displays a pink leotard. The other self's lips twitch upward into a smirk as she looks at it longingly.

And the costume designer did say this pink leotard was made custom. Oh. And it was inspired by Beyonce in the Blow music video. A lot of pinks and neons and metallic. It's iconic at this point, this leotard. Yeah. And I was interested to learn that like that coat, they made this. Oh, damn. Yeah. A casting director and his assistant, played by Daniel Knight and Jonathan Carley, sit at a table with a blue wall behind them.

They stare at us, bored, their arms resting on the table in front of them. A camera set on a tripod resides next to the table. We pan back to see a dancer played by Giselle Hindercott finishing her routine. She's even enthusiastic from behind, her brunette hair bouncing as she strikes her final pose. The casting director thanks her and assures her with a smile that they'll let her know by next week. The dancer thanks him in return, gushing that she's just dying to get the part.

She promptly leaves and as soon as the door closes, the assistant comments that she's a good dancer, but the casting director grunts. Too bad her boobs aren't in the middle of her face instead of that nose. the assistant agrees before calling for the next dancer a very ridiculous and wild thing to say yes but very interesting yes We pan back to find an ass just as toned and as firm as the mannequins donning that pink leotard.

A woman stands there, her long, dark hair trailing down her back with a hand on her hip as a techno beat begins to pulse. The casting director leans forward intently, commenting that it looks like everything sure is in the right place this time. The other self is like, I wasn't there for that. I don't know what you're talking about. I just wanted to kick this dude in his teeth. Like, this is crazy. I wasn't there. I don't know what this is in reference to. Can I start?

The assistant asks for the dancer's name, age, and measurements. The music grows louder as we get a tight shot on the other self's eyes, her sneakers and leg warmers, her long toned legs, her ass, her shimmering leotard pushing up her cleavage. Farge had talked a lot about purposefully shooting bodies in different ways. And the way that we're looking at her body here, it's almost like body parts. Like it's not even about cohesiveness or.

the entire thing. It's just like tits, legs, ass. And the way that Elizabeth was shot nude in the bathroom earlier, it is just a more, there is no sexuality. It's vulnerability. the way that you perceive yourself versus kind of the male gaze or the way that you're perceived by others.

Kraken had said that Fargeau's intent and her vision from the beginning was this fascination with... films from certain eras the 80s the 90s through to now where the male gaze is used so heavily but it's kind of reclaiming it and repurposing it okay yeah all right Star-shaped earrings glitter on her lobes as she looks up at them. On a tight shot of her mouth, she gives an introduction with pink pouty lips. I'm Sue. Just as the synth from the substance video begins, we pause. It rewinds.

I'm Sue Sue Sue Sue it's being played over and over again on a wall of TVs in an office Sue stands watching, her hand on her hip. She wears a pink tank top and a white skirt and large gold heart-shaped hoop earrings. Her hair is pulled into a high-flowing ponytail. Harvey stomps down the hall toward the office, flanked by other men in suits, played by Billy Bentley, Vincent Kalamb, and Leonard Ridsdale, excitedly demanding to know, where is she?

Sue turns to greet him with a slightly anxious smile. With a deep thud, the screen goes black, but emblazoned in huge bubblegum pink letters is the name, Sue. We're talking about color and purposeful, intentional costume design. They dressed Harvey in Etro and Dolce and Gabbana. They wanted lots of prints, lots of color. for him to stand out against his counterparts who only wear like Navy and black. Yeah. It, He be dressing. I mean, he does. Those are suits.

Yeah, I honestly, I didn't even consider them his counterparts. I was like, well, that's his security. The men in black, I believe. I think they're called. Yeah. I did want to tell or share a funny story that I read that Margaret Qualley had shared. because it's hilarious watching them meet. I think that this is a good place to put it. But she said that when she was, her parents split up. Her mom is Andy McDowell.

Her parents split up, who I always loved because she curly hair representation. And I was utterly obsessed with this movie called I think it's called The Crush or Crush. I don't know. It was one of those hyper fixation movies. We share a birthday, me and Andy McDowell. Hey, it was her birthday yesterday recording this. Also mine, but whatever. I gave you your flowers. Parents split up when she was really, really young and she said that all she wanted was for her parents to get back together.

So she would make her mom watch The Parent Trap all the time because, you know, obviously. So she would make her watch it over and over again. And so one day her mom comes home and she's like, you know how you love The Parent Trap? And she's like, yeah.

She was like, come here. I want you to see somebody. And she brought home Dennis Quaid because they're dating. Oh, wow. And she thought it was going to be her dad, but it was Dennis Quaid. And she's pissed. And so she said he was wearing these like leather red pants. And she was like, your pants are stupid. And then she laughed she's little and she never talked to him again. So the meeting here. Obviously, they didn't hurt him and Andy McDowell.

Breakout was like a very short-lived thing or whatever. instantly clicked and really liked each other and thought that it was hilarious but i was like her poor mom is like oh my god she's gonna be so excited she loves the parent trap she's like fuck you you've ruined all of it That was so funny. You had just mentioned Farge's intention to draw these distinctions between characters through costumes.

I saw an interview with Farge with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, and she had talked about trying to do the same exact thing through the score. She had mentioned how she saw sound and music as equal to the visuals and the symbolism, and so she wanted to use it in the same way. And what she had said was that whenever she would write the script, she would listen to music that kind of had... a pulse that felt like almost a simulated heartbeat.

and it's very interesting because that is something that is just throughout certain sections of this film this pulsing kick drum that feels like a heartbeat yeah But she enlisted the composer Rafferty, who I think is a British composer. And what he did was he created these different soundscapes for the different characters. where Farge intended for Elizabeth to almost have this feeling of Hollywood grandeur through her music. sue is much more raw and pulsing almost like uh

I don't know if this phrase is used anymore, but like a discotheque. Okay. She didn't say that. I did. That's a great word, by the way. It is. It's the way it's spelled. Yeah. It's very pleasing to the eye. But I think that it's very interesting to draw these distinctions. And it is throughout this entire section where we first meet Sue and she introduces herself by name. Yeah. It's throughout. But.

Farge had said that Rafferty was kind of known for this very raw, very violent, almost even uncomfortable soundscapes that he created, which we also feel throughout the film. Yeah. And interestingly, his use of silence. I was reading in this interview with him where he was talking about

sometimes it's much more important where you don't place the music. Yeah. And throughout that sequence of her coming out of Elizabeth's spine, there was a lot of very interesting uses of silence that I found very interesting. Yeah.

See, I took the pulsing as like... the cue to dance while i'm like watching this because sometimes some i will and it's not even a nitpick or nothing because I enjoy the music and what's going on here but it does sometimes it's going hard and I'm like damn I'm dancing but I'm like damn that's tough oh man you're going through some shit

Babe, turn that up a little bit. Well, they said like whatever the circumstance is, they always wanted to have like an electronic backbone. Okay. Is what they said. And... Elizabeth has her Hollywood grandeur, but Sue has this upbeat, contemporary, somewhat sensual, enticing you to dance, which makes sense with how we... see her version of what's about

But in his office, Harvey stares at Sue wide-eyed before approaching her. She gives her lip a nervous bite as he takes her hand and spins her to a seat at his desk, intoning, what a gorgeous little angel. Harvey sits down and the three suited men follow suit, uniformly plopping down on the couch across the room.

Harvey flicks his lighter and grins, a cigarette perched between his nicotine-stained teeth. We watch in close shots as he lights it and blows out the resulting smoke. With a smile, he tells her simply, you're hired. Sue giggles at this, but Harvey continues. They want a show that's just like her, beautiful and happy because people want to be happy.

Harvey drums on the desk excitedly, smoke billowing from his lips with each word. He informs her that they need to get to work because they air in two weeks. He explains that she can work out the rest with his assistant, but he pauses, snapping as he tries to remember the assistant's name. Someone off screen offers. Isabella? We pan over to find Isabella, played by Laura Puesh, standing to the side, clutching a notebook and a pen.

Harvey stutters the beginning of her name sarcastically, wondering, annoyed. Who has time to say that? They're going to make her Cindy. It's shorter. It's better. Satisfied, he reiterates that he'll let Sue organize everything with Cindy. He's a fucking cartoon. Yes. It's unbelievable. And the way he doesn't even like register that she's in the room. No.

He does a really good job of being a piece of shit old dude. And that just speaks to his skill at what he was told to do. And he delivered. Yes. He turns in his chair to stand up, but Sue stops him. She gently broaches that she has to mention a small scheduling issue. She has to be out of town every other week to take care of her mother, who's very sick. Harvey smokes thoughtfully before getting up and kneeling in front of Sue's chair. He beckons her to lean forward with his finger.

Sue obeys and Harvey tells her emphatically, I want you for this show. He declares that they will work around any mother, brother, fucking sick puppy she needs to take care of. Sue giggles relieved. Harvey stands over her and surmises, gorgeous and a pure heart. People are going to love that. We watch from beneath the glass ashtray as he stubs out his cigarette. Unbelievable that even when he's being accommodating, he still seems aggressive. Yes.

And like an asshole. And slimy. Yeah. I honestly thought he was going to be like, we can kill your mother. Or something. The way that he is, he's just such a piece of shit. But it's clear that he can be accommodating when it's somebody that he... Somebody that looks like Sue. Exactly. Somebody Sue's age. You know what I mean? And we heard him on the phone. I don't give a fuck. Oscar winner my ass.

It's like, no, that's who you really are. Yeah. Like, he's bending over backwards for her because she looks like her. And it's like, I just, he's horrible. Yeah. And we see that exact behavior echoed in another character. Yes. Techno pulses as Sue walks down the street. Her ensemble topped off with a hot pink bomber jacket that sports an S on the breast and large sunglasses. And it is shot everything. Where she is just like going from point A to point B. It's shot like a commercial.

It does look very GTA. Yes. I will say I did read exactly that. And Farge said her intention was to have everything with Sue shot either like a dream or exactly a commercial. Okay. It feels like everything is, the music is.

hi like she's literally walking down the street but you're like hell yeah like it's like she's walking down the street it even flows differently with the camera movement yeah and this bomber was made by hand wow they made it for this that's really cool But back at home, Sue loads up a vial marked six into the smaller applicator and stabs it into her thigh, injecting the content. A satisfied sigh overtakes the music as her pupils once again contract.

The vial clatters at the bottom of the bathroom trash, landing next to the one marked seven. I have to be honest, when I saw her leave for her audition... And then she meets with Harvey wearing different clothes. Yeah. And then she leaves with a custom made bomber jacket. I was like, well, this is one hell of a week. One day. Yeah. What? She does more in one week than I've done my whole life. She got the job and went and spent some money. I guess. You got to make it count.

The pulsing music continues when Sue poses for a photo shoot. She lounges in her pink leotard where the photographer, played by Axel Bailly, praises her that it's perfect. Again, this is all the same. And in Elizabeth's apartment, Sue looks out the window with wonder and it's her own image that gazes back seductively. The result of this photo shoot is splayed across a billboard that looks right into the apartment.

And the ad boasts, new show coming soon. Sue lets out a small laugh. This I buy because we saw how quick they can tear those down. Yeah. Later, she sighs as she flops back onto her bed, now adorned with pink silky sheets. So she also got new sheets. In the bathroom, the techno fades as we follow the fluid food flowing through the tube and into Elizabeth's arm. She still lies on the tile of the bathroom floor.

Sue adjusts the towel beneath her head and smooths her hair away from her face before loading up the applicator with the vial marked 5 and injecting her thigh. She sighs as her pupils contract and the vial clatters in the trash with the other two. That's unbelievable. We're on day three. We watch as Sue teaches the dancers her own routine in the studio. In the closet, she pushes Elizabeth's modest wardrobe to the side and hangs up her own, comprised of crop tops and short shorts.

She injects herself and the vial marked three rattles on impact in the trash can. The dancers practice her routine. Sue lounges seductively in her pink sheets. The bag of food counts down. Sue nails a split, then injects herself with stabilizer. before the dancers join her in a split. This is a montage. She's not injecting herself in front of the dancers. Like, what the hell is that? That fucking spinal fluid?

She sighs, satisfied. Her pupils contract. She applauds with her dancers, but we cut to that black abyss where a hot blue flame ripples through the darkness, dragging fire with it. The fire takes the shape of a dragon, and we match cut to this dragon on the back of a gorgeous robe that Sue wears, standing in the window of Elizabeth's apartment. The bell sleeves slide up as she raises her arms and the dragon crackles with fire and life.

So Farge said that this dragon is a symbol of being re-energized like a phoenix. And this robe was once again handmade. Damn. With 10. thousand hand applied sequins god damn and it is fucking gorgeous yeah Finally, the music fades and we are treated to the instructions in bold black letters. You switch every seven days. Sue's hearing goes muffled, save for an insistent and piercing ring.

In the bathroom, the food matrix bag has been sucked flat as the last little bit is drained into Elizabeth's arm. Sue takes the rubber tubing from the bag and drops the gorgeous robe to reveal her nude body. She kneels next to Elizabeth and flops her over onto her back. She replaces the food tube with this new double tubing before piercing a needle into her own arm with the other end. Sue's blood begins to flow down one tube and Elizabeth's starts down the other.

Sue watches interested as the blood trails pass each other. As soon as Elizabeth's blood reaches the end of the tubing and begins to flow into Sue's arm, the hands from the video return. slapping together the two lumps of yellow clay. And at that, Sue collapses, her head colliding with Elizabeth. In the black abyss, a road is cut out in the center. A small light is very far away but it gets closer and closer.

Finally we see that it's someone riding a motorcycle. Just as they reach us Elizabeth wakes up on the bathroom floor with an agonized scream. So this motorcycle and its rider are tiny little toys. Really? Yep. That's incredible. Yeah. But Elizabeth wheezes and coughs, gasping desperately for air as she struggles to push Sue's body off of hers. When she finally does, she cries out in pain. her hands immediately flying to the stitching lining her back. And I was like, oh my God.

god so bad so they thought of like food and everything but they didn't think of anything about pain management put some morphine in with the food yeah or something i don't know yeah what do you do now You wake up to this. Your back's hurting. You feel that. And it's like, what? There's another naked person next to you. It's like, this really fucking worked? Yeah.

what there should have been a warning or something because like, yeah, we said better version, but like I, I would think like I'm turning into that. And then I turned back. okay every seven days i wouldn't think that another human is going to be birthed out of my back so like what if like i went into the bathroom to do this and you and the kids are just in the living room i will like there should have been some kind of warning

Well, but there should always be some kind of warning from you. I'm going to go here and try some weird things. Something might happen. Whatever you hear. But I mean, I guess when you look at the clay and everything, it is two separate things. Yeah, but the whole you're you, you're you, you're you. I just.

I don't think I would expect to give birth out of my spine. But the nurse was touching my spine uncomfortably. He's like, yeah, this is a perfect spine. This is a birthing spine I've ever seen in my life. Oh. But she looks with wonder at Sue, her face peaceful and her eyes closed with their blue mascara and subtle gold eyeliner. Elizabeth brushes Sue's hair away from her face for a better look.

We watch from above, but superimposed over the women are two eggs frying in a skillet, one over each of them until they fade away. This was awesome. Yeah. I'm a sucker for stuff like that. Fantastic. Elizabeth sits at the small table in her kitchen, hunched over her plate, grunting in pain when she has to reach for her drink.

In the bathroom, Sue lies in the same position, curled on the floor with the bag marked food, other self, hooked up to her arm. Elizabeth stands in the shower, the steady stream beating on the thick stitches lining her back. On the street, a motorcycle engine revs loudly as Elizabeth walks in her yellow coat putting on dark sunglasses.

When she reaches her destination, the shining-esque hallway, she stands at the end, watching as the last of her framed photographs is pulled out of sight. The walls are orange and bare. All the way at the other end, Harvey looks very small as he steps into view, carrying a box. His voice echoes. Oh, there she is. And he walks briskly, closing the gap between them as he asks where she's been. They've all been wanting to have a drink with her for her departure. How fucking dare you? Yeah

Elizabeth says nothing, but when Harvey thrusts the box into her arms, she accepts it. He rummages through the items inside to find something wrapped in Christmas paper with a red bow. He shares that they all chipped in and got her a little something to keep her busy. When we see what this is later, y'all all chipped in on this. That's Amazon 1299. That's crazy. I'm just. This is bullshit. He offers a smile, boasting that it's French and his wife swears by it. Oh, he loves his wife.

He drops the gift back in the box and consults his watch, realizing suddenly that he's got to run. He starts back the way he came, declaring that it's always great to see her. Harvey turns and walks away with Pep in his step, but Elizabeth watches after him, her face twitching as she seethes with rage. I remember when I watched it the first time I had told your sister, but watching it again and like every time I'm getting very...

Vince vibes from this dude, McMahon. Right. And I was just like, what's going on? No, it's there. It was the... strut yeah in this scene and we are talking about scumbag monsters so I mean maybe it's influenced yeah he fits he does yeah Sue still lies nude on the floor, but Elizabeth is sitting at her table with the calendar in front of her. She marks out the rest of the month, week by week.

Sue's weeks represented with her name scrawled on each day and Elizabeth's own days marked simply with an F. that said a lot to me she doesn't even get her name on there it's just an x almost like when i get to be exactly and this is her showing every intention of respecting the balance yeah yeah yeah

Elizabeth gets up and goes into the living room, but we stay in the kitchen, the walls separating the two blocking her from our view as she settles into her chair and cycles through the channels on the TV. With the click of a remote, we see palm trees outside, blowing in the delicate breeze of the night. And with another click, the palm tree stands in the bright sun of the day. Elizabeth is in the shower, her head down, the water running down her stitched back.

She sits at her table again in her white robe, flipping through the mail and sipping her coffee. But she sits up with renewed interest when she sees a black envelope, the yellow symbol in the middle. She opens it up to find a card with the words, the substance printed at the top. And it reads, your refill kit has been delivered to your deposit box, which is a concern that I had because we got a baggie. And they only last a week. Yeah. I think that something else is not knowing.

How solid this business is. We're trusting a lot. We're putting a lot of faith into this. No, they'll be around. They'll be around for years to come. But yeah, now this means though, I got to do this shit. all the time now. Yeah. And the other thing that really sucks is that not only do you have to deal, you're the only one that has to deal with any kind of back pain or anything. Yeah. You gotta run the errands and go and get it every goddamn other week. Yeah. Yeah. I also am like,

it's not and it was interesting to me we see no monetary exchange that's true no payment there's nothing there's payment there's payment but in money i thought that that was very interesting they're like we know what we're doing We linger on the message before cutting to Elizabeth, making the familiar journey in her yellow coat. She crouches to get under the stalled door and presses her 503 card to the 503 box. It flings open and presents her with her package marked 503.

In her apartment, she restocks the medicine cabinet with another week of food for her and Sue, as well as another stack of vials marked one through seven. We watch from behind her chair as she watches a nature program on TV. When she abandons this, she steps into the bathroom and walks past Sue to inspect the bag of food. There are two days left. With a sigh, Elizabeth retreats, turning off the light and shutting the door behind her, abandoning us in the darkness.

But when Sue opens the door, we are looking out at her from inside the fridge and everything is bright and vibrant. Exciting music plays as Sue sets the stabilizer applicator on the shelf and pops the top on a silver can of Diet Coke, condensation beating on its smooth surface. When she raises the can and takes a drink, the music pauses making way for her satisfied sigh, the fizzing of the drink inside the can. Everything is effervescent.

Everything is picture perfect. And the music picks back up as Sue closes the door to the fridge with her hip. And we follow her ass adorned in lacy pink panties as she saunters into the living room. She pauses, overlooking the city below, and she stretches dramatically as the music comes to an end. The juxtaposition of Elizabeth being like two days left. Yeah. Yeah. It's.

So sad. Like everything we said it before. It's like a commercial. It's bright. It's enticing. It's beautiful. Elizabeth, we're watching a palm tree outside as she clicks the TV from. And I don't know if this is when they start shifting, but the furniture in Elizabeth's apartment changes. Yeah. And it starts to appear more drab than it used to. And it's really selling this difference between the two lives lived. Yeah.

Sue notices that the TV is on and she goes over to look at an infomercial with a puzzled expression. She looks down at the chair, the center still depressed with Elizabeth's familiar weight. The remote is perched on the arm of the chair and Sue looks at it with contempt before picking it up and switching off the TV. She looks over at the framed photo of Elizabeth, beautiful, saved for its marred eye.

But she goes into the bathroom where Elizabeth is sprawled and naked on the floor, hooked up to her bag of intravenous nutrients. Her back is healing nicely, though. I didn't know. Gotta give her that. Yeah. She did do a good job on her back. Sue bites down on her lower lip, looking thoughtfully down at Elizabeth before turning and walking down the long blue hallway. She pauses and knocks on the wall.

In the kitchen she does the same hitting her knuckles against the tiled wall searching. She pushes the clothes to the side in the closet and does the same there hurrying off when it produces a hollow sound. Sue goes back into the bathroom, straight to the far wall, and she knocks again, hollow. Sue steps back to take a lingering look at it, an idea brewing.

We are suddenly in the pitch black again listening to a deep thudding sound. Finally, light pierces through when the wall in front of us gives way. Sue peeks in looking through goggles as she lowers a sledgehammer. We pan out to find a plethora of tools in the now under construction bathroom. Sue drills holes, hammers in nails, and all the while, Elizabeth lies on the plush carpeting in the living room, a towel draped over her.

I know we were one and everything, but Sue's like, well, that was Elizabeth's deposit. You did so. I'm not too worried. But boxes and boxes of furniture and decorations clutter the living room. Techno pulses and the palm tree presides stoically in the night as Sue welds hammers and drills. The palm tree is bathed in sunlight now, but the construction continues and suddenly a loud knocking is heard over the drill and a voice cries out, pleading that he hasn't slept in three nights.

Sue walks down the long hallway in her gold heart-shaped earrings, a kiss mark necklace, a baby blue crop top with the desert depicted, and the words, reality is not for me. I live in the clouds. The person continues banging on the door, demanding that she open it up. When she does, he has to cut off his frustrated God damn it at the sight of her. She gazes at him innocently as he interrupts himself with a gasp. Oliver, played by Gore Abrams, composes himself.

Gore Abrams, we talked about him in the Hell House LLC. Yes. I was so shocked. I was disappointed that I completely missed that this was him the first time I watched it. Honestly, yeah. But he's still horny. That didn't change. That does not change. He stammers out an apology with a nervous laugh, and he explains that he thought Miss Sparkle, but Sue cuts him off. Miss Sparkle moved out. She's the new tenant.

She offers her name as she extends her hand and Oliver clears his throat as he shakes it and has trouble pronouncing his own name in return. I would have been like, I'm her niece. Like I wouldn't have been, you're still going to see her. You will never see her again. That's a weird, weird tactic. repeating his name seductively sue's voice drips with innocence as she asks if he was wanting to complain about something

But Oliver insists that he wasn't. He thinks it's awesome when there's stuff going on in the building. Come on. He swallows hard before admitting that he's actually quite handy if she ever needs him to be of aid in any way. He's got a stack of tools and a big hammer. Sue raises her eyebrows at this, but Oliver chuckles that she knows what he means. Fuck off, dude.

He indicates the open door behind him and shares that he just lives right here. She knows where to find him. He snaps. Anytime. Finger guns. Day or night. He offers twin peace signs in a later. but sue slams the door before he even finishes the word this guy is fucking annoying as hell but Gore Abrams plays him so well. Like, it's kind of much needed comic relief. Yeah. Especially later. Yeah. He does a really good job here. I...

Wanted to mention that Margaret Qualley had said that she is lucky to have gotten to play a lot of weirdos and freaks in her career and has never had to play a character whose main trait is just being hot. Kind of like. Sue is here. And she acknowledged that it's women like Demi Moore and her mother who paved the way and made it possible for her. And I thought that was really cool.

But inside all of the furniture is unboxed and put in its proper place. But Elizabeth still lies on the floor. Sue crosses her arms, putting the one with the IV on top with the bag of food. She drags Elizabeth down the hall by her feet, her dark hair trailing on the carpet behind her. Once they're gone, we get a close-up of Elizabeth's portrait, the impact on her ruined eyes spidering out across her face in a starburst.

Still, she smiles, gazing across the living room and through the glass at Sue, lounging in her pink leotard on the billboard as she gazes back coyly. As Sue continues to pull Elizabeth into the bathroom, their likenesses seem to lock eyes with each other. The bathroom looks completely normal but when Sue presses on the wall, it swings open in a hidden door. Inside is a dark, vacant space, and it's here that Sue deposits Elizabeth.

This job done. She takes down the framed portrait and drags it down the hallway, leaving the billboard to reign supreme in their silent battle. It made me sad to see her take this down. Yeah. So you aren't my avatar anymore. Something's wrong. See, and I think that was the thing. Something's very wrong.

And I thought I was like, you know, they are sharing this consciousness and everything. And I was like, well, you know, that feels competitive. That feels, you know, and then you kind of have to go back and be like, no, this is Elizabeth. Yeah. So this is self-loathing. Yeah. This is not. competition from one side to the other. Yeah.

Elizabeth lies on the ground of this new room, naked, and Sue looks down at her from the doorway with a small smile. She finally closes the door, the small sliver of light cast upon Elizabeth, dwindling to nothing as it shuts. The blinding lights switch on in a studio and we see Sue posed in her pink leotard. As more switch on, we see her backup dancers wearing similar ones in bright colors.

Sue saunters out in front of giant pink words, pump it up. She passes more backup dancers and takes her place in the center. She grins. Hi everybody, I'm Sue and it's time to pump it up. We get a wide shot of Sue framed in the center of her dancers. The words pump it up standing tall and pink with the script edition of with Sue on the side. So they really took the same basic bear. She asks if the audience is ready before encouraging them. Let's go.

She winks a glittery eye before squatting down and swinging her long ponytail Her dancers follow suit in slow motion and techno pulses Sue continues with the routine we saw her teaching the dancers parts of. She shakes her hips, her ass. She swings her hair, squats, dips, twerks. They all lower themselves to the floor, writhing through their routine on the ground all while smiling. And the music asks us,

Don't you know you've got to pump it up? And this has been stuck in my head. No, it's an earworm. Sue leads the group in mostly slow motion, playing to the camera the entire time. They finished the song, excitedly running and posing with the huge pink letters. The routine finished. Sue once again takes center stage and thanks the audience so much. She promises I'll see you next week.

yeah that's the show we can film how many of these yeah yeah no 50 they're like take your little week off yeah we're fine we're through to october or whatever She starts to walk away but comes back to the camera with a giggle, adding, and in the meantime, take care of yourself. Sue kisses the tips of her fingers and blows the kiss directly at us with a wink. When the lights go off and the buzzer sounds, everyone cheers.

I can't help but imagine the viewer base who tunes in every week to work out with Elizabeth Sparkle turning on their TV and seeing this. It's different. It's very different. It's short. It's really short. But it's what? High intensity training? I guess so. And I try as I might, I cannot twerk in slow motion. I can't learn it. I can't figure it out. Is that the actual broadcast? When we see it later, I was fucking, the first time I watched this, we'll talk later, but I was dying laughing.

When the lights go off and the buzzer sounds everyone cheers. Harvey comes out excitedly, once again demanding to know, where is she? There she is. He takes Sue's hands, declaring that she was wonderful. They all applaud Sue when she takes a water bottle and a towel and saunders to the door. In the long orange hallway, she pauses to take a drink.

The camera swirls to find a pump it up poster next to her with Sue posed on it, looking back at herself. Only one framed poster lines the wall now, but Sue walks past it proud and confident. So Margaret Qualley is a trained dancer. And she said that when she read the script, she was imagining that this routine would be a lot more like what Elizabeth is doing at the beginning. Everyone knew the routine but her.

So when she started training with the choreographer and all the dancers, she completely broke down. She said that she couldn't stop crying and she had to lock herself in the bathroom. She had trained and lifted weights for six months to get ready to film this. She knew that there was going to be nudity. She knew that she would be dancing, but she's still doing this routine since she felt so much shame and embarrassment. that she had to learn it in one-on-one sessions with the choreographer.

She said that when it came time to film it, she was aided with, in her words, a little bit of weed and whiskey because she simply could not do this sober. Because it's ridiculous? Well, it's asking a lot. It's so hard. much and in this leotard that is like leaving nothing yeah like i get it and she's like a classically trained dancer i'm sure she was not expecting yeah i was just like because it exudes so much energy and confidence. I was so shocked to learn that she was like, I cannot do this.

Later, Synth pulses as she drags red lipstick across her lips. She pulls up the zipper on a skin-tight black bodysuit before sliding her feet into thigh-high black Louboutin boots. These heels clack on the tile as she strides into the bathroom. Again, the zipper over the spine. This imagery. Yeah, I guess she's got a date and then got to fight Batman after or some shit. Well, she does a lot in a week. She plaques these days tight. Seven days is not a long time. It's really not.

She goes into the secret room and lowers herself to her knees. Sue leans right above Elizabeth's staring face and promises her, I won't be out late, so just wait for me. She looks over at the bag of food, which is slowly draining the last of the one pouch into Elizabeth's IV. To flow into the tube, it drains past the word switch. Sue manipulates the bag with her fingers before warning Elizabeth, don't eat too fast. She stands and leaves, her high braid swinging as she closes the door behind her.

We watch through the slats in the vent as Sue turns off the bathroom light and we follow her heels as she walks down the street and climbs into the back of a red Mustang GT. The top is down and she sits high with her new friends, the backup dancers. They cheer and wave their hands excitedly as the Mustang drives off into the night.

This is going to be a problem. Yeah, a big problem. And you have a secret of this magnitude that you're switching into another body every week. I wouldn't have my friends pick me up at home. No, I'll meet you there. It's fine. But Elizabeth is left behind in the darkness of the secret room where the food is making its way down the tube. The apartment is dark and still, and so much time has passed that the moonlight spilling in through the huge windows has changed position on the wall.

The very last of the food moves slowly down the tube, sucking the bag flatter as it goes. The front door opens and closes, but it's clear that Sue isn't alone. We hear the clinking of glasses, footsteps, laughter. She puts on music. In the living room, a sleek black motorcycle helmet sits on the couch cushions while Sue and Troy, played by Oscar Lesage, stumble around the living room, drunkenly making out.

Sue pushes Troy back onto the couch and straddles him, teasing for a moment before the kissing resumes, their tongues mingling. Troy's hands cup her ass and quickly pull down the zipper in the front of her catsuit. But in the secret room, the bag is sucked dry and Elizabeth grunts as the plastic twists in on itself, her veins sucking and hungry for more.

So something wild that I read about the sound design, this was another way that they were making a connection between Sue and Elizabeth was through these two sounds. And so they have the sound of the bag coming to an end and sucked completely dry. And then they're like, well, we need to find a zipper. That when it's recorded at 96 kilohertz and slowed down.

it meshes well with the sound of this suction. Okay. And then they did the same thing with the leather catsuit. They were like, how do we make this sound mesh up well with the sound of the bag? Right. And so again, just these decisions that you wouldn't even think about. that you're just watching this scene play out, but behind the scenes in the background, they're like, we're connecting these things beyond what you could even comprehend. Yeah. That's wild.

And speaking of the catsuit with its like snakeskin detailing, once again, handmade for the film. Wow. Jeez. Sue is moaning in the living room as Troy squeezes her breath. He pulls off his shirt and she grins as she undoes his belt, the metal of the buckle clinking in her hand. In the secret room, the bag folds in and Elizabeth strains desperately for air. Listening to her suck, it is literally hard to hear. Sue looks down at Troy's bare stomach and spots of blood rain down on it.

She gasps as a high-pitched ringing sounds in her ear and blood pours from her nose. Everything is jittery as Sue pulls herself to unsteady feet. She pants, dazed, and Troy looks confused. He asks her if everything is all right, but Sue loses her footing and falls. The high-pitched whining fades away as she stands back up and assures him that she's fine. She'll be right back.

Sue runs down the long hallway clutching at the walls for support and still losing her footing and stumbling as she goes. Our view is jittery and spasming but she finds her way to the bathroom and locks the door behind her. Sue goes desperately into the secret room where Elizabeth's body racks with the need for air, the need for food. The plastic bag curls in further into a tight ball, pulling the last minute droplets down into the IV.

Sue grunts as she watches this and the scent from the video rings out. Crying out Sue stumbles back into the bathroom. She leans over the sink blood spilling into the white porcelain from her nose and mouth. She covers her ears at the whining and screeching and we get the words in frantic flashes. You switch every seven days without exception. From the living room, Troy asks if she's all right, but when she doesn't answer, he flops his head back, seemingly bored.

In the bathroom, Sue mulls over her options. She opens the lid to the bathroom trash to find all seven spent vials inside. She snatches one up. In the secret room, she rudely pushes Elizabeth over onto her side where she slumps. Sue arms the applicator with the number four vial and readies the needle above the already aggravated hole in Elizabeth's back. An ominous rumbling echoes and Sue contemplates for a moment, looking over at Elizabeth's staring face.

But still, she plunges the needle into the hole in Elizabeth's back and she winces as she pulls the plunger, filling the vial with the clear liquid from Elizabeth's spine. Sue grunts and groans, but she manages to stab the needle through the thin fabric over her thigh. She depresses the plunger and throws her head back in relief. All at once, the low tones and the ringing stop, overtaken by Sue's satisfied sigh. Her pupil contrasts. I'm stressed. Yeah. Why, Sue? Why? It's just so frustrating.

what you're risking without exception yeah you're told again and again you switch you switch you switch you see your body fighting to still survive Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe with no air, no food. The bag is curled in on itself. Yeah. Her back is already aggravated for what? Some what will probably be very average sex. I'm so bummed out. And he's just waiting in there like, now my pants are chasing me. It's like, come on.

When she straddles Troy on the couch, he looks up at her in awe and he asks, What did you do? You seem even more beautiful than before. Shut up. Just shut up. We're already going to have sex. I'm already here. Calm down. Sue fixes him with a look before leaning in for a kiss. Troy's hands wander over the mounds of Sue's ass before sliding up her back and finding the zipper.

Sue sighs and pleasure as he pulls it down. But what's revealed is not Sue's smooth back, but a mound of slick, wet organs and intestines. Freed now, they spill from the catsuit and squelch as they land, spilling blood onto the carpet. Hold on, all this meat's coming out of your back, baby. Just a quick break to figure that out. Yeah, we got to put that back before anything happens. Before anything happens. I love that you're still into it. We're here. Is that a deal breaker? Hold on.

Put those back first. Zip that back. I watched them do this when they came back with the lab. And this is a dummy in this cat suit packed with these fake organs and intestines. And when you unzip them, they film them spilling out. And then they filmed from above while they had them in like this big box and just dumped them down onto the carpet from like a high.

So that's how they fall and splatter. And it works so well. It just sounds so simple. Like we just put fucking guts in a dummy's back. And just let gravity do the work. Literally. In the secret room, Elizabeth wakes up with a ragged gasp. She sits sputtering. Sue lies nude next to her, and still in the grip of her horrific nightmare, Elizabeth checks her back. It's completely fine.

She clutches her pained head in size and she pulls on her white robe, groaning in pain while she pulls herself to her feet, leaving Sue behind with her IV. So at least it was a nightmare. Yes, thank God. Elizabeth is frustrated to find her living room littered with party evidence. Half eaten food, trash, glasses of wine and liquor, spent beer bottles. She eyes a sleek motorcycle helmet on a table by the window with the yellow sticky note stuck to the glass above it. She walks over to read it.

Too drunk to take the bike home. Keep an eye on her. Smiley face. Troy. 323-555-0199. Elizabeth reaches out to take the sticky note with her right hand, but at the sight of it, a high-pitched note rings out, and she pulls her hand back with a gap. Ominous tones rumble and grow distorted as Elizabeth raises her hand to get a better look. Her index finger is gnarled with AIDS.

The nail yellowed and thick and the skin knobby and mottled. Horrified, Elizabeth flexes and curls her fingers. The affliction dips past her knuckle and down onto the back of her hand, but the rest of her fingers are normal. Panting and panicked, Elizabeth runs down the hall and into the bathroom. She scrubs at her finger in the sink but it's clear that this is not something that can be washed away.

She inspects the decrepit finger closely before pulling her robe open and twisting to get a look at her back in the mirror. The flayed flesh has healed impressively into a scar along her spine, but in the center, at the insertion point for the needle, the skin is agitated and red. Her fingers barely touch it and she grunts loudly in pain, pulling her hand away.

Angry, she breathes heavily, looking into the secret room at a slumbering Sue, the small applicator and doubly used vial number four lying on the ground just past the bag of her food. So fuck Sue forever is what I'm feeling. Because I was looking at this and I was like, I don't even know if that's aged or elderly. I'm like, Skylar, it's got rot. Yeah, it looks terrible. corpsey yeah it's like zombie finger yeah I'd be so mad I'd be fucking pissed and I feel like wouldn't this make me kind of

rethink going back to doing this again. And I think this is where I started to get a little confused because I'm like, she has no recollection of any of this. Yeah. So it's not as if she's enjoying herself and she's like, well, I got to deal with the consequences of having a fun night as Sue or whatever. But she's pissed. Yeah. She's looking at this and she's like, I don't remember having a fucking who's Troy. Yeah. Yeah.

I did want to talk about this finger for a second because reading and watching interviews with Persaud, this is where it all started. He was obsessed with getting the finger right. He said that this is the audience's first taste of something like this. Well, you know, learn. But he said that it's like the first note of a song. If it's bad, then the song is bad. Okay.

He said he made one, but it looked too much like an E.T. finger and he hated it. So he started it again from scratch and it took him a month to perfect it. And because he's like, this has to blend and look realistic under the harsh lighting. Because again, he's like, this is not horror lighting. This is not beauty lighting. This is harsh. like fluorescent bathroom lights. And it had to be able to stand up to Demi Moore scrubbing the finger under the water.

Which is like, she was. No, it looks good. And according to Demi Moore, it took three hours for them to put this on her hand. Unbelievable. I did see an interview with Kraken, the cinematographer, and he had said very similarly about the lighting having to accommodate for this level of prosthetic work. And they were shooting 200 millimeter.

macro on that really tight shot of that finger and so the detail of it he's like this is just a testament to how incredible that work is yeah because to stand up to that close of a shot it's unbelievable unbelievable is what i was about to say because there are several things going forward that I'm like, how the fuck did they do that? Thinking about it, maybe that is what really kind of what I enjoyed.

about this movie because the camera angles and the lighting aren't like what we're used to and the movie everything we're seeing in these shots and uh these the crazy shit and whatever it all really still stands up and it looks good in these conditions yeah and you think like when things like this happen when you have uh at least the beginnings of a body horror situation shadows yeah yeah none here yeah

Elizabeth sits at her table looking at Sue's giant billboard as she makes a phone call. It rings in her ear until a deep voice answers. Yes. She informs him that this is Elizabeth Sparkle, and she's met with resounding silence. She follows up with, I'm 503, and the man immediately answers, yes. And this is what Farge was talking about with this weird like disconnected black market anonymousness of because you're not Elizabeth Sparkle. You're 503. Like I don't I don't give a fuck.

What your name is, you know what I mean? Well, I'm sure it's easier if you're a number and not a name. Yeah, that part. Flexing the fingers on her weathered hand, Elizabeth admits that there's been a slight misuse of the substance. A few extra hours were accidentally used, causing an alteration. She's just looking for the procedure to reverse it. Which is bold. Yeah. If you could just point me in the direction of this. Send me some cream. It'll reverse it. Because I know you have it. Yeah.

The voice answers coldly that what has been used on one side is lost on the other side. There is no going back. Elizabeth looks down at her hand. She scoffs, refusing this notion. Looking up at Sue's face on the billboard, she stammers. I don't know what she was thinking. Obviously, she was drunk. But the voice tells her, remember, there is no she and you. You are one. He reprimands her. Respect the balance and you won't have any more inconveniences. And he promptly ends the call.

These are all instructions that you've been told before. Yeah. You were told initially, you know, so it's like. Damn. Yeah. One of those. I can only be mad at me. I think it was on the video too. It was. Before I was even a customer. Elizabeth gets up, angrily knocking her chair to the side as she steps into the living room. She takes the sticky note from the window and balls it up before tossing it into a trash bag.

She takes the helmet and flings it into the hallway where it bounces on the carpet before rolling to a stop. Inside, Elizabeth vacuums, but she's staring at her twisted finger gripping the handle. Something catches her eye that causes her to pause the vacuuming and finally stop, completely switching it off. She's standing in front of the TV and while we can't see it yet, we do hear the upbeat pulsing of music as the song reminds us. Don't you know? Don't you know? You've got to pump it up.

Elizabeth sinks down into the chair and watches Pump It Up with Sue. The lively music grows distorted in her ears as she is subject to the close-up of Sue's dances, her poses, her body, her smile, her stare. And finally, her blowing a kiss and winking directly at Elizabeth before her face breaks into a smile. The unsettling rumbling hiding her giggle. Finally, it all comes to a stop when Elizabeth brings her withered finger down on the power button of the remote, shutting off the TV.

So you can't even get mad at her for stealing your bit because you stole your bit. Exactly. Right? Abruptly, the doorbell starts to ring repeatedly. Elizabeth goes over and peers through the peephole to find Oliver crying out for Sue. This is hilarious to me that he was over there watching the 32nd episode of Bump It Up and then sprinted across the hall. This dude is fucking ridiculous.

But he bounces and chuckles, admitting that he just saw her show and holy moly, it makes him want to join her class. Elizabeth stares with the wide eye as Oliver leans in closer to the door, asking cheekily if she gives private lessons. He laughs before floating out the idea that maybe she could come have drinks at his house tonight. He grins, telling her not to be shy and adding, I can see you standing behind the door there, gorgeous.

If she's not opening the door. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's also very creepy. I know you're home. God, go the fuck away. But finally, he relents, throwing up his hands and bidding her to take her time. But it's a date. He twirls on his heels, dancing his way back to his apartment, singing the Pump It Up song as he goes. It's a lot. It's great. Yeah, it's his own falsetto. It's the remix.

When he finally shuts the door, Elizabeth lets the peephole cover swing closed and a disjointing creaking score cries out. She stands dejectedly under the stream of her shower before we close in on a note on the counter. Your refill kit has been delivered to your deposit box. Imagine going to that and then like you were saying, T, if we don't remember what happened the night before.

seeing this dude and being like, are you fucking talking to the neighbor? Right. Sue, what the fuck is this? Yeah, that's true. Because you don't remember it. And then he's there like, I know you're there dancing. I was like, dude, for real? What are we doing here? Yeah, what the hell is this?

I did notice, and I don't know if it's maybe the door or whatever, but these shower scenes, I noticed from right here, it just looks like there's no door. It's just four walls surrounding her. It does. Like she's trapped. Right, and she is. Yeah. Elizabeth hurries down the street in her yellow coat and dark sunglasses, but now brown leather gloves are pulled over her hands.

The echo of barking dogs mingles with the unsettling score, but Elizabeth finally makes it to her destination. She presses her 503 key on the 503 box and the door flings open, revealing her 503 package. Elizabeth jumps at the sound of a disembodied cough, but when she turns around, she is alone in the stark white room. Strange sounds ring out, low and high, and Elizabeth jumps at each one of them. She snatches the package from the deposit box, closes the door and flees.

She runs down the alley, shooting frantic glances behind her before finally ducking into a diner. She sits down nervously at one of the empty tables. The other patrons pay her no mind but Elizabeth is skittish and afraid. She hurries to another table further from the door and sits down. She pulls off her sunglasses and her left glove with the trembling hand, but she pauses before she can take off the right one.

A server, Allison, played by Charlotte Murray, comes over asking what she can get Elizabeth. Her voice is friendly, but all the same, Elizabeth gasps, startled. She looks up at Allison, who smiles down at her, her pen and pad at the ready. On the spot, Elizabeth stammers out an order for a mocha latte, and Allison's smile is unwavering when she jots this down. With the nod, she departs, revealing an older man sitting alone at a table behind her.

The man, played by Christian Erikson, looks at her with some sympathy. It's long, isn't it? Elizabeth is confused, but after a quick glance around, the man clarifies, seven days. Elizabeth looks down at the port wine birthmark on the back of the man's hand and remembers it on the hand of the nurse, handing her back her yellow coat. Now the man drops her a wink, but he also drops his wallet.

The cards inside spill on the floor along with the white card with the black number printed at its center. 207. The man gathers it all back up, but once he's leaned down in his chair, Elizabeth can clearly look down the collar of his shirt and see a lung and twisted scar tracing his spine. I'm sorry for laughing. We'll unpack this in a minute. He looks up at Elizabeth and she sees the nurse again looking at her with blue eyes.

Her voice hushed. Elizabeth asks if he followed her here, and he admits that he just wanted to see how things were going for her. Each time you feel a little more lonely, don't you think? Elizabeth counters that she doesn't know what he's talking about she's fine everything's fine She stirs the whipped cream into her latte with a shaking hand, the spoon clinking clumsily against the mug. But the man continues. He asserts that it gets harder each time to remember that you still deserve to exist.

That this part of yourself is still worth something. That you still matter. Elizabeth glances up at him fearfully before dropping a 10 on the table, grabbing her things and heading toward the door. But the man calls out to her, stopping her in her tracks when he asks, has she started yet? Elizabeth turns to look at him as he spits out his clarification. Eating away at you?

Now, Elizabeth does flee from the diner, but I do. I think that this film is absolutely brilliant and I will, I'm sure, gush probably a little too long at the ending the reasons why I feel that way. If I just had like a pair of tweezers. I would pull out some of the heavy handedness of this interaction with this man.

It's almost, it's comical. It is. It is. I feel like we get it. It is just one thing after another. And it is, it's one of those things that if you have been paying attention, all you need, you got the birthmark. Yeah. I don't need him also dropping his car. Yes. The second later. Yeah. Because the birthmark, that's the nurse. Then he drops the card and we see that it's the same number, the one that she saw in the warehouse. Yes. Before she picked up hers.

I think that's the nurse. Then we peer down the collar of his shirt and see the birthing scar. Oh, he also gave birth out of his back. Yeah. Yeah, it is back to back to back. And it's like what he's saying is enough. I think. Yeah. I would love if we had these lines and. The birthmark wasn't even a focal point. It's just there. And if you notice it, you notice it. But I feel like what he's saying is enough.

yeah it just smells like so much he's like I'm also on the substance yes we know that was me coughing in that room like what But I do like everything else around the scene. The point of the scene, as you're saying. Yeah. I love the Carpenter-esque music in the score. Okay. During the scene, it feels horrific. that he's saying this because it's exactly what she's experiencing yeah even if she doesn't want to admit it right now maybe because it does happen fast so maybe they were just hoping that

This is over an hour in. Let's remind you real quick and then move on. But it's like, I promise, dude. I promise I remember that. Yeah, there's only so much. are people that we've had interactions with. True. Yeah, I was going to say, you're the only person I've talked to about the substance. Yeah. But I think what he's saying here, you know. kind of hilariousness of the scene aside, is very troubling, is very interesting, is very...

This is what she's experiencing. You still deserve your moment. You're weak. Like you're still a person. Yeah. Because I mean, we were talking earlier about even the way that. The Sue Weeks and the Elizabeth Weeks are shot very... boring and drab and we're paying more attention to the palm tree outside. We're eating and watching TV and whatever.

And everything that Sue does is a fucking music video. It's a commercial. Yeah. Like you still, you deserve your music video moments too. But it's like, it's. she's not yeah all it is is just a countdown until she can be yes again yes but for sue it's like oh now i gotta go back and i gotta suck every last day yes and then maybe even steal yeah another one which thinking about it that but you do you are conscious of what's fixing to happen

Just respect the balance. You know I'm going to have to go back. I don't understand. Like that, that's for me, what's a little confusing. about like i said the avatar thing and then like we were kind of talked about before because if we are damn i'm gonna sit here until i gotta be sue damn i gotta go back to being lizzie yeah you know why like it's just like This is your learning experience. Like maybe this should even make you appreciate.

who you are a little bit more yeah because yeah you fucked up you overindulged now you have zombie finger let's learn from this experience yeah and move forward And maybe that's what will happen. Yeah. We'll see. Yeah. The Substance is a film about learning your lesson. Yes. As Jigsaw would say, cherish your life. But Elizabeth runs away out of the diner and onto the sidewalk where she runs directly into someone when she turns to look back the way she came. The person screams fuck.

As he drops his helmet and it rolls away. He yells at her to watch out. And this is when Elizabeth sees that it's Troy. And the recognition she does remember him. She does. He snatches up the helmet and turns back to Elizabeth, who stares at him with her mouth agape. He challenges her angrily. What? We spin around Elizabeth as Troy pulls on his helmet and mounts his bike. reflected in his visor and when he booms at her to move She stumbles out of the way and Troy speeds off.

This guy's a fucking piece of shit. Yeah. Yeah. It reminded me what we were talking about with Harvey where it's like, oh, you can be accommodating. Yes. Yeah. You can be. Yes. Only to, you know, like it's just, it's really shitty. Yeah. And it's like, I get it, dude. You just spent the night with this girl. You did a leave behind. You came back to get your helmet. She threw it in the hallway. I would be upset too.

feelings would be hurt feelings would be hurt this lady did nothing to you no like this was a lot this was a lot Back at her apartment, Elizabeth deadbolts the door with a gloved hand before rummaging through her closet. She pulls down shelved boxes marked Old Junk Elizabeth. i would like to know when that was written yeah that is true But she throws them to the floor before rifling through. She dumps out old purses, spilling out business cards, loose dollars, chains.

Finally, she dumps a red bag with a grunt and out comes a ripped piece of paper. It's dried stiff with muddy water, but the writing is still clear. Fred 323-555-0102. Elizabeth holds up this paper and Fred's face floats over it, his smile beaming when he tells her, you're still the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world. Elizabeth can't help but smile at this as she slides the paper beneath her robe to press it to her heart.

Later, she phones Fred as she sits in the bathroom. When she tells him that it's Lizzie, it's only silence on the other end. After being prompted with a hello, Fred admits that he's in shock. Elizabeth lets out a relieved laugh and Fred lets loose a flurry of wow, wow, wow.

He never thought he'd hear from her again. But Elizabeth dismisses this. She's just been really busy lately. As her gnarled finger traces the paper with his phone number, she shares that she was thinking maybe they could get together and grab a drink. Again, she receives silence and when she asks if he's still there, he chuckles that he's in shock again. He immediately offers to book a table at Luigi's at eight.

Elizabeth is game and she accepts the invitation with a big smile. Once the call is ended, she lets out a sigh of relief. I know it seems like he did not expect the call and he's very, very pleasantly surprised, of course. Yeah. But just talking about it now, I realize that it's been at least like three to four weeks since they saw each other. Yeah. Oh, sure. She seemed a little surprised that she was calling him too. She was. She did too, but it almost felt like she listened to what?

He said. Yes. And she's like, look, this guy. I'm sure made her feel good even though he's a, he's a, you know. little oh my god you know yeah that's got to make you feel good you're still the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world you've known me since what do you say fucking 10th grade homeroom yeah homeroom yeah it's like

Okay, maybe we give Fred a little chance. Maybe we go have a drink. It feels like she was actually taking to heart. Yeah, maybe I do deserve to feel good or have a good time or leave the house. You know? Yeah. I think that is just what sets this next section up to be so heartbreaking. Yes. Because it's also like she was taking the advice of the nurse where he's like, you deserve this time too. Exactly.

But later, we glide over a graveyard of abandoned outfits in Elizabeth's room to find her standing in a mirror in a red Balmain dress. Her aged finger aids in zipping up the back, but the finger is hidden when she pulls on long black gloves. Elizabeth admires her reflection with a small smile before leaving the room.

And again, a zipper up the back of the stress. Yes. Zipper up the back of the catsuit. A completely open back before all of this happened when she was at the bar. These are all very conscious costume design choices. In the bathroom, she applies red lipstick and checks herself out one more time. She glances at the clock, 7.30. Before she can leave the bathroom, she catches the door to the secret room ajar. Elizabeth goes to close it, but when she looks inside at Sue, she pauses in the doorway.

Her eyes scan over Sue's effortlessly smooth skin, the subtle iridescent shimmer of her eyeshadow, the pink glittery gloss on her lips. Standing in the doorway, her confidence visibly wavers. Her heels clacking on the tile, Elizabeth steps back to the mirror. She takes a long look at her reflection, leaning close to examine her skin. She dusts more blush over her cheeks and drags a shining gloss along her red lips. She glances at the clock, 7.35. Satisfied, she turns off the light.

She goes into her bedroom and pulls on her yellow coat and she stops at the door to her apartment when the keys aren't in her pocket. She eyes them on the end table in the living room and she is still wearing a small smile when she goes to pick them up. But when she does, she locks eyes with the billboard outside of her window. of Sue gazing back at her. Elizabeth's smile drops and we zoom in closer as she scans the toned body beneath Sue's pink cutout leotard and linger on her perky cleavage.

The light comes back on in the bathroom and Elizabeth stands in front of the mirror. Now her eyes drop to her own chest, displayed by the low neckline of her dress. She tries to pull the red fabric up to conceal herself, but when that doesn't work, she grabs a silk scarf. She glides it behind her neck and pulls it down to cover her decolletage. She glances at the clock.

The scarf in place, she harshly wipes away her red lipstick. She dots concealer around her lips before applying it up her cheeks too. And she blends it before glancing at the clock. 7.45. Elizabeth reapplies her blush, reapplies her red lipstick. She frantically blends the blush with her gloved fingertips. She fusses over her hair now, swiping at the pieces framing her face before letting out a shaky sigh and finally turning off the light.

Her yellow coat swishes as she pulls it on, stomping down the hallway and toward the front door. She snatches up her purse, but when Sue's billboard is revealed behind it, she stops in her trap. Her fingers touch the door handle, but Sue's billboard is omnipresent, hovering just beyond the window, reflected in the mirrors, tattooed in Elizabeth's mind.

Her breath is shaky as she looks down at her own reflection in the shiny door handle. Distorted rumbling mounts uncomfortably but it cuts off when the light cuts back on in the bathroom. Elizabeth stands in the mirror and angrily rips the scarf from around her neck. Deep notes pulse as she wipes away her lipstick, smearing it across her face.

She continues roughly dragging the tissues across her mouth, her cheeks, her face. And finally, she loses her grip on it and lets it fall, using her hands instead to roughly abuse the skin of her face. She rips at her lashes, pulls at her skin, swipes roughly She pulls her hair loose and it cascades, whipping wildly as she continues breaking down in the mirror, her skin red and raw, her eyes smeared with black and pained.

In a film where we see a lot of gruesome and devastating things, this might be the most heart aching. Absolutely. For me. sadly relatable and you you just watch everything crumble away like she felt good about herself yeah and then she looks in at sue compares herself like even just going back and putting on gloss because sue had glossy lips yeah it's just

Oh, wow. Her boobs look like that. Mine don't. OK, let me cover them. It's just it hurts to watch. And just this complete breakdown. And it this is very. just heartbreaking no it really really is and it's it's kind of what we were talking about earlier like you were saying comparison i had mentioned that old quote that comparisons the thief of joy yeah you watch just this Perfect representation of how society just kind of forces these.

comparisons and these ideas of physical perfection onto you every single day. It's a million different ways that it just makes you zero in on these perceived imperfections that aren't even true right and you see them because of what's been forced upon you You start to hate things about yourself that are absolutely lovable. You start to become self-conscious about things that should not be even a thought.

and you engage in this self-loathing and it's this cycle it's just a very vicious thing and this is like the perfect I don't think I've ever seen it on film better. Yeah. And she talks about not, there is not a word spoken and you don't need it. Like the story, the feelings, everything is portrayed perfectly. Just watching this few minutes of her. OK, I'm ready to go. OK, wait.

Okay, fuck. Okay, let me go. It's just, it's devastating. Yeah, I, the kids, I guess, I hope I'm using it right. She had a crash out. the kids would say, but it, it, it is that, and it, it did, it did make me kind of sad because, Fred asked you out. He didn't ask Sue. He didn't say Sue was the most beautiful girl in the world. He said you did. And it is that when we... look at things that we think everybody wants us to be, it does stop us from progressing in who we are, really.

And that was, it was sad. That's really all I can think of because it is that dude's waiting or he called and he's like, I'm fucking excited, dude. You got ready. And then because you decided to look back.

you it stopped you and then really i mean use it use it what is it uh use it as fuel you you stay asleep there sue i'm gonna fucking go out that's a way yeah don't eat too fast yeah that's exactly what sue did yeah And I feel like we've had several instances of her in the bathroom at work and in this bathroom where we've watched her be so hypercritical over herself.

And this is kind of the first time we've seen her look in the mirror and get ready. And she's smiling when she goes to leave. It's just, it hurts my heart. It's so hard to watch. But. I read an interview with Stephanie Guillon. She was the key makeup artist. And Demi Moore said herself that they did this about 10 times. Good Lord. And Stephanie Guillon said that she's never done this before.

working on a set ever but after like the 10th or 11th time Farge was like okay let's do it again and she was like can we not She's like, you have 10. You can find something from the 10. She was like, she's going to hurt herself. Her skin is going to be all raw and puffy tomorrow. She was like, can we please stop? I was the way that she was pawing at her own face. Yeah. She's going to poke her fucking eye out. Like I was terrified. She rips her lashes off. That's what I was worried about.

It's hard to watch. Yeah. She said that she's never kind of crossed that line before ever. And she was like, please stop this. Like, don't make her do this again. I know you were influenced by Kubrick, but... This is not the takeaway! We cut to Elizabeth in her white robe, sitting at the edge of her bed as she did in the doctor's office, leaning forward with her back to us. We dip down to her cell phone on the nightstand as it buzzes with incoming texts from Fred.

I'm at the restaurant. Are you running late? I know a big star like you likes to make an entrance. Smiley face. Are you okay? Elizabeth just sits in the dark of the room staring forward and we watch from inside the fridge when she opens it. The jovial voice of a game show host radiating from her TV in the background. There are cups of yogurt, a slice of quiche, a roasted chicken, waffles. Elizabeth takes the quiche and shuts the door.

I thought it was very sweet that he simply asked, are you okay? Yeah. I feel like everybody else that she's dealt with is treating her like this commodity and that... She is only good for one thing. Yeah. But he is literally as like a human being. Are you OK? Yeah. Yeah. That's so sad. And then I imagine that dude sitting there at the table by himself. Yeah. It's just. Sad all the way around.

But we cut to Sue happily walking on the set of Pump It Up, her ponytail bouncing when she tells everyone hello. She takes her place in the center of the tableau, and once everything is rolling, she begins her routine. She enthusiastically leads the group and the audience in squatting, circling their hips, contracting their core. dropping their head between their legs.

So at least she is teaching. Yeah. I was going to say the first episode was just more of an introduction. It was more of a twerk out. This is actually a workout. Well, kind of. It takes a turn. Yeah. less slow motion twerking but you know She is all smiles when she drops down to demonstrate this, but something squelches as it pops out of the side of her ass cheek. raising the smooth skin in a distorted lump. Hate it when that happens. I know. Isn't that the worst?

Sue's smile drops and her expression is horrified. She lets out a squeak as she jumps back up. The dancers look concerned, but when Sue looks back at her butt and feels the skin there, it is completely normal. The second assistant director, played by Oscar Salem, is confused, and Sue continues to feel her butt cheek. She stammers out an apology. She thought that... She lets the explanation fall away and she giggles that she just got distracted.

The director yells that it's fine and instructs them to get back to one. But when the assistant director, played by Jordan Ford Silver, whispers in his ear, he pulls the order back. The pause is coming from the control room now because they saw something bizarre on the monitor. That took me out. Just the description. It is bizarre. It is bizarre.

Sue looks very nervous and when the director orders the replay to be brought up on camera two, she turns in terror to see that it's a camera completely closed in on her ass. They press forward on the footage and Sue's ass shakes. squats, dances. Watching this, she tries to pull the barely there fabric of her leotard to conceal her cheek. But when she can't, she calls out for her dressing gown.

Her assistant, played by Vivian Bassina, offers an apology because it's in Sue's dressing room and she snaps at her. Well, then go and get it. Her assistant scurries away and the director suggests that they take it frame by frame. Sue watches her ass in agonizing slow motion with everyone else as she drops down into a squat.

On the monitor, not right now. The assistant returns with her dressing gown and helps her into its silken comfort. And Sue announces that she needs five minutes as she stomps off the set. The assistant returns with her dressing gown and helps her into its silken comfort. Sue announces that she needs five minutes as she stomps off the set, down the long orange hallway and into her dressing room, where she slams the door behind her and locks it.

Here she rips off the gown and lets it fall to the floor as she bends to further inspect her butt cheek. Now when she touches the skin there is something hard and firm that squelches beneath her fingers. She manipulates the mass up past the thin strap of her leotard and over to her exposed stomach. When it's in position, she briefly hesitates before pushing her fingers into her belly button. I hate everything. It's hard for me to even read this.

The sounds are muffled as she pushes her fingers in deeper past the first set of knuckles and then the second. Her eyes are focused and her face is set and determined as she continues to dig. She finally cries out and screams when she's able to pull something out. Slick and shiny, a roasted chicken leg. Freed from the invasion, her belly button shrinks back and puckers, and the chicken glistens in Sue's hand. And she wakes up in the secret room with a scream.

So I just want to commend the sound design of this section. It is exactly what it needed for the moment. It is absolutely disgusting. Yes. I will say if it wasn't for her waking up and us realizing that this is her like. nightmare, the film might have lost me. Because I'm like, what the hell, what the hell is this? Yeah. I'll allow it. I need an explanation. Yeah. I just need an explanation because it is, it's weird.

and i think you're right it being a dream is like okay you know i don't need to know that was just a bad dream but yeah if this was real i tell me before i do just Throw this away. Because I need to know why you're doing that. Because I know Elizabeth's eaten well, living her best life. Yeah. But... Well, I mean, if I'm eating a lot of chicken, I feel good. I feel good.

But it's like you're not connected like that. Right. Right. Yeah. So I was like, OK, but at least it's this and it's fine. Yeah. It is still interesting, though, that it seems like they're both having these. Yeah. You know, I mean, and it's not even both. Elizabeth is having these. I was going to say, remember the balance? Yes. I'm forgetting. Yeah. That's what, again, you have to keep reminding yourself as it goes on. Even though the voice is like, bitch.

you're one. Yeah. We're like, the suit sucks. You sure about that? But Sue's hands immediately go to her stomach and her butt. Everything there is normal. She looks with disdain over at Elizabeth, who is asleep next to her, her lips and fingers still shiny with grease and crumbs. Sue pulls on her gorgeous robe and goes into the living room where her eyes go wide at the sight of Elizabeth's binging.

Crumbs are scattered on the floor and next to her chair in front of the TV are trays cluttered with food. The picked clean carcass of the roasted chicken, the waffles, sauces, wrappers, popcorn, candy, potatoes, sausages. Sue snatches up a plate and we watch from inside the trash when she dumps it in.

Elizabeth had a housekeeper. Yeah. Yeah. I noticed that when she was vacuuming. Yeah. I mean, but she, she can't really have her around. Oh yeah. Don't, don't go in that room. Don't go in that room. And also I'm not going to be here every other week. My niece is gonna. There you go. Yeah. Sue walks along on her phone past the rows of palm trees. And when the deep voice on the other end answers, yes.

She yells that this balance is not working. She barely has any time to enjoy herself while she wastes her seven days eating in front of the TV. In his measured tone, the voice reminds her, remember, there is no she and you. You are. But Sue ends the call with a scream. At the studio, she strides in happily in her pink leotard, but her hello everybody dies off when she finds the studio empty, except for a stagehand played by Ryan Chidester packing up equipment.

When Sue asks where everyone is and what's going on, he tells her simply that the taping's been canceled. Sue asks why, and all he can offer is a shrug. But the floor runner, played by Matthew Luray, appears behind her, startling her when he calls her name. She whips around and he tells her that Harvey wants to see her in his office right now. Sue stammers that she'll go change, but the floor runner tells her no. He said now.

And so Sue is still in her pink cutout leotard and leg warmers when she nervously steps into Harvey's office. One suited man sits on the couch next to the door and the other two flank Harvey's desk where he sits with his back to her. I'm like, what the hell are these? What are we doing? I don't know.

As she approaches, he spins in his chair smoking a cigarette. He leans in on his desk and Sue's face is stricken with fear when he offers to get right to the point. They can't keep her on the morning show. Sue's lips tremble, but she asks to know why she just started. Harvey giggles that the ratings are through the roof. They started at 42 and now they're up to like when he breaks off in a chuckle, the suited men supply the number in unison to 16. Harvey cries out that that's phenomenal.

sue forces out a relieved laugh but her eyes are still brimming with tears harvey asserts that people love her they adore her they want more and more and more of her Sue swipes her tears away as Harvey gets to his feet, sharing that this is why they've decided to let her host the New Year's Eve show. Sue's eyes go wide and she starts to stammer out some clarification, but Harvey reiterates it for her. The network's biggest show, 50 million viewers live. You can't go higher than that.

When he said live, I was like, oh, fuck. Triumphant music swells as Sue giggles again. Harvey sits back down and admits that it's going to be intense and they only have a few months to pull it off. So, are you in? The camera presses in on Harvey before going back to Sue, whose stunned face breaks and a wide smile. The music dies and we cut to Sue, pulling open the door to the secret room wearing a pink tank top and a white skirt.

She kneels behind Elizabeth, armed with the needle. She peels back the Band-Aid, concealing the moist and open hole on her spine as she confesses, if you don't open the door when opportunity knocks, you won't get another chance. You of all people know this. Again, she's talking to herself. Elizabeth's body rocks when Sue plunges the needle inside again, filling a vial with the clear fluid, and she closes the door with a shrug.

When it opens again, she's wearing a white tank top and a light blue skirt. She kneels next to Elizabeth with a smile, offering that she just needs one more day. Then she has the whole week off and they can switch. She pulls the bandaid off of Elizabeth's back and what's beneath has gotten much worse. The dark radius around the open sore has doubled and troubling darkened veins radiate from it.

Even Sue grimaces at this, but still, she slides the long needle into the wet center of the wound until she can't go any further. When she fills the vial, the fluid looks a little less clear to me. Yeah. But all the same, Sue happily hurries out of the room. Farge said specifically she wanted this kind of spreading around the wound to look like poison. Like spreading poison. I hate every time she puts that thing in her back. You like wince. Yeah.

When she slides the door open again, she's in a yellow dress. There are 15 empty and scattered vials on the floor when she kneels next to Elizabeth. She tells her excitedly, we're doing the cover of Vogue. She clicks the violin to place, promising just one more day, okay? She peels back the bandage and everything is worse. The radius has spread larger, the veins are darker and farer reaching, and the wound itself is festering, weeping something thick and yellow.

The tip of the needle has to plunge through this and the crusted blood around the sore. But still, Sue pushes it through. She even suppresses a gag, shoving it in the rest of the way. Elizabeth's eye stares endlessly as Sue fills the vial. Bag secured, Sue leaves the secret room. In her robe, she flops back on the silken sheets of the bed and poses dramatically as she falls asleep.

But we cut to the bathroom where the door to the secret room is ajar. After some coughing, we hear Elizabeth's agonized scream. No! The showerhead sputters as it rains down. We travel down Elizabeth's leg past the blue climbing veins to the drooping spotted and weathered skin that makes up her left leg below the knee. Her foot is aged and warped with long yellow toenails.

I loved how much the sputtering water changed the atmosphere of this scene. Just something that small. It's almost like a flickering light. Yeah. Elizabeth looks down at this in sheer horror, her wet hair looking thinner, half of her face looking haggard. She raises a desperate hand and slaps it against the wall, and we see that this too has aged severely. all the way up to the elbow. The wound in her back is large and dark as she leans forward, bracing herself on the wall. So she is looking.

really bad yeah um her arm her leg and half of her face They said that this look took five to six hours of application. Wow. Damn. The prosthetics had to be super thin because it's blending in with her face. Right. Persant talked about making the veins on Photoshop. And transferring them onto Demi Moore's skin like a temporary tattoo. Wow. And then doing a translucent silicone over the top of it. And then obviously there was prosthetic work. And this, it looks amazing.

And again, like we talked about with the scrubbing of the finger, she's literally under the faucet of the shower. She's in the shower. Yeah. And they talked about Demi Moore just being a trooper, that she never complained. She would sit through the makeup. Most of the time holding her little chihuahua and would just sit there telling stories, laughing like she they said a lot of people, you know, I think understandably get.

kind of crazy sitting in that chair for that long yeah but she and she said something about uh using like meditative breathing and stuff that she was just hanging out Later, she sits in the kitchen, Sue's smiling face gazing at her from the glossy cover of Vogue magazine, when a familiar deep voice answers, yes.

We finally see Elizabeth, her white teeth now dingy and cracking, her thick black hair now wiry and graying, the white half of her face drooping and aged. She yells, she didn't respect the balance. The magazine mockingly boasts, the rising star. Elizabeth tells the man on the other end, she's stealing more and more time from me, completely without consideration to the consequences. She swipes the magazine off of the table, declaring she's a selfish bitch.

The voice asks calmly, would you like to stop? Elizabeth trembles when she asks. Stop. And the voice explains that Elizabeth is the matrix. If she's not satisfied, she can put an end to the experience and go back to just being her on her own. Elizabeth looks out the window at the Sioux billboard when the voice asks again, would you like to stop?

Flexing her withered hand, Elizabeth asks hopefully if it will really go back to the way it was before. Which I'm like, girl, nobody. In fact, he told you the opposite. The voice reminds her that what has been transferred won't come back, but she can stop the experience as of now. Would she like to stop and go back to just being her on her own? Elizabeth looks down at her aged foot, then up at Sue when she admits, no, I can't stop.

She starts to talk. She, but with a loud screech, the words appear. Black against a white background. Remember, you are one. Elizabeth smacks herself in the face before correcting herself. I, she smacks herself again and again, harder before conceding. The balance just needs to be respected. The voice advises her, so respect it before immediately hanging up in her ear.

Elizabeth smacks herself again and again, hitting her face and her thinning hair, telling herself to stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it. She leans forward onto the table and we pull away from her to the fridge where the note, it changed my life, is hung up with magnets. I think seeing myself like this or half myself, Harvey Dent, I think I would... I'd probably be like, yes, I'd like to stop immediately. Yeah, because again, it was once just a finger. Yeah. You know, and how I can't trust me.

yeah no i clearly clearly i can't be left alone no yeah and we should have made this phone call out of sight of this billboard as well and the vogue magazine yeah i feel like that really influenced our decision making And this was still with me having like the first time I watched it anyway, having that difficulty of not separating. Of course. Yeah. Because I'm watching this and I'm like, what are you getting out of this, Elizabeth?

Stop. Yeah. She's getting the high. Exactly. Now you realize and you're like, oh, yeah, okay. I get it. That night, the palm trees sway in the breeze, but Elizabeth slumped over in her chair in front of the TV. She looks up at her shelves and spots the wrapped gift that Harvey gave her. She tries to get up, but her bones crunch and crack, sending her flopping back down into the chair. Her aged knee is lumpy, swollen, and stuck.

When she's unable to stand up, she reaches down and tries to pry it out of its bent position. She has to work hard, gritting her stained teeth, grunting until her knee finally unlocks, the bone cracking loudly. Elizabeth cries out, but she steadies herself with deep breaths and she can finally stand. So sometimes. Often there are prosthetics on. her legs sometimes though like when they're shooting earlier the feet in the shower when we first see what her legs look like

They're just straight up fake legs. Okay. And so here when she is bending this knee back into place, it's completely a fake leg, which. It looks very convincing. I know she's not going through any of this, but oh my God. No, my leg hurts. Yes. It's movie magic. Yeah. She goes over to the bookshelf and picks up the gift. She sees Harvey's face and the red wrapping paper, smiling as he offers condescendingly. Just a little something to keep you busy.

Elizabeth peels off the paper to find a French cuisine cookbook. She squints her eyes, scanning the cover of the jovial, smiling chef at its center, and she sighs. Fuck. Elizabeth opens the book to a random page, and it's a recipe for Aubrac Alago. She squints to see the recipe and its accompanying picture. She flips the page and her eyebrows raise an intrigue at the con style tripes. But when she reads what they are, she fake gags. She flips the page again. Marinated veal brains.

Again, Christmas turkey stuffed with foie gras. She looks down the hall where the bathroom is, where the secret door is pushed open, where Sue delicately slumbers. The music is mounting but it all stops when Elizabeth slams the cookbook shut. Was anybody else getting campy, creep show level reactions from this cookbook with this performance? For sure, yeah. Because she was killing me with it. Yeah, it was very funny. this whole segment is pretty funny yeah it is it is

On the TV, a host played by Akil Wingate excitedly boasts, yes, ladies and gentlemen, she is here. The superstar of the moment, Sue. He invites the audience to welcome her on, and they do, with a big round of applause as Sue sits smiling next to the host's desk. He says that she popped up out of nowhere on our screens like a tornado. And he doesn't think anybody was prepared for this whirlwind.

We cut to Sue dancing with the Pump It Up crew, the music loud and pulsing, but it cuts away from their toned bodies to a thick cascade of melted cheese. The host recalls that it all started with the morning show and soon nods in agreement. But her smile grows wider when he says that rumor has it she's up for Tom Grant's next movie. As the audience cheers, we're in the kitchen with thick ribbons of cheese again. The cookbook in the background opened to the Our Back Aligo recipe.

But on the show, the host pauses to listen to his earpiece. He reports with the breaking news. Sue is going to be hosting the New Year's Eve show. Can she confirm this? With the giggles, Sue tells him that that's right. Elizabeth is presiding over a myriad of pots and pans looking haggard, her hair wild, her robe stained with sauce as she quips sarcastically. Yes, that's right. Her fucking mockery. And she is so funny in this whole part. She fucking kills it.

We float above her counters trays of seared and burned food, herbs, pig ears, a brimming pot. The host shouts that this is huge news. Elizabeth opens the book to another recipe, blood sausage with apples. She leans over to look at this closer. On the TV, the host implores Sue, where are you from? How did you get discovered? As Elizabeth sloshes oil into the pan, he gushes that we want to know everything.

Elizabeth drops in the blood sausages and they sizzle on impact. She bustles around the kitchen, opening containers, sniffing the food, tending to the pots and pans. So I was like, oh, she's just making everything. But Sue is coy, insisting that there's really not much to tell. She's just a girl from a very small town in Indiana that you've probably never even heard of. It's not even really a town. She's not even sure they could call it a village. It's a farm perhaps?

She giggles and Elizabeth mocks her as she pours cooking wine onto the sausages and the resulting flames hide her from our view. She backs away marveling at this. She's like, ooh. It's very cool. The flambe. Is this Elizabeth's story or is Sue just fucking making this up? I don't know. You know? Yeah. In the shade. In a minute. Yeah. It's too much.

On the TV, Sue admits that for as long as she can remember, it's always been her dream to be on the screen. In the kitchen, Elizabeth counters that this is her dream. On the screen though, Sue shares that she used to put on shows for her family when she was little. But Sue sarcastically mocks with her hands on her hips. Ooh, your family. She opens the cookbook to the Christmas turkey stuffed with foie gras recipe. And she traces her finger over the first.

step eviscerate the turkey but the host presses on to another topic everyone is well aware that sue replaced he drops his tone to a conspirator's whisper elizabeth sparkle Elizabeth immediately turns at this, but the host is just gushing over Sue. She stepped in, she turned up the volume, and she rocked their world. We see Sue on Pump It Up in a deep squat, swinging her long ponytail in a circle. But now the host asks if Sue was a fan of Sparkle Your Life.

Elizabeth throws a raw turkey down on the counter and Sue looks taken aback by the question. She stutters a bit before finally admitting that she can't exactly say that she watched Elizabeth's show. She grins to the audience, reminding them that they're not exactly from the same generation. The first half was okay because it feels a little cheeky, you know, because I just got born like a few weeks ago. Yeah. But where this is going is really fucked up.

Elizabeth is watching angrily from the kitchen as the host raises his cards over his face at the shade of it all. But Sue continues that you have to admit Elizabeth's show was a little old fashioned. Elizabeth sinks her fingers deeply into the turkey's skin when Sue turns to the audience and smiles. Jurassic fitness, really. But again, she's talking about herself.

Elizabeth repeats this insult and Sue shrugs that it needed a change. We see Elizabeth standing in front of her dancers, swinging her arms in her routine. Then Sue standing in front of hers, raising her leg in a high kick. Gripping the turkey, Elizabeth mutters, I'll fucking show you. She shoves her hand inside the turkey as Sue dances and twerks on Pump It Up. And Elizabeth offers, you want to see some Jurassic fitness?

Her hand squelches inside of the turkey as Sue's toned butt jiggles and flexes. She asks if she wants it, screaming, come and get your fucking Jurassic fitness. Elizabeth's hand rummaging around in the turkey is spliced with shots of Sue flexing, stretching, smiling at the camera on Pump It Up. But finally, she pulls her hand free, throwing a handful of guts to the side. On the screen, Sue concedes that her mother was a huge fan of Elizabeth.

Elizabeth swipes everything off of a portion of the counter to drop a large glass bowl onto it. She starts cracking the eggs inside. Sue shares that every morning, rain or shine, sparkle your life was on her TV. Elizabeth continues cracking the eggs and throwing the spent shells back over her shoulder. Sue smirks that in a way she grew up with Elizabeth, whether she liked it or not.

When she giggles, the audience laughs with her and Sue sums it up that she guesses you could say that she and Elizabeth have some sort of a connection. In the kitchen, equipped with a hand mixer, Elizabeth glowers some kind of connection. You wouldn't exist without me. She turns on the mixer. It whirs loudly before she brings it down to the bowl of egg.

We get shots of Sue smiling, posing and blinking cutely next to the host as the mixer whips the eggs all over the place, even splashing Elizabeth. On the TV, the host announces that it's time for the final question. The question they ask each and every one of their guests. Sue leans forward, ready, and the host asks, Would she share one of her little beauty secrets with them? As the eggs spurt up at Elizabeth, he asks for just one little trick of hers that helps her look so incredibly stunning.

Sue says that she doesn't know. Elizabeth finally comes out of the kitchen demanding that she say it. She stands in front of the TV filthy holding her mixer as she implores Sue to tell them who her little beauty secret is. Sue is thinking, I guess. But Elizabeth opens her robe and shakes herself at the TV reporting. Here's your little beauty secret.

But she belts her robe back when Elizabeth gives the cop-out answer that she really just tries to be herself and be grateful for all that she has. Wow. The TV rocks as Elizabeth pelts it with eggs, but Sue continues that she always remembers to lead with her heart. As the TV host admires, aw, America's sweetheart. Elizabeth turns her vitriol to the billboard just outside her window, and she throws the eggs there, where they crash against the glass and run down.

Our view of Sue is blurred in a haze of egg whites and Elizabeth takes this opportunity to take newspaper and stick it to the window using the egg as glue. She continues covering more and more of the window as the chaotic score grinds. I very much appreciated the poetry of it being eggs. Yeah. Yeah. The shattering of these eggs, the scrambling of these eggs. It's like an indictment of what was promised to her. Yeah. Right.

that's gonna stink later though oh yeah that is that was my first thought yeah because it's all underneath like it oh my god yeah you thought sue was mad about the chicken yeah But the score falls away when we cut to Elizabeth pacing in the bathroom in that gorgeous dragon robe. She stands in the mirror, mocking Sue's giggle, raising her voice high in mockery. Oh, I just try to be myself.

She whips her robe as she paces, turning to reveal the bald spot in the back of her head. She turns back to the mirror with an accusing finger warning, stop it, reminding you're taking it from me. That's your little secret. She grits her stained teeth as she admonishes her reflection again. Stop it. She pounds on the mirror on her own head and she lies in the shower as the water cascades on her.

She's in the fetal position, her aged leg curled under her aged arm as she bangs her head on the floor of the shower, repeating again and again, stop it, stop it, stop it. We float above Elizabeth, gliding impossibly high in the claustrophobic stall of her shower before closing in on her wet and half-withered face as she mutters desperately, you have to. But we cut to Sue who finishes the thought in a screech.

Control yourself! We glide across the kitchen, the walls, counters, floors smeared and crusted with food. The table and countertops completely cluttered with dishes, food, and trash. We continue our journey into the living room where Elizabeth covered the entire wall of windows as well as her TV with the egg stuck newspaper. So again, it's a complete switch because you hear Sue... saying this as a as far as respecting the balance yeah but

But Sue is saying this in response to what Elizabeth has done to the living room. Yes. You know? It's like, God damn, dude. She made quite the mess. She did, though. Much like the kitchen, every surface is filled, overlapping with plates, old half-eaten food, trash. Sue stumbles over the cluttered carpet in her crop top and pink underwear, horrified and disgusted. She goes into the secret room. Elizabeth lies shrouded in her dragon robe. Her hair is wild and wiry. Her expression vacant.

A myriad of glass jars clatter on the floor as Sue sets them down declaring, I can't go back inside her. She comes back with more glass jars and bottles to add to the collection. When she looks down at Elizabeth, she openly gags. She rips the robe up, revealing her bare back and as she nudges her over roughly with her foot, she groans. gross, old, fat, and with the plunge of a fully loaded seven-day cartridge into the sore in Elizabeth's back. Disgusting.

She pulls the plunger back, completely filling the vials before injecting the contents into one of the glass jars on standby. She stabs the needle in again. The skin around the entry point looks necrotic. It's a concerning black in the center. It's raw and puckered. But still, Sue plunges the needle into Elizabeth's spine. She pulls the plunger. She fills the vials, fills the jars.

She plunges the needle in again. She pulls the plunger. She fills the vials, fills the jars again and again. She stabs harder and rougher. Elizabeth's inert body jostling as Sue takes and takes and takes. We pull back, entering a dark abyss and leaving this horrible secret room to get smaller and smaller until it's gone, leaving us in black. Stop, I can't take anymore. No, dude. That was hurting me to watch that. It was, oh my God, it's just awful. And I'm so pissed, dude.

The fact that she's like, I'm literally taking her for all that she's worth to me. And then I'm just going to leave her in this fucking room to rot? Yeah, I guess. It's just terrible. I know she fucked up the living room, right? I know it probably really stinks in there. But this is not the answer. And you just said control yourself. That goes for you too. Really pop. But after a moment, white text reads, three months later. I gasped. Yeah.

It's accompanied by loud, exciting swing music. And finally, we see Sue, her hair in an updo, curled pieces framing her beautifully made up face. Diamonds drip from her neck and her earlobes, and we pull out to see her in a gown, the bodice clinging to her before abandoning her at the waist in a cloud of baby blue tulle.

She poses for photos. She smiles as streamers rain down on her and the swing music reaches its feverish conclusion. The words appear over her in gold glitter. New Year's Eve show tomorrow 9 p.m. The pump it up billboard outside of Elizabeth's apartment has been replaced with this announcement with a picture of Sue posing in her dress and diamonds, glittery gold raining down on her.

So looking at this billboard, the glittering gold did make me think of imagery that we saw before. And I think that color has been so important in this and how. Yeah, we've seen her in baby blue, kind of like... lately it was usually pink and white and yellow and stuff like that because blue is more Elizabeth's color so seeing her in blue with the glittering gold I was like it just was like huh

Sue stands in the windows of the apartment, smiling up at this billboard. Behind her, on the table, a bouquet of red roses stand tall in a vase with a note. Break a leg. They are going to love you. Diego played by Hugo Diego Garcia walks through the living room in his underwear. He hugs Sue from behind and gazes up at the billboard with her before asking if she's coming to bed. This I was like, okay.

So not only has the billboard changed, three months have passed. You got a fucking, your boyfriend moved in. Yeah. I'm like, Elizabeth's probably like a fucking skeleton in the closet. Yeah. I was definitely afraid of what we were going to see when we cut back to that. Secret room. We find her. Yes. Sue says that she'll be right there and Diego leaves her to focus on the glittery words. Tomorrow, 9 p.m.

She walks down the hall in a matching silky pajama top and shorts fanning out her long hair behind her. She casually opens the medicine cabinet takes out the smaller applicator in an empty vial. She pushes the door open to the secret room and when she disappears inside, we stay in the bathroom, peering through a crack at a mound of spent food bags, all sucked dry. We get a closer look at these, a mix of bags marked food matrix and food other self and bloody cloths thrown on them haphazardly.

So I was like, oh my God, she's giving her both. Yeah. You're not supposed to do that. Well, you're not supposed to do a lot of this. We're breaking all the rules. I think we threw that up. In for a penny, in for a pound. Got it. Sue gasps lightly and an ominous bass note hums as she stomps back into the bathroom to get a closer look at the vials she's just harvested from Elizabeth. It is thick, viscous, and black.

Sue looks confused at this, but immediately the high pitched ringing begins in her ears. Her muffled heartbeat begins to thrum. Her breathing is harsh and ragged. Sue hurries down the hall past the windows of the living room that display her imminent deadline on the billboard and into the kitchen. She slides the door shut and makes a phone call. As it rings, she groans in pain, stomping her foot as she whimpers. But finally, a deep voice answers. Yes?

Sue tells him that it's an emergency. There's no more stabilizer fluid. When she's met with complete silence, she smacks the table in frustration, informing him that it's fucking 503. He asks again, yes. Do you think that he's just shaking his head over there? Oh, yeah. He doesn't seem surprised. No. So I really wonder how many people have done this and how many outcomes. Because he's just like. You gotta, like, I don't know what to tell you, dude. Respect the balance. Like.

Maybe let's stop pushing this on random people then. Yeah. If it keeps happening. Yeah, and honestly, how fucked up is it that the other nurse was like, no, it's fantastic. And the real nurse is like, dude, it sucks. But that's what's happening here. Yeah, but goddamn. To be fair, he did not say it changed his life for better or for worse. He just said that it changed his life.

But another wave of pain seizes Sue. The ringing pitch climbs even higher and blood pours from her nose, splatting on the table. Sue tells him again, it's urgent. There's no more stabilizer fluid. The voice tells her calmly, it means you've reached the end. I was like, oh, what does that mean? Sue shakes her head in immediate denial before asking what he means. He tells her simply that she drained it all out. If she wants more she needs to let the fluid regenerate.

The ringing climbs higher. More blood splats on the tabletop. Sue cries out in pain. She pleads with him to tell her how to do it. She needs to stabilize herself right now. To no one's surprise but Suze, he tells her, you simply have to switch. He explains that the switch reboots the fluid secretion process so that she can continue to enjoy the experience.

Sue gags at the thought of this. She is adamant that she can't switch. And when she looks over at her billboard, she adds, especially not now, but the voice counters coolly that there is no other option. Another wave seizes Sue, knocking her flat on the floor. The phone clatters as she drops it, but she manages to pull herself, whimpering down the hallway and back to the bathroom.

She grips the edge of the sink and pulls herself up to fling the medicine cabinet open. In her quest to reach the rubber tubing she knocks the entire shelf over and collapses as everything crashes to the floor. This is finally what gets Diego's attention, and he sits up in the silken sheets of Sue's bed. He calls out for her, but Sue is dragging herself into the secret room. And once she's out of sight, we hear Elizabeth take in a ragged and desperate breath. Diego is like... Babe?

He switches off the light and starts down the long hallway to the bathroom. But in the bathroom, a withered foot stomps down onto the white tile with the grunt of effort. Diego is making his way, asking if Sue is stressed out about tomorrow. Another twisted foot steps forward. Another step closer to the door. Elizabeth's breath creaks from her as we travel up only catching a glimpse of her hunched mottled backside.

She stomps forward balancing on her knobby knees and she makes it to the door right before Diego does just in time to slam it in his face. Elizabeth uses her aged hand to turn the lock, unable to even bend her fingers. She groans weekly and we get close-ups of her blotched skin, her prominent veins, new moles and age spots, sporadic black and gray wiry hair standing out on her skin.

Diego asks if she's okay, and this is when he finally notices the streaks of blood on the carpet in front of the bathroom door. He asks playfully, you a little cranky because of your lady business? Fuck you. I can't even believe you said that. Yeah, I laughed. I laughed, dude. Get out of here, dude. That's insane. With a deep startling tone, we see Elizabeth's ass.

There are bruises, blood rising up to the surface. Her skin is slack, wrinkled, discolored. We match cut to Diego's perky and hairy booty as he rattles the doorknob, imploring Sue to open it. But Elizabeth's voice can only squeak from her as she presses against the door from the other side, the nails on her fingers long, thick, and yellowed.

We see her from behind now. The small hills of her spine now rise in a mountainous lump. Her head is smooth and bald, with only stray, stubborn strands of black clinging to the sides. Diego continues to knock on the door, begging Sue to let him inside, but we are following Elizabeth as she catches her own reflection in the mirror.

Her deflated breasts sag out of frame of the glass, but her face is completely unrecognizable, weathered, wrinkled, her ears and nose larger, her eyebrows gone, her teeth brown stumps. Gray and black wisps of hair trailing down from her bald head. The only glimpse of Elizabeth that remains are her eyes that behold her transformation in horror. so this is a lot yeah oh yeah um they called this the golem look of hers uh and we do see more in a little bit how

this transformation is. And there are shots with a stunt person, but this is sincerely Demi Moore in this makeup. covered from head to toe. She had to sit up to nine hours for application. Wow. They even left hollows and the prosthetics of her breasts and her butt cheeks so that they would get jiggle when she moves. Like so much went into this and it is startling. Yeah.

Her stricken face morphs with her anger and her view of her pulls in closer and closer as she heaves heavy breaths and shakes with rage and realization. Diego demands that she open the door and we watch from below as Elizabeth slams against it with both hands. Very reminiscent of Jack Torrance from The Shining. Take a shot. Except for breasts. He didn't have those. But she bellows. Get out.

This finally makes Diego back up. He asks, what the fuck? Elizabeth slams against the door again, her voice hoarse and raspy when she reiterates, get the fuck out. Diego asks who the fuck is on the other side of the door, but Elizabeth just slams against it again, yelling at him to leave her alone. She hunches over, coughing and retching until she spit. Diego is still like, what the fuck?

But his booty jiggles as he turns, runs down the hall, grabs his clothes and exits the apartment stark naked. I laughed out loud. This reminded me of something we were talking about on Oddity when a character is finally like, bet. I'm fucking gone. I'll see myself out. Yes. He didn't even stop to get dressed. Hell no. Once he's gone Elizabeth pulls the door open and glances out. Her hump forces her to hunch over as she steps into the hallway.

As she hurries along, we see the toll that Sue's greed has left on her back, leaving the skin there black. But Elizabeth doesn't make it more than a few steps before she collapses and we hear the crunch of her bones. The protruding bones of her spine and hips are visible through the thin stretch of her skin, but Elizabeth is able to climb back to her feet.

She pants as she goes down the hall, using the walls to guide herself until she reaches the living room. And she finds Sue's phone and makes a call. After a couple rings, a voice answers, yes. In her new weak and rasping voice, Elizabeth identifies herself. It's 5.03 and I want to stop. The voice asks if she's sure, because once she stops, she can't go back. But Elizabeth screams that she wants to stop. She sobs that she wants to fucking stop. She wants to stop.

The voice tells her simply, we'll deliver before disconnecting the call. And Elizabeth hurls the phone to the floor. The desperation in her voice was just heart shattering. Yeah. She groans and grunts with effort as she pulls her giant framed photograph back down the long hall and into the living room where it belongs. She rests it against the wall where it once hung, and her breath wheezes as she looks up at it with reverence.

This is so fucking sad because it's like, you know, like when you are self-conscious and then you look back at pictures of yourself and you're like, damn, dude, I looked good. Why was I so self-conscious? It's like that, but like times a million. Yeah. Very good. trying to make it accessible you know the next morning a message is delivered on a card your final kit has been delivered to your deposit box

Elizabeth gets ready. She's wearing her trademark yellow coat, but over her head she's tied the scarf she almost wore to dinner the other night. She drapes herself in a shawl and a blanket before pulling on her black sunglasses. As soon as she opens the door, Oliver excitedly pops out of his apartment calling for Sue. Instead, Elizabeth growls at him. Fuck off. Stunned, Oliver scrambles back into his apartment, slamming the door behind him and hunched over, Elizabeth races down the stairs.

He's never coming out of the apartment again. Nor should he. He never should have came out in the first place. I just remember we were watching this John Paul laughing at how Elizabeth is hustling down these steps. Yeah, she adjusted quick. Cause she calls and I'm like, cause you know, you see what's happened. All I could think is like, what am I supposed to do about my legs? I'm fucked up. Like you took a lot away from me.

We get to this and she's just bucking it. She is. Adrenaline's powering most of this. I don't know. Horns honk, sirens blare, and dogs bark as Elizabeth sprints to her destination. Once there, she presses her 503 card against the small 503 door and it pops open, revealing her much slimmer 503 package. Elizabeth snatches it and we cut to her locking the door of her apartment on her arrival back home. Holding Sue by one of her ankles, she pulls her from the secret room.

sprinting as she drags her across the tile of the bathroom, the carpet of the hallway, bouncing her head off the plush steps to the sunken living room. She deserves it. But she finally stops her in front of the window wall in the living room before snatching off her scarf and sunglasses and tossing them to the side. She thrusts her hand into the pocket of her yellow coat and pulls out the 503 box.

She opens it up and removes a card. We are sorry you didn't appreciate your experience with the substance. Elizabeth looks from the card to Sue's smiling and slumbering face, dried blood still trickling from one nostril before opening the flaps of the package. Inside is a large white syringe filled with black fluid and it's labeled termination.

Elizabeth sticks the needle on the end of it and unsheathes it. She holds the needle steady and starts to feel Sue's chest for a place to stab it. She raises it high but she freezes when she hears the deep voice. Are you sure? Elizabeth turns, searching for the voice that's coming from inside her own head, but it continues. Once you stop, you can't go back.

You will simply remain on your own, just on your own, just on your own, on your own, on your own. The voice repeats again and again as we alternate between Sue's face and Elizabeth. But finally, Elizabeth screams, shut the fuck up. She brings the needle down, Pulp Fiction style, silencing the voice as it pierces Sue's skin. A low and muffled heartbeat pulses as Elizabeth depresses the plunger, slowly injecting the black liquid.

The heartbeat is steadily slowing down and Elizabeth's resolve seems to waver as she stares down at Sue's face. Her breathing comes in pants when the heartbeat finally stops. She glances over at the flowers on the table with the card. Break a leg. They're going to love you. And she closes in on that last sentiment. They are going to love you. A twinkling begins and we see the snow globe Elizabeth standing tall and confident, her hands on her hips as gold glitter reigns around her.

This is replaced with a bright spotlight, the clamoring voices of reporters calling her name, proclaiming their love for her, vying for her attention. It all dissolves into Sue's billboard just outside the window, and with a gasp, Elizabeth rips the needle out of Sue's chest with a whispered realization, I can't. she tells sue that she can't do this she needs her because she hates herself

Stammering and stuttering, she tells Sue that she's gotta get ready. It's our big night. But Sue remains motionless with her eyes closed. Her voice wavering with emotion, Elizabeth assures Sue that they're going to love her so much. She begins chest compressions, jostling Sue's inert body as she tells her emphatically, you're the only lovable part of me. You've got to come back. She sobs that Sue has to come back. but the compressions have only resulted in more blood leaking from Sue's nose.

This to me feels somewhat reminiscent to how I felt about the scene with the nurse in the cafe. That heavy handedness. Yeah, because I feel like everything visually and everything through her actions already says everything that she is saying out loud. True. Her performance is fantastic. Yes. And the delivery of these lines is great, but I don't. think that it's necessary okay i i see that yeah It's not as bad as that.

Elizabeth stares at this in horror before jumping up and running hunched into the bathroom. She rips open the medicine cabinet and takes out the tubing, which rests on a card, reminding you switch every seven days without exception.

she hurries back into the living room kneeling before sue she drives one needle into her own arm and the other into sue's and she cradles sue's arm begging her come on When no blood begins to flow into the clear tubing, Elizabeth rips the needle from Sue's arm and plunges it into her chest, Pulp Fiction style.

Sue's blood immediately begins to flow, and Elizabeth joins in the neighboring tube. The second it hits home into Sue, she animates, thrashing and spitting a mouthful of blood onto Elizabeth's face. For the first time, these two women, these two versions of one woman stare at each other. A chaotic score glitches as they scramble away from each other and rise to their feet.

We revolve around them as they take each other in, but Sue looks down and sees the termination syringe, a concerning amount of the black liquid still left inside of it. Her eyes widen in surprise and she turns to Elizabeth, angry. Elizabeth looks desperate for an explanation, but when nothing comes out, Sue screeches and rushes toward her.

Firstly, this has to be against all kinds of rules. Oh, yeah. This voids your experience with the substance or whatever. We are not liable for whatever happens. But also, just lie. I was using that on myself. Somebody came and was using that on you and I saved you and they ran out. Something like gym substance broken.

And he was going to do it. I didn't. I stopped him. I mean, they didn't have to label the syringe like that. No, but that's their branding. Everything is very good. Yeah, everything has a label on it. A straightforward one. Elizabeth runs around the table throwing chairs to try to stop Sue. It doesn't work and when she stumbles and falls, Sue is still running.

Elizabeth only has time to stand before Sue kicks her, sending her flying back and crashing into the framed photo leaning against the wall, shattering the glass. Elizabeth crumples to the ground and Sue seizes her, slamming her against the already shattered glass and choking her. Elizabeth struggles but manages to reach a glass vase and crash it against Sue's head. Sue doubles over, a muffled pulse thrumming, and when she's able to stand back up, she sees Elizabeth disappear down the hall.

Sue screams and sprints after her, and it's a mad dash to the bathroom, but Elizabeth is barely able to make it in to slam the door in Sue's face. She turns the lock and leans against the door to catch her breath. This is like reaching a level of absurdity that is wild to me. Her running to the bathroom to retreat after this. living room brawl. What's she supposed to do? She's being pursued like Terminator 2. It's unbelievable.

But Sue is not to be deterred. She growls as she kicks the door, rattling the lock. Elizabeth thinks fast and tries to pull a cabinet over, but before she can slide it in front of the door, Sue kicks it down and Elizabeth goes sprawling, breaking the cabinet as she lands on top of it. Elizabeth struggles to pull herself to her feet and as soon as she does, Sue kicks her again. Elizabeth spins and falls, her head connecting with the side of the sink as she goes.

Sue pulls her up and forces her in front of the mirror where they both stand panting, blood crusted on their faces. With another glitchy pulse from the score, Sue pulls Elizabeth back and slams her head against the mirror. The mirror cracks and it's smeared with blood when Sue brings Elizabeth's head down again. Elizabeth pleads weakly, but Sue cries out as she does it again. And each time she brings Elizabeth's head back, it's more bold.

cut swelling with glass and impact after the third time elizabeth can no longer even protest she is limp and dazed as sue slams her head repeatedly The violence is so brutal and jarring. And I thought, of course, you know, just visually what you're seeing is enough. But the sound designers in that interview said that they added no less than 29 layers of sound. Oh my God. To make this impact even worse. Okay. Added layers of flesh and this.

porcelain and the crashing and the glass just to sell it even more and you feel every single strike yeah it it It's hard to like see her slamming her. Yes. And it's like I'm flinching. Like we're just here watching all of it. It did make me think of Fletcher kicking his own ass. Back to liar, liar. He's kicking his own ass.

Elizabeth's face is a bloody mess and her legs tremble beneath her. When Sue loosens her grip Elizabeth collapses to the floor. She starts to crawl away sliding along the tile as she slips in her own blood. Sue watches as she pulls herself out of the bathroom and down the hall. And she follows her. And when Elizabeth gets to the end of the hall, she stands on shaky legs. One eye is swollen shut, but she stares at Sue bravely with the other.

I was like, this bitch is made of some tough shit. I cannot believe she was able to get back up after what Sue just did to her. I'm telling you, the kick into the photo, I'd be like, whatever you want, you can have it. Well, that was like a super kick. Honestly, she's not trying to rob you. Yeah, I know. I don't know why you took it there. Whatever you want, man, take it off.

Sue just smirks and brings her leg up in a kick that swiftly sends Elizabeth flying across the entire living room, landing on her glass table, and it shatters on impact. Might have been a step too far for me. Because it's like, come on, what even is this? I don't know. A little over the top. She flies. I was at this little part. I was wondering, okay, so Sue is what now? Right. Like you said, this is not supposed to happen. So you're awake.

are you an android or something are you like i don't know like i don't know it just it because you're overpowered now yeah it's like did that termination stuff just like supercharge your bones well i don't think anybody's ever done this before so maybe maybe it did yeah because honestly it feels wrong it's like meeting your clone or something yeah like you're literally there together it's like we're world breaking but it's like it's

It's so unbalanced. It's not like when Bender was fighting Goldbender and they were just matching. No, this is, I would say, really unfair. I would agree. Sue comes over and looks down at Elizabeth lying dazed in the broken glass. She kicks her repeatedly, sending fresh blood flying from her wounds, oozing from her mouth. Sue screams and kicks and kicks and kicks.

covered in Elizabeth's blood now. She continues in slow motion as the score takes over and Elizabeth rocks helplessly with her blows. Blood spurts from her side. It pours from her mouth. And we get the words again, taking up the entire screen. Remember, you are one. A neon red palm tree appears in the darkness, glitching into two. And in the black abyss, the motorcycle collides with us, sending the bike and the rider flying in a split second.

Sue screams as if she's been struck, and she looks down at Elizabeth, motionless, lifeless. Sue is in a panic as she looks down at herself, drenched with blood, and she sobs as she realizes what she's done. Elizabeth Sparkle's dead body lies just beyond her trembling, bloody hands. We float above them, Elizabeth lying in her own blood in the shattered glass of her table, deformed and unrecognizable.

Sue, standing above her, panting and crying and looking a little Carrie White in her blood-soaked nightclothes. Tears stream down her face, but she looks out the window at her New Year's Eve show Billboard. The sentiment from the note appears superimposed over it. They are going to love you. Sue's eyes are brimming with tears as she focuses on the glittering words. Tonight, 9 p.m. So she has killed Elizabeth. Elizabeth is dead. Yeah. Now what? Yeah. Well, we'll find out.

A tense score gives way to jazzy drums as we fade into a TV camera. Sue walks nervously down the long orange hallway surrounded by her team and crew. She is flanked by an assistant director, played by Nathan Rippey, and her stylist, played by Tiffany Hofstetter. The assistant director is telling her the next steps, getting her to the fitting room and into her dress. But it's difficult to hear him over the piercing whine in Sue's ear.

They continue marching past the framed New Year's Eve promo up on the wall, and his voice grows more muffled as they go. But when he asks if she's got it, she agrees with a forced smile. As the other dancers get ready on the stage with their costumes and made-up faces, Sue stands backstage in her ball gown, blue and glittery, flowing out into a tulle cloud.

Harvey comes in, clapping, commending that she looks wonderful, perfect. The drum beats continue with the women gathered excitedly on the stage. Sue sits in front of a mirror as her stylist clasps a luxurious diamond necklace around her neck, but the high-pitched ringing blots out anything that she's saying. Sue looks concerned and an abrupt cough escapes her lips. On the stage the audience seats are empty but they're setting up the lighting bathing everything in a cool blue.

In front of the mirror, the image of Elizabeth's dead and deformed face comes to Sue's mind and she coughs dryly. She excuses herself, promising that she'll be right back. She climbs the stairs in her big blue ball gown, continuing to cough, finally letting loose as she steps into the restroom, closing the door behind her. Coughs rack her body as she stumbles to the sink and leans over it. With one final cough, she hacks up something that rattles into the basin, leaving little dots of blood.

Sue catches it in her hand, concealing it in a shaking fist. The ringing climbs even higher as she forces her glittering fingers open, revealing a tooth nestled in her palm. I've had this nightmare many times. Uh-huh. I was full body cringing. I was cringing into myself and disappearing. This, I hate this. She's like, I'm falling apart. Oh, hi, Lizzie.

Sue stares at the bloody tooth in horror before raising her gaze to meet her reflection. Her lips part in a trembling smile and she sobs when she finds that it's an incisor in the front of her mouth that she's lost. She sets the tooth to the side and raises her hand back to her mouth. Why are you doing this?

We watch in an agonizing close up as Sue grabs hold of her front tooth. A tear spills from her eye as she tugs it free. She examines it in her fingers before depositing it on the sink next to the first one. Tears spill freely now as Sue opens her mouth wide in a disturbing smile. Her remaining teeth stained with her blood and a large black gap right in the front of her mouth from her two departed teeth. I could barely handle watching this, I will say.

There's something very specific about teeth and eyes. These two things, if there's anything going on, it's going to be real difficult for me. for me it was her pulling them yeah if it's falling out it's like oh shit i'm decaying or whatever but like her the smallest yank and it just came loose i was like oh i'm i hate it so much yeah it looks fantastic yeah because i like you said he cannot handle it

I read in an interview that Margaret Qualley said that she still has nightmares about pulling her teeth out because of this scene. Well, yeah, I bet. Sue brings her fingers to her mouth again and her last front tooth squelches as she grabs hold. The second one, I'm like, okay, so she just wanted to test it. That's all. That's fine. This third one, it's like, you already know what's going to happen. Yeah. Yeah. Knock it off. Knock it off. Cut it out.

Sue pulls it free. And just as the resulting blood splashes in the sink, someone knocks on the door. They alert Sue that they need her on stage to set the lights. Sue simply asks. She turns back toward the mirror as the knocking continues. Blood spills down her chin and her three lost teeth lie in a pile.

I thought that she was going to turn back and be fine. Yeah. Like I'm thinking like, you know, stir of echoes or like where we've seen this type of thing before. And it's like, oh my God, that was just a horrible like. dream or daydream or or something but it's like no

She really did that. Yeah, no, we fucked up. Yeah. We fucked up. Well, but we've been set up for that with like the chicken belly and the other stuff. You're right. Yeah. The meat falling out of the back. Yeah. It's me back and chicken belly. Yes, we were. Sue bears her remaining teeth in a suppressed scream, wrinkling her beautifully made up features.

More blood spills from her lips. More tears pour from her eyes. But a light of realization strikes her as she hears the pulsing synth from the substance video. Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? She imagines a full vial of neon green activators sitting on her bathroom sink. Her eyes become hopeful as her recollection of the voice continues. More beautiful, more perfect.

But the man on the other side of the door bangs again, calling out to her. Sue snaps into action, scrubbing the blood out of the sink from her hands, and she replies that she'll meet him there. As Sue rinses her mouth, he concedes that he'll meet her on stage. Sue exits the bathroom and hustles down another long hall in her big blue ball gown, but she freezes when Harvey calls out to her.

He rushes to her in his loud orange suit, followed by a cluster of gray haired men in black suits. When he calls her name, she turns, her mouth clamped shut. Harvey holds out his arms. Let me introduce you to the shareholders. The shareholders leer at her excitedly, smiling, blinking, raising their eyebrows. Harvey admits that they've been dying to meet her.

They all smile, but Sue still looks stricken. Harvey asks her if everything is okay, and with her mouth still clamped shut, she nods, her face framing curls bobbing as she offers a meek, mm-hmm. Harvey looks at her suspiciously before announcing excitedly with the distorted pulse of the score. So smile. Sue trembles for a moment, but she finally does, raising the corners of her lips in a polite, closed-mouthed smile. But tears stand in her eyes, threatening to spill.

Harvey either doesn't notice or doesn't care. And he only chuckles that that's what they want tonight. Pretty girls should always smile. Sue holds her mouth closed as she nods, offering a giggle in agreement. But when the topless dancers hurry by, holding their fans close to their bodies to conceal their barely there costumes, they have to slide past the men, brushing them with their feathers.

Harvey giggles excitedly, leading the shareholders in the direction of the women, announcing feathers, feathers, feathers. The men jog away happily and free now. Sue turns and hurries in her heels. When she reaches the elevator, she presses the button desperately. This moment in the hallway with Harvey and these shareholders besides it being disgusting is so tense and stressful but I think that

the commentary here on what Sue is concealing and putting on this face for, and this smile, pretty girl should always smile. Like, it's like, dude, you have no fucking idea. Like it's, that commentary is so. It's sadly still relevant. And the way that she was able to kind of weave it in here I thought was really cool.

I also love the tension being displayed through this claustrophobic cinematography. It only continues in this elevator scene, which is brilliant. But this, it's fantastic work. Yeah. Sue steps inside the elevator, filling it with her gown. But when she tries to press another button to designate a destination, her nail flips backward. Sue pants as she stares at this, bringing her finger closer to get a better look.

She sobs, reaching out with her trembling left hand. And when the fingers meet this nail, it comes off without much of a fight, revealing the meat underneath. Nails are something else that I hate. Right. Oh, my God. This was terrible. I don't hate nails. I hate the destruction of nails. Right, right.

sue groans but when something falls off of her and lands on her hand she screams She sinks down into the soft shimmery fabric of her dress to retrieve it and her shriek is muffled when she finds that it was her ear that fell off the side of her face. Sue holds her disembodied ear in her hand, the diamonds still dripping from the lobe, and we see the bloody mess where it disconnected from her head. Wasn't it an ear in Cronenberg's The Fly? Yes! Okay. This...

Look, I know teeth and nails are bad. You know what I mean? But a fucking ear. I feel like we really graduated. We can only hide so much. Sue is frantic now, burying the new empty space in her mouth as she groans. But when a man played by Nicholas Royer steps onto the elevator, she closes her mouth and clamps a hand over her missing ear. But still, she cries and panics.

The man asks if she's ready for tonight as the doors slide shut, but anything further is distorted and unintelligible as he eyes her body. Sue just presses her hand against her ear, squeezing her eyes shut, and the man only offers her another glance before exiting the elevator. Again, he... is not like not even seeing her no there's no it's it's so clear that she's there's turmoil turmoil is the word yes

The doors close and the elevator continues its descent. When the doors open again, Sue flees into the hallway, out of the building, into the alley. Her vision distorts as she sobs, passing people, vehicles, the palm trees. But finally, she's running up the stairs to the apartment, panting for air as her shaking hands unlock the front door. inside as she races down the hall she sheds her glittering purse her heels she steps out of her ball gown rushing to the bathroom

Her vision is doubling and distorted as she rummages through the drawer, finally finding what she's looking for, the vial of neon green activator with the little bit left inside. Her vision focuses on the red warning. discard after use but instead she plunges the needle into the cap rationalizing I need a better version of myself she sobs please give me a better version of myself so I'm like You should have thrown this away. Yeah. First of all. Mm hmm.

This is very me coded though. I can never throw it. It's like, what if I need it? It's a single. Yeah. The angel was very clear. When Sue pierces her skin with the needle, dark blood bubbles out. She depresses the plunger, emptying the neon solution into her veins. She turns to the mirror now, naked, save for her diamond necklace, her teeth missing, her neck streaked with blood from her recently departed ear. She sobs, please. And when nothing happens, she booms.

Suddenly, cells split. Sue shrieks. The cells continue splitting, multiplying, and Sue loses her footing and collapses to the floor. She opens her eye where a myriad of them fill the space. Sue's back splits open and she lets out a blood-curdling scream from the floor. The split in her back continues to widen, revealing a new writhing one beneath. Sue's eyes roll back. The back pulses. She screams. We descend on her face into that black abyss where the colorful lights surge by.

Sue and Elizabeth Sparkle both writhe on the floor, screaming in doomed duality. The activator bottle warning, single use, discard after use. But everything fades and morphs into a melting blend of colors until everything goes black. The flames erupt again into the shape of a heart as a muffled heartbeat pulses. We are in the POV of someone on the bathroom floor. The view of the white tile is distorted and when we flop over, there are splotches of neon fluid on the floor.

Our breath comes in a muffled rhythm as we look down at Sue, her back flayed open. We struggle to rise to our feet and we barely catch a glimpse of ourself in the mirror with the discordant cry of the score. When we fall out of view, the score dies, only to rise again when we are able to see our reflection. Staring back at us is a monster, bulbous, deformed. Long strands of black hair pour in a single matted clump from a lumpy mass atop of her head.

A row of bared teeth are nestled in the discolored skin of her chest. Flaps of skin have grown over one eye and the other stares blandly before falling out of view again. After we glimpse abandoned entrails on the floor, she once again falls out of view and we see more of her body, her stitched back, a mass growing from her shoulder, her slick and wet skin.

She peers at herself in the mirror with her one working eye, half of her mouth fused together. We pull back to find the staring and stricken face of Elizabeth Sparkle, jutting out from the creature's deformed shoulder blade. Her skin is pulled tight, forcing her mouth open in a permanent scream, and she chokes as her eyes dart desperately.

There is an arm stuck next to the superfluous head, trapped beneath the skin, and another grasping hand reaches out from another arm stuck backwards out of the creature's back, below Elizabeth's face. The creature has a third drooping nostril, small teeth in the center of its half-fused mouth. Her cluster of breasts are exposed and uneven and as the creature takes herself in she remembers the casting director and his assistant. Zoomed in on their face he repeats himself.

Looks like everything sure is in the right place this time. We see this creature's new ass, the tail of her spine visible through one of the veiny bulbous cheeks. They ask in her memory, name, age, measurement. She leans forward into the mirror, her tongue fighting for its life as she speaks in a deep and distorted voice. I'm the casting director and his assistant lean in intently. She tries again. I'm.

Behind her back, Elizabeth continues to groan, her eyes darting wildly, and suddenly the creature turns and vomits neon onto the white tile. With a glitchy screech, the screen goes black, but emblazoned in huge neon green letters is the name Monstro Eliza Sue.

Monstro is a bit harsh. It's a bit harsh. I do describe her as a monster and a creature, and it hurts to even do that. Yeah, it's a bit harsh. I don't know if it's Eliza Sue. I feel like it should be Eliza, but everybody says Eliza, so I'm going. Well, Eliza and Sue are names. Yeah, but Elizabeth and Sue. Yeah, but Eliza Beth is also a presentation of it. True, true, true. But, wow. Monster Eliza Sue is still doubled over, looking down at the neon mess she's made on the floor.

From the floor, Sue stares, her eyes wide, her mouth vacant of her front teeth, her beautiful diamond necklace crusted with blood. The flowers on the table boast. Break a leg. They're going to love you. Sue stares into the apartment from her billboard, posing in her glitzy dress. New Year's Eve show tonight, 9 p.m. Monster Eliza Sue's horrific reflection comes into view as she gazes up at it, rocking and unsteady.

She turns, treating us to a glimpse of the groaning Elizabeth still stuck on her back. Monster Eliza Sue turns and walks away, her weight thudding with every step as she leaves behind Elizabeth Sparkle, dead in the shattered glass of the coffee table. You had mentioned the steps of Monster Eliza Sue. I, again, in that article with those sound designers, they talked about a lot of the work that they did to accomplish the...

I guess really everything of the technical side of this situation through the sound design. Okay. And so one thing that I thought was very interesting is that we do hear a lot of like wet noises. Yeah. Throughout all of her movements. And very interestingly, they had mentioned making a microphone out of a stethoscope. And what they did is they had one of the sound designers, and they were very specific about it, had him eat one kilogram of fermented cabbage.

And drink two liters of sparkling water. And then with the microphone, they just held it to his stomach and got a barrage of very interesting sounds. I bet they did. But they combined this and obviously manipulated it a bunch with sounds also of a wet mop. And so putting all that together and they said they exaggerated the steps to where it's not what you would see on screen. They designed it to sound like the steps of.

Something that weighed two tons. Okay. Damn. And so you combine all this together and you get the movement of Monster Eliza Sue. But the voice is. okay that's amazing it is manipulated and warped and does all these different things with it right but they also whenever she recorded it they put like that dental apparatus like where it like stretches your mouth open yeah and so that's how we're getting this voice yeah all right all right

But as far as Monster Elisa Sue, the first time I watched this, I was more flabbergasted and surprised than to think about what this represents. It was only the second time that I started to think about it and I was kind of torn.

I didn't know if Monster Eliza Sue was supposed to kind of represent what our quest for this perfection leads us to, or if it was just a complete... rejection of beauty standards altogether as like a fuck you to society in a way well i can tell you what she called it okay

So she said that Monstro Eliza Sue is the Picasso of male expectation. Okay. Of just this like... overabundance and excess of curves and hips and tits and ass and this is what you want this is what you want us to mold ourselves into to fit this societal expectation and then You want to turn around and be like, ugh.

like you know what i mean it's it's and we can talk a little bit more about it in a little bit once we see some other things but right but yeah that's what she called it a picasso of these just impossible and unfair expectations. And you had those casting directors. interspersed with this. Yes. It makes perfect sense. Yeah. But she did say that she was inspired by David Lynch's Elephant Man. I can see that. Who is obviously perceived monstrously, but you just want to hug him. Yeah.

And they said that although it changed and evolved, the sculpt of this version is what got Persant the job. Wow. That the other studio did. And she was like, this is not it at all. And so he did a mock-up and she gave him the job on the spot. It was this. This reminded me that Eliza Sue. of other work.

that's kind of monster like this it's a freak ricky coogan turns into a giant i'm just saying i don't want to give it away because that movie's great but turns into a giant monster but i'm just saying like it's it's a tiny piece it's a tiny piece but this I enjoy this because it looks gross in the best way. Like this is fucking phenomenal work, but it is disturbing to look at.

I saw an interview with Persaud. He said that when it came time to make the sculpt, for her or the sculpts because it was more than one they did have to contract it out to a UK company they he said that Dave and Lou Elsie never get the credit and flowers for being the ones who built this. So he wanted to make that very clear. But they made five heads.

Two full body suits, one for Margaret Qualley because that is her in there, and one for her stunt double, and two partial body suits and the mold of Demi Moore's head that they would later animate digitally. Margaret Qualley sat in the makeup chair for six hours to do all these because these are like foam latex suits, but the prosthetics are prosthetics being put on her head. They said that took almost three hours and then they have to get her into the suit.

She said that it was excruciating that they had a cooling vest inside of the suit, but she called it a torture chamber and said that she would stay in there for as long as she could and kind of asked to get out when she was at the brink of a panic attack. Geez. Yeah, I can't even imagine. Yeah. Persaud had said that he didn't want her to be in it at all, that it was going to be very difficult and grueling. But Farge insisted that this.

Monster Eliza Sue is a performance and that even though all you really see of Margaret Qualley is her eye her eye is important. I mean there has to be that connection to Sue and Elizabeth. Yeah. Peering into the bedroom from the hallway, we see the flutter of tulle from her beautiful ball gown. The dress rips as monster Eliza Sue pulls it over her malformed body. She hides Elizabeth's silently screaming face behind a blanket of sheer and shimmering fabric.

It was interesting to me. The costume designer said that they went to she went to France to look at the Monstro Eliza Sue's skull. And she decided what this New Year's Eve show ball gown was going to look like on Monstro Eliza Sue. Then she designed it for Sue. Okay. But she grasps out at her diamond earring with the bulging hand and fused fingers. She guides it up to the side of her face where her ear should be. But when her ear isn't there, she just shoves it into the side of her face.

It squelches as it drives home. But when Monstro Eliza Sue shakes her head, the diamonds twinkle delicately. She picks up the other earring and turns, revealing a blinking eye high on her head's bulbous mounds. It blinks wetly beneath a misplaced ear. Monster Eliza Sue drives the second diamond earring in here and she shakes them, a fluttering dreamy music playing.

She closes the curling iron around the defiant strands of her dark hair. It sizzles, and when she tries to curl it, the hair pulls loose, breaking off. Monster Eliza Sue just sighs before setting the curling iron down. In the living room, she stabs away at the shattered glass covering the framed Elizabeth Sparkle poster. And in the bathroom, she is smearing the back of a paper with glue. When she raises it to her face, it is the cutout of Elizabeth's smiling face with the eye holes cut out.

She looks at her reflection, her deformed shoulder and one of her breasts jutting out of the torn fabric of her ball gown. Elizabeth's smiling face is peering back, covering her own disfigured one. Farge did say that when she is getting ready here, it is the first time that we see her tender with herself when she's getting ready in the mirror. And so it's like. kind of the expectation has fallen away. The demand, it's just like, it is what it is, you know?

I also read there was a very specific idea in mind in choosing the music for this section of Monster Eliza Sue getting ready. And Farge said it all started whenever they did not have a composer yet for the project. And so for temp music, she put The Nightmare and Dawn from Bernard Herrmann from Hitchcock's Vertigo. Okay. And it was supposed to reflect this idea of this childlike desire to be a princess. Alright. And to dress and to try to put yourself

In that kind of mindset of just wanting to be the most beautiful person. Yeah. And so she said it's delicate, it's feminine, and it felt fitting to what she wanted to express. So whenever the composer actually joins the project, after playing that scene, they realize they couldn't figure out anything better for it. And not only because of how it sounded and how it fit with the themes of the film, but because it is kind of this representation of this contrast.

This idea of this perfect, beautiful woman and this monstrous figure. And also she said that it's a link to cinema and how cinema itself has shaped this. archetype and this ideal. And it is a bit of meta commentary to Hitchcock and men like him. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. But in the studio hallway, Harvey intones with a grin that pretty girls should always smile.

The shareholders grin. The view of them is obstructed by the Elizabeth mask and it continues to be as monster Eliza Sue smears red lipstick on the photo's lips. She steps back to admire herself. We cut to Monstro Eliza Sue stomping through the alley, each footstep thudding. She takes in ragged breaths as she struggles to make her way to the studio with her limited view. She finally reaches the door and when she presses her card to the reader, it buzzes.

The assistant director opens the door and Monster Eliza Sue leans forward, concealing some of the extra bits of her. Her Elizabeth sparkle mask grins red, but the director is relieved to see her. He admits that they were starting to worry, encouraging her to hurry because she's up in five.

When monster Eliza Sue steps into the Shining-esque hallway, both sides are completely lined with people. She watches through her mask as they applaud her, cheering her on as she makes the long journey to the end of the hall. Etta James' At Last begins to play. As they gush that she's so beautiful. They love her. This is where she belongs. And she'll always belong here. They can't do it without her. They could never do it without her. She's irreplaceable.

The music fades away, and so does the adoring crew. Monstro Eliza Sue is alone in the hallway, breathing heavily, flanked by her Pump It Up and New Year's Eve photos. On the stage the topless dancers move around each other gracefully, their feathers swaying. The promos of Sue are displayed on a monitor. And in the audience, a little girl played by Manon Arzmendi sits excitedly next to her adoring mother, played by Virginie Kotlinski, wearing a glittering blue dress very similar to Sue's.

The assistant director ushers the rest of the dancers on stage. Harvey sits in the audience in the center of his shareholders. He promises them that they will not be disappointed. He boasts she is my most beautiful creation. I shaped her for success. This wording is very interesting.

On the stage, the dancers take their positions and the lights dim. The audience murmurs excitedly. The assistant director counts them down and music begins to float out from the speakers as a bright red on-air sign glows. The audience cheers. A spotlight clicks loudly, highlighting center stage, where Sue should be standing. Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Richard Strauss begins as monster Eliza Sue stumbles to the spotlight, her deformed figure moving amongst the bare and toned butts of the dancers.

A line of entrails scraped the stage trailing behind her. Another 2001 A Space Odyssey. Okay. But it feels like an unveiling. Yes, it does. The audience waits with bated breath as Monstro Eliza Sue takes center stage. The lights come on and her voice chokes in her throat.

We scan over the beautiful posing dancers to find the creature hidden behind her Elizabeth Sparkle cut out mask. Elizabeth Sparkle's groaning face is hidden behind her back. The sheer fabric pulled over it, glittering in the light. The dancers glance around nervously, still holding their positions, as Monstro Elizasu taps the microphone with two fused fingers. She grips it and leans forward, saying in a deep and muffled voice that she is so happy to be here tonight.

She breathes heavily into the mic, gushing. I've missed you all so much. That is heartbreaking. Yeah. But this is when her mask falls off. She breathes hard into the microphone as the audience scowls and they stare, confused, disgusted. Monstro Eliza Sue gags and a new fold of skin opens in the fused flesh over her eye. A protruding nipple appears as an extra breast is pushed through.

flopping out suspended by an umbilical cord and it finally falls wet onto the stage floor And this is per song, he said, pushing this boob through as a puppet again, like they did with the bat. But the assistant director stares horrified from backstage as monster Eliza Sue spits globs of blood onto her departed breast. Our view rises from this to the audience that stares. Finally a woman rises to her feet and lets loose a horrified scream.

That took a long time for them to register what was going on. That was just like a paper... cut out face it was over i mean it was i feel like when that titty came free that was breaking like a glamour like it was like i was like this broke and they were like what the fuck is happening it did i can't help but draw the parallel also to d gagging when she's trying to do her set Yeah, this is when all hell breaks loose.

Her scream activates the rest of the audience and a man stands with an accusing finger. The monster! Another woman stands and screams. Another. Then another. Monster Eliza Sue squints against the bright spotlight as men stand, demanding, shoot the monster. It's a freak. Monster Eliza Sue grips the microphone, begging, no, with the aid of subtitles she implores, don't be scared. But the audience is very scared. They are pouring out, calling for the creature's blood.

Monster Eliza Sue promises it's still me. On her back, Elizabeth's face breaks through the thin fabric, groaning. It's me and a monster Eliza Sue begs. I'm Elizabeth. I'm Sue. Her drool clings to the microphone as the audience flees. Two men rush the stage and one pushes her. The next man catches her and pushes her the other way. They call her a freak, a monster.

The dancers rush away in a flurry of feathers and they continue to push her until she falls to the floor, whimpering, her face caught in the spotlight, and she pleads. It's me. Just me. Monstro Eliza Sue sobs. Sentimental music swells as she rises to her feet, crying. I'm the same. A man screams as he swings the mic stand. It makes contact with Monstro Eliza Sue's head, and it explodes on impact, bathing the man in blood.

He and the audience, including Harvey and the shareholders, stare in horror as something inflates from the stump of her neck. This put me in the mind of Greek mythology and the Hydra.

where it's this multi-headed monster you chop a head off and two grow back in its place okay and that at least from my classes that i took in high school in college or whatever about this They talked about how it's supposed to be this metaphor for... attempting to solve a problem only to make it worse right and i feel like that is kind of what this film is yeah solving a problem that really doesn't need solving yeah fixing something that's not broken yeah yeah

Elizabeth's sparkle screams from her back as the mass inflates, a twisted jumble of faces and teeth. Monster Eliza Sue's hand grips the microphone and her arm breaks off, spraying a steady stream of blood over the audience, over the man, over the dancers. A driving electric guitar pounds as she waves the stream of blood over them again and again, soaking everyone in her crimson cascade. It's pure chaos that breaks when the music cuts.

Staring into the unforgiving spotlight, we hear the casting director. Too bad her boobs aren't in the middle of her face instead of that nose. His assistant offers a lukewarm mm-hmm before demanding. Next! The blood continues to flow again, the music driving and hard. It sprays, drenching the breasts of one of the dancers who screams. With the shutter of the spotlight, it goes quiet except for Harvey's voice. Pretty girls should always smile.

The music begins again, angry and aggressive. The blood pours over the audience where the mother shields her daughter. A dancer's ass drips with Monstro Eliza Sue's blood. With a shudder, we stare back into the spotlight's blinding glare. It goes quiet. Harvey smacks on shrimp as he warns us. After 50, it stops. The chaos begins once again. The audience members gather at the doors trying to push their way to freedom. The blood continues to rain down. The little girls sob.

The audience members raise their hands in desperation as everything is bathed in red, technically making The Substance 2024 a Giallo film. Okay. I'll allow it. Look, it began with black gloves at the beginning. There was no detective. Yeah, it's the same thing. No, it's not the same thing. No, we got a lot of complaints. Not to bolster your giallo argument, but when the heavy metal gives way to another kind of music, it does sound a lot like Goblin. All right. But it's not a giallo.

We cut to the stage where the red is broken by the blue of monster Eliza Sue's ball gown. She twirls, spotlighted in the center, an endless cascade of blood streaming from the stump of her missing arm. This was, again... so much on first viewing i i genuinely could not believe what i was witnessing yeah but Watching it again, you understand what it means. You know what I mean?

this turning it around on this society that made you you made me this and now you're it's just like frankenstein's monster almost where it's like you created me and now you're like kill him it's like what What do you want from me? What do you want? It's so...

It's so, and just this like, her rage being cut off speaking of rage this is very reminiscent of Carrie to me with them trying to get out of the doors with the blood yeah it's almost like a reversal of that where they judged Carrie and did this to her Monster Eliza Sue is judging them for doing this to her and spitting it back. Yeah. Okay. A couple things very quickly. They had huge pipes underneath the stage to bring in this blood.

In the costume, they essentially had a fire hose that sprayed the audience. filled with stunt people with this fake blood. They were actually being sprayed. They said that it was like 30,000 gallons of blood that they used. And Farge said that for some of the POV shots inside of the costume, she had a helmet cam on. And she's inside of it. Oh, wow. Spinning as it's sprayed with blood. The other part of the time, it was a stunt person wearing the costume. But as I said before, this is foam latex.

They sprayed it with waterproof spray, but it is drinking up this blood as it's being hit and kind of turning pink. So they said that they would have to scrub it every night and lay it out to dry. Persaud said that they would spray the inside with vodka to try to clean it, but it would never fully dry. And so the stunt person was putting it back on the next day, still half wet. which sounds fucking horrible. But anyway, Farge said that, again, this audience does represent society.

She thought of the history of corseted women. And this is the exhale of women finally untying that corset. Oh, wow. And that just, it hit me right in my heart. I think that it's beautiful. It's horrible, but it's beautiful. Right. The first time, you're exactly right, watching it, I was just so shocked that I didn't even have the wherewithal to dig deeper.

And so I'm just like, it's a hard turn. Yeah. But upon a rewatch, and I think this film really does reward you for a rewatch. Yeah. You do start to dig in and really, really appreciate all that this means. Yeah, I'll be honest. I'm still even watching it. I get it to me. I just enjoy the silliness of it, of what's going on. The chaos. Right. It is absurd. Yeah.

But the chaos of the writhing and panicked audience is superimposed over the Shining-esque hallway where monster Eliza Sue stumbles, spraying Sue's seductive pump-it-up poster red. The blood covers everything. The walls. The New Year's Eve poster. Her gown is sodden. Our view is obstructed by red droplets.

but the driving guitar continues. And in the audience, Harvey seethes from his seat, dripping with blood. The music finally comes to an end and monster Eliza Sue leaves the hallway painted completely red with her blood. So Farge had said that this long hallway to her represented. life in her career and she's young and admired and beloved at the start of it and then by the end she's very small and she's nothing and so here monster Eliza Sue cannot change

this path that has been taken, but she can paint it red. That's incredible. I will say it also with all of the references to The Shining, it puts you back with the elevator. Yeah. Oh, okay. But Monster Eliza Sue is frantic in the street, the bulging eye of her new head wide and shifting. Elizabeth Sparkle's face still chokes from her back as Monster Eliza Sue runs down the street, her breath wheezing in and out of her.

She takes another step with her bulging leg and it crumbles, breaking in a spurt of blood and viscera. Monstro Eliza Sue falls. And when she lands on the sidewalk, her parts explode away from each other and blood and a cloud of smoke. A red pool begins to spread beneath her, but Elizabeth Sparkle's face is finally freed from monster Eliza Sue's back. And in a melted blob of her own spent flesh, she crawls forward, groaning with every inch, every centimeter, leaving a crimson trail behind her.

They used Noid Studio for the Vizifex. And they said that it took over a year to fine tune this. Wow. Like I said earlier, most of the effects here are practical work. And so they had to go through and remove a lot of wires and a lot of things like that. And here on this blob, they digitally, they did a... volumetric scan of Demi Moore's face performing this sequence and then digitally added it onto the back of this kind of blobby puddle of flesh and it is

I think striking. Yeah. Yeah. What did she say earlier when she was doing the workout routine? And she's like, you want to look like an octopus on the whatever? Yeah. A jellyfish. That's right. Damn. That hurts. Yeah. She's jellyfish now. Yeah. It was interesting to me, too, because the VizFX director had said what we heard on Terrifier 2. when the best compliment that you can get is, well, what did you do? Right. And it's like, that's when you know I fucking killed it, you know?

With every effort she can muster, Elizabeth makes it to her star on the Walk of Fame. Pink and cracked, but still boasting in faded gold, Elizabeth's sparkle. Her new final form crawls onto its center. And finally, Elizabeth Sparkle stops struggling. She takes one last look up at the towering palm trees as she lets out a deep sigh. Suddenly, gold glitter begins to fall down on her. Her face lights with a smile as a spotlight finds her in an unseen crowd cheers.

Grand music swells and Elizabeth closes her eyes, letting the glitter rain. In her snow globe, that version of her stands confident, hands on her hips, basking in the fluttering gold. Elizabeth's eyes, her original eyes, look in on this, and through the cutout and the crude mask, the crew lines the shining-esque hallway, lavishing praise. You're so beautiful. We love you. You're irreplaceable.

We see Elizabeth in the center of it all, her hair pulled up like in her snow globe, like the night she was awarded her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star that this melted and condensed version of her lies on now, beaming up at invisible gold glitter. The spotlight dims and Elizabeth's sparkle melts away into a red pool. And in the morning, it's crusted blood that stains her star instead of ketchup.

A man pushes a bright yellow cleaning machine over it and once it makes its pass, the star is pink and pristine. It boasts at us in fading gold. Elizabeth Sparkle. The synth note pulses and we get the title in black against a white background. The substance. techno pulses in the credits roll. So what did you guys think of the substance? I really enjoyed this movie. The ups and downs, the ride. A lot of it was, I know there was a lot of messaging and stuff in the movie and I did appreciate that.

um i i again the ending for me was a very different turn from what we were leading up to but watching it again we were always leading up to that like it was going to be that way no matter what um But I did enjoy it, the craziness of it, everything that's going on.

Me, myself, as a man, I won't say that I fully understand everything that the movie's trying to tell me or what I'm supposed to learn or take out of some of this stuff because women go through a lot of shit and have to deal with dumbasses like us.

Not all men are bad, but I mean, there are a lot of stupid asses out there. But it does open your eyes a little bit to kind of see, you know what I mean, another point of view of it. And it is, the visuals are striking, the messaging, the everything about it. uh, is really good. I really, really did enjoy this. Um, and Hey, I took some stuff out of it and you know, like there's a lot of hard shit to watch.

And the message, like I said, just the movie overall does a really good job of everything that is trying to get across. what the visual effects the everything the cinematography the music the the synth oh i love it like i said that was for me it was just when the music would kick on and if something is serious is happening I'm just dancing. I'm just like, oh, fuck, that's crazy. But damn, what a really good movie. I agree. I think this film is really, really impressive in a lot of ways.

The attention to detail. Yeah. In literally every aspect of filmmaking from the technical side to the messaging to the performances. Everything just works. And I think that it is just so indicative of incredible direction from Coralie Farge. The care and thoughtfulness and attention and intention.

And I'm surprised every time I watch this after I watched it the first time. Yeah. Just how well paced it is. Yeah. It is about two and a half hours. Yeah. Does not feel its runtime in the slightest. Nope. At all. I just think that it's visually so incredible. You are engaged and interested the entire time. It never lost me. No. I think the first time I just had a difficulty with how wild the last bit.

gets right but after watching it more and more it's exactly as you said where else would we go yeah this is the logical even if it feels illogical yeah the logical ending the end point But I think that it's also, I mean, with its messaging, such an important film. And I think that everything that we see and experience through watching this film...

I think that it is one that will stay with you. Oh, yeah. This is not a film to watch and forget after you've seen it. Yeah. It's impossible to forget. No, I completely agree. I think that it is visually absolutely stunning. Demi Moore gives the performance of a lifetime. I am absolutely blown away by the effects and the prosthetics and the makeup, the costumes, the set, the color palette, the music, which I don't think I already said, but if I did whatever, count it twice. I think that it is.

As a film, so remarkable, but when you peel it back and get to that nugget of commentary in there, that's really what... cements it for me as like you said, he's such an important film that I think that everybody should watch. There's so much here about the way that society treats women, uses women. objectifies women, commodifies women, chews them up, spits them out, turns them against each other, turns them against themselves. These scenes of Elizabeth and Sue.

that is self-hate yeah that is i mean it's it's devastating but it's told in such a way that it's like you're so engrossed in the story that you have to take a step back and be like oh my god I mean, it's just, it's so important. I think as a woman, it is at times a very difficult watch, but it also, you know, by the ending, it's like, fuck yeah.

Like, fuck this system. Fuck us for feeding it for so long. Like, I would, if this reached, you know, 2% of its audience to be like, oh, wow, I never looked at it that way before. then that is such an admirable accomplishment. I think that Farge, as a woman being a victim to the system... To think that her life is going to be over at 50 years old. To channel that. and make this, I'm in awe. And I think she's added to the list of directors now. It's whatever you make. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm there.

I feel like I have so many thoughts that it's hard to like remember all of them now that it's time to share them. But I think and I would hope that I got my point across of what. watching this film and really digesting it, what it means. It really just, I love it. I love it so much. I think that the ending is really devastating, too. And I have to agree with you on where else were we going with this? Yeah. But I think I'm a big fan in my own writing.

media that I consume of starting things where they begin and bringing us back to that star. It has stood there through everything that she has been through. And so returning to this moment of this high point that she felt in her life. it's so sad and far jay even said and i was like i had to pause the interview and be like hold up let me let me really take that in for a second she said that

Elizabeth finally finds this moment of peace when she no longer has a body. Wow. Huh. And it was like a gut punch. I just I really can't say enough. I would I could sit here rambling for another half an hour, but I'm not going to do that to you all because I feel like this episode is already going to be really, really long. So I just have to say.

I love this film. I think it's very important. There are moments, if I had my 100% way, that are a little heavy-handed that I think Farge trusts us with so much. to dig into the meaning and the symbolism behind a lot of the things that we're seeing. That I would just like to be trusted a little bit more. Yeah. I only needed one reminder that that man is that nurse. Yeah. I just needed one. I didn't need 12. You know what I mean? Like it's stuff like that where it's like.

Yeah, the glittering gold reminds me of that snow globe and what that snow globe represents. I don't necessarily need to see the snow globe so many times to know that that is a motif, that is a visual, what it harkens to, what it means. But it's like, you know, this woman said, I'm going to tell a story in visuals and here it is. And I'm like, okay, bitch, I love it. You know what I mean? I can't nitpick too much because you really did give us gold. Yeah. No pun intended.

So we can kind of slide into ratings as well because I said I was going to stop twice and I keep going. So for me. On a scale of 1 to 10 serum siphoned spines, I am giving the substance 10 out of 10 serum siphoned spines. I love everything about this. I love the body horror. I love what it symbolizes and what it means and what. Society has so often demanded that we turn ourselves into trying to maintain this impossible, unrealistic standard, this glorification of youth.

And this, you know, once you hit 50, it stops. What stops? What are you talking about? It's just, oh, my God. And Dennis Quaid. Oh, God. Good Lord. Another performance where I'm just never going to forget how much I fucking hated him. And Margaret Qualley was excellent, too. I feel like she gets left out of the conversation a lot. But yeah, I think that this film is so fucking important. I should be required viewing, I think.

I love it. I will watch it many more times. I love it. And I will now open the floor to you. No, I understand, and like I said a minute ago, I know everything I won't really understand being from the other side, but... I can appreciate and really get into, period, the story that's just being told about body image. and about these unrealistic expectations. My ass is never going to look like Diego's. I mean, that's not... I get it. That's what society wants. I'm sorry I can't give it to you.

But it is that when you do see... muscle bound men. And that's what they're feeding you. you want to get jacked and look like a real man. And it's like, well, but I work a job, two jobs and I, whatever. And it's like, I thought, yeah, impossible. Yeah. We can only watch that fight milk commercial. So many fucking times when we start feeling bad. Yeah. I am not a bodyguard. It's made for bodyguards. Yes, it is.

Five bodyguards. Yeah. But you know what I mean? You can understand that. Yes. You can understand it in the movie. You do see, even for the things that I do, Fully didn't understand. The messaging, I think, is universal, period. Agreed. And it is that. You know, people set such high expectations for things and this. it's uh your image and what you bring are just I guess what you bring to the table but what you look like what you bring to the table or whatever

But there was a lot of moments just watching it being like, damn, that's fucking, I would feel like shit or that's rough or whatever. You know what I mean? It is a bit of an eye opener to something. But I agree. I feel like if you haven't seen this movie, watch it. And even if it's not something that you enjoy.

try to really look at it and take what you can out of it because there is stuff in there that, that I think, like you said, baby, everybody should watch and should understand and kind of see. But for me on a scale from one to 10, Serum siphon spines. I'm going to give the substance an 8.5 out of 10. I really did like the movie and the effects. And I, again, I like the crazy freaky shit.

The ending, that was cool. It reminded me a little bit of Lady and the Fruit Cellar from Evil Dead when they cut off her head in her hands and she's spraying blood everywhere. I mean, it did again. I do the visuals great. The monsters grows in the best possible way. Practical effects for the win all day long. Always, always. Yeah, I agree with everything you both just said.

I don't know that there's anything that I can really add to anything. Right. I feel like we've spoken a lot and really made our opinions and thoughts known. I think it really just is. It just boils down to it being such a poignant message. Timeless. Yeah. And I think that. I appreciate even the satirical, like overdramatic, exaggerated things. I think it is what you said. The only thing that I can say as a drawback is there are moments that I would appreciate it being a little more subtle.

Trusting your audience to... follow you as we have already and understand. Yeah. So it is a couple moments like that that are drawbacks. And I think a few... lines of dialogue that I think are for being such a visual filmmaker it's already expressed perfectly yeah you don't have to tell me I know I got it yeah I promise But I think, no, everybody should see this. I think that it is a fantastic piece of filmmaking, maybe even bordering on the line of a cinematic achievement. For sure.

But with all that said, for me, out of 10 serum-siphoned spines, I am going to give the substance 9 serum-siphoned spines out of 10. This film is wild. It is... hilarious yeah yeah at sometimes the most tragic thing you've ever seen in your life yeah it's it's it's a great piece of work I forgot to even say she's back to blue in the end.

Like she did her neon and her metallics and her pinks and then she's back to blue because you can't escape from yourself. That's what he says in the video. It's very well crafted. It is. Well, that's all from us at Podmortem. What would you rate the substance in which we watch next?

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And remember, we are our own worst critic. Confidence and peace can only come from the person we see in the mirror. Love and respect them regardless of the external noise. Until next time. Thank you for staying tuned for a special thank you to our Wendigo Getter patrons. Woo. Yeah. Very good. A special thank you to Chris Ontiveros, Kristen Lofton, Megan Martinez, Kimberly Bass.

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Veronica, Kristen Rhodes, Daniel Laurent, Carmito, TVR, Trev Heron, A Very Sweepy Baby, Randy Tucker, Nicholas Rage, A Lazy Boy, Nicola Williams, Sadison Miles, Jasmine, Smith, thank you all so much. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Thank you all. We love you. And I have to say that your support pumps. Us up. You gotta. Yeah, you gotta. We're all slow motion twerking over here. Until next time.