The Substance opens with Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle leading a workout routine for some TV show, complete with leg warmers and lots of spandex. Is this a flashback? What is going on here? Is she supposed to be like a Jane Fonda type? Ok, but does this take place in the 80’s? Who the fuck is watching aerobics shows in 2024? And leg warmers? Very 80’s. One of the charms of this flick is how it really embodies its own world. This film does not take place in our Universe. Is it an alternate reality? Or perhaps an alternate dimension? Or maybe something else entirely? The world of this film seems to mix elements of the past 40 years in a blender. You got people reading newspapers, using corded land lines, while the occasional smart phone or flat screen TV or USB drive pops up. Clearly, we’re not in Kansas. But where are we? On her drive home after being fired, Elisabeth is distracted by her show’s billboard being ripped down, and is t-boned at an intersection, sending her car tumbling end over end. Miraculously, she survives… Or does she? I believe Elisabeth died in that car wreck, and the rest of the film is her journey through Purgatory, until finally ascending to Heaven at the end. It’s the only way you can make sense of a lot of what happens in this film, especially the ridiculous third act. Only one problem, before the crash, we’ve already seen the weird timeline stuff, with an 80’s workout show, while Dennis Quaid has a smartphone. It’s quite possible the entire film is her purgatorial journey through her own self-destructive vanity. There’s no way this film is taking place in anything but the fever dream imagination of a dying celebrity who valued youth and beauty above all else.