What do The Substance, Nosferatu, and Babygirl have in common? They externalize the characters' inner feelings - self-loathing, guilt, shame - in the most grotesque ways possible.Ahead of the Academy Awards, Brittany Luse sits down with IBAM producer Alexis Williams and Pop Culture Happy Hour co-host Aisha Harris, to get into how these trending films bring women's internal monsters to life.Support public media and receive ad-free listening & bonus content. Join NPR+ today.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This message comes from Scholastic with the new novel El Nino, an entrancing adventure from beloved and award-winning author of Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan. Jason Reynolds calls it a brilliant amalgamation of myth, nature, sport, and loss. I've never read anything like it. El Nino is available wherever books are sold. A warning, this segment contains references to sex and sexuality.
Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. You know the phrase, you don't want to yuck someone's yum? If you start with Orlok at a yuck, by the end, you're like, I see what Ellen is getting into with this.
Speak for yourself, but okay.
Yeah. It is the last week of Oscar season. And instead of talking about the glitz and the glamour, I want to get nasty, but not in the way you may be thinking.
My producer, Alexis, noticed that some of our favorite films from the past year have been portraits of women battling with what disgusts them most, themselves, their insecurities, their desires, their yearning, and how those feelings manifest in a society that's often hostile to women. Think about it.
The substance, Nosferatu, even Baby Girl, all feature women dealing with some type of self-loathing made real. Whether that's through a literal monster or an affair with a younger coworker. But I wanted to dig deeper. So I called up Pop Culture Happy Hours' Aisha Harris to help. Hi.
Aisha, Alexis, and I are getting into how women's desire, repression, and disgust have made the monsters that appear on screen all too real. And for those who haven't seen these films, there are some light spoilers ahead. But don't worry, we won't ruin the whole movie. First up, The Substance. The Substance
This Oscar-nominated film stars Demi Moore as Elizabeth, a fading celebrity who, on her 50th birthday, is fired from her job as a TV aerobics instructor. Then she's told about this substance, a drug that can make her young, hot, and most importantly, lovable again. She takes it and... Sue appears, played by Margaret Qualley. Sue is successful, beautiful, and gets Elizabeth's old job back.
But the thing about the substance is you have to respect the balance. And Elizabeth can only live as Sue for seven days. Then Elizabeth must return to her old self. And that starts a vicious, very gory cycle that snowballs into one of the most gruesome body horror experiences that I've ever seen.
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