Substance

I haven’t seen so much tits since forever. Jokes aside though, I know Demi Moore is portrayed as “old and ugly”, but looking like that when you’re 60 is still impressive. If it’s not all as CGI as Margaret Qualley’s tits are.
Now, once I covered the topic of high culture, time to discuss how technically impressive the movie is. It’s not subtle, but I also don’t do subtle. So Elisabeth / Demi passing through the orange corridor with her posters ageing works for me. I also like symmetry, symmetry is great.
The obvious layer is “be careful what you wish for”, kind of like more recent Obsession. There’s even unsettling help line. Who isn’t afraid of terrible customer service after all? And the parallels with beauty surgery is clear. You want not just to preserve your looks, you want to look better than before. And for that, you’re cut open, then sewn back together. And maybe you even inject some suspicious substances in your leg, or maybe your face.
Also similar to Obsession, there’s a theme of making conscious choices to continue down this path. Elisabeth is offered to stop when only her finger is transformed, she’s offered to stop when she’s all shriveled, but she just can’t, because of the sunken costs.
I enjoyed the most the horror of the mundane. The close up shots of cooking and eating. As I get older, I do spend more and more time in the kitchen, so it hits home.
And there’s clearly a generational relationship, where Elisabeth blames Sue for partying, while Sue blames Elisabeth for gluttony and sloth. Speaking of which, I think it’s possible to find all 7 deadly sins in Elisabeth and Sue combined.
Speaking of combined, the 3rd and final act is designed to be grotesque. If it was less grotesque, I think it could be far more unsettling. Stephen King level of falling out teeth and nails was far more gruesome to me. But that way, you can just laugh it off.
There’s something to be said about asymmetry of the relationship as well. The borrowing works only in one direction. So while Sue can take something from Elisabeth, the only thing Elisabeth can take back from Sue is her life.
I didn’t expect the 3rd act to work out the way it did. I thought that Sue and Elisabeth will now join forces and show those Evil Men their place. Or maybe Elisabeth just goes back to herself after the second injection. But that would be sucking all the tragedy from the story.

Detail that I missed: the story is inspired by Jane Fonda, a name I’ve heard, but wasn’t familiar with. One look at her picture tells a story. Jane Fonda’s Workout was the highest selling VHS ever.