Thank you so much for drawing the lines btw the two movies. I don't know if I would directly compare them since one is comedy and the other horror, but I do love how you pin pointed that one is about a doll (not real) deciding to be a real woman while the other is about a real woman trying and failing to become a doll (not real).
clenching my teeth and digging my nails into my chair rn cause im planning to watch substance with a friend this weekend and have to wait till then to watch this video spoiler free 😔 sirsugarmeat testing the limits of human patience once again
Real!!! Thank you for this amazing exploration of the two movies!! Your in-depth analysis really enhanced and solidified my understanding and appreciation of The Substance, and Barbie as well!
this video of yours is so good! i love all the green screen edits and subtle sound editing to mimic the unrelenting sound design of the substance. i also wanna say that, perhaps its because this video has placed barbie and the substance next to each other, but i think gloria's speech isnt about barbie at all. its about gloria and how she has felt and how her own self hatred and self policing has led her expression of herself (her barbie) to hate herself as well. after watching the substance, my main take away was how much i need to be kinder to myself, in aging, in failing, in existing. and i think that Barbie is the reflection of gloria trying and failing to be kind to herself while still falling into the same self loathing patterns we have seen before and that we will see again. i might be reading too much into this, and maybe barbies journey is entirely her own outside of gloria's experience, but i remember starting to cry at that scene where barbie looks at the older woman on the bus stop and feeling that same need to be kinder to myself and others about adhering to a physical standard when we are all just trying to exist. i kinda wrote an essay and it got away from me. i love your video. im really glad i found you through your video about trans activists releasing crickets on terfs, and im so happy to see other people who resonate with the substance, and to know im not alone.
woahhhh... here from the crickets video i feel like im the cool secret spy who found treasure. First comment! I haven't seen barbie though. Or The Substance. Sorry. You're cool though!!!
great analysis!! the substance was bugging me for a while because I couldn't put all of my thoughts into words, but when you said that Fargeat insists that we forgo our bodies in order to evolve our minds and reach beyond our physical forms, it all clicked--I wrote my MA thesis on feminist theories of the body in relation to feminist poetry books, and I essentially came to the same conclusion. If you're interested in feminist body theory (and I truly hope I'm not seeming condescending 😅), you should look into Bruno Latour's essay On Technical Mediation. He writes that technology, when combined with a human body, creates a new special third "thing" that has the capabilities of both tools, but the relationship is symbiotic--the new special third "thing" can't exist without the existence of each individual tool. I always felt like a woman's body lives in the same space. We have to find our "true selves" somewhere in between society's interpretation of our physical bodies and our lived experience within our bodies. Anyway, sorry for the rant, but this video hit my exact niche!! thank you so much for this!! ❤
not condescending at all! :D i love receiving reading recs (and honestly it's the most effective way at getting me to read since i get overwhelmed by the vast multitude of choices out there). sounds interesting and i've been increasingly interested in seeing how tech affects our society and identities; i'll definitely put it on my list! thank you for watching!
Great analysis, I was looking for a good one to help me gather my thoughts after the substance. Me and my boyfriend just stared at each other in the end not knowing what to say 😂 it's been weeks now and I think I'm finally able to gather my thoughts after all those shocking scenes haha, it was so impactful, in like the weirdest way that I didn't even know was possible. Thanks for your insight, super interesting!
Thank you! My partner and I had a similar reaction after watching but instead of just staring, we just started laughing and making unintelligible noises. Quite an experience!
Awesome comparisons and analysis! I hadn’t made the connection between the two films before (since you know it’s been LIKE a decade lol😅) but your thoughts regarding scenes individually aligned with mine when i watched each respective film 💕💕
This is the best analysis I've seen about these movies! 🤩You really ponited out what gave me this vauge disappointment and confusion about The Barbie Movie. It's too all over the place to really feel impactful with it's messaging. It felt pretty strange to see all Ken's have the power taken away again and go back to an unequal society and it being treated as a win. If the Kens are the "women" of Barbieland is it really femenist to portray them as too stupid for their own good and that they will have to "earn" equal power? The movie is kind of making Barbie and Barbieland an opposite of the real world when it obviously is a product of it. It's kind of a girlboss feminist paradise where women can be dressed to the nines and still be taken seriously and be supported. There is freedom where there is a lack of shame. Shame is introduced when Barbie becomes more human for example gets cellulite. That this is a problem shows Barbieland to be a facade, you can't "be anything" as the tagline put's it. Even things that are not under your control, like cellulite, are somehow a failure. In this way Barbieland is the extreme version of our own world where women are shamed for being human as opposed to fitting an ideal. On the other hand the Barbies hold all political power but still seems to have bigger pressure put on them than the Kens. Barbieland is a false paradise even before Ken's introduction to partiarchy because it already has that female shame in it's core structure since based on our own patriarchal world.
I loved the substance, but I think the reason barbie hit a little stronger with me is because I'm already so hyper critical of myself, and I know its not bad, so the substance just reflected back feelings of myself I already knew were there and knew ere problematic, where as the sort of campy optimistic tone of the barbie movie was a bit refreshing. It made me feel a bit better about myself. I agree a lot of it's commentary is surface level, and I think that's sort of the hindrances of it's genre. Horror, as a genre, allows us to say a lot of things that something like a romcom/adventure/ whatever you'd classify barbie as can't.
Ah, interesting! That's the beauty of art- different folks will be inspired by different forms of presentation, so I totally get your point of view. I disagree with the limits of genre though- I'd say both horror and comedy have a ton of shallow media, but there have also been more layered comedies: The Truman Show, Swiss Army Man, Everything Everywhere All at Once if that counts. But that aside, like we said, surface level doesn't have to mean bad.
The Substance was an odd movie for me. I'm very uncomfortable with body horror and in a lot of ways couldn't get into the final third. That's not because it was dishonest to the movie it was, but the ending my vanilla tastes would've preferred was something a lot more grounded (read: subtle). Then again, I hadn't considered the "out of body" metaphor that you discuss which actually makes me appreciate it more. As someone who has their own perceptions around age and image, the first 2/3 hit me very hard. It's rare for a movie to have made me feel something as deeply as The Substance did. I especially remember being physically repulsed at the overeating scene just because of personal experiences. For what it's worth, this movie is effective in conveying a lot of difficult emotions to the point I wish I could get on board with the finale. I think Barbie also works "better" for general audiences just because it's more intellectual debate than visualizing the talking points in grotesque fashion. There's a safe distance between generalizing and specification, which may be why Barbie didn't emotionally resonate for me as much despite being more palatable to my tastes. Its happy ending is obvious and inclusive. With all that said, The Substance is weird because I was so disturbed by it that I struggled to get why anyone in my theater was laughing. Even the online discourse seems to pit it as dark comedy when the humor just looks like abject cruelty. Maybe I am again missing something, but I was too wrapped up in the drama/tragedy to chuckle.
I get that; yours is actually a common reaction I've seen when I was looking at reviews for this movie. I saw a lot of people express how they felt like the end ruined it for them, considering the more relatively grounded tone in the first 2/3rds of the movie. I don't think you necessarily missed anything in the movie; "dark comedies" are always controversial because of the sensitive subject matter and humor itself is subjective. The comedic timing of the pause before the crowd starts screaming one by one to me though made me laugh, but combined with the tragedy of poor Elisasue, it was definitely a mix of humor and sadness for me. Thanks for sharing though! I love hearing about the various reactions people have to this movie and how we've grown to view the Barbie movie over time!
i appreciate your efforts in this comparison but your critiques of barbie just read off as overly incendiary, it felt like you were refusing to engage with it in good faith at all
Thank you so much for drawing the lines btw the two movies. I don't know if I would directly compare them since one is comedy and the other horror, but I do love how you pin pointed that one is about a doll (not real) deciding to be a real woman while the other is about a real woman trying and failing to become a doll (not real).
clenching my teeth and digging my nails into my chair rn cause im planning to watch substance with a friend this weekend and have to wait till then to watch this video spoiler free 😔 sirsugarmeat testing the limits of human patience once again
I envy the fact that you will get to watch it for the first time while i can never experience the first-time watch again 😔 hope you have fun!!!
This was n incredible analysis and put into words all the feelings I had about the substance :)
Real!!! Thank you for this amazing exploration of the two movies!! Your in-depth analysis really enhanced and solidified my understanding and appreciation of The Substance, and Barbie as well!
this video of yours is so good! i love all the green screen edits and subtle sound editing to mimic the unrelenting sound design of the substance.
i also wanna say that, perhaps its because this video has placed barbie and the substance next to each other, but i think gloria's speech isnt about barbie at all. its about gloria and how she has felt and how her own self hatred and self policing has led her expression of herself (her barbie) to hate herself as well.
after watching the substance, my main take away was how much i need to be kinder to myself, in aging, in failing, in existing. and i think that Barbie is the reflection of gloria trying and failing to be kind to herself while still falling into the same self loathing patterns we have seen before and that we will see again.
i might be reading too much into this, and maybe barbies journey is entirely her own outside of gloria's experience, but i remember starting to cry at that scene where barbie looks at the older woman on the bus stop and feeling that same need to be kinder to myself and others about adhering to a physical standard when we are all just trying to exist.
i kinda wrote an essay and it got away from me. i love your video. im really glad i found you through your video about trans activists releasing crickets on terfs, and im so happy to see other people who resonate with the substance, and to know im not alone.
Thank you so much, and no, thank you for that essay! It definitely provides more perspective on the Gloria speech, and I appreciate it a lot!
woahhhh... here from the crickets video i feel like im the cool secret spy who found treasure. First comment! I haven't seen barbie though. Or The Substance. Sorry. You're cool though!!!
Thank you, I appreciate the comment anyway 😌
I love your editing style, pretty funny!
great analysis!! the substance was bugging me for a while because I couldn't put all of my thoughts into words, but when you said that Fargeat insists that we forgo our bodies in order to evolve our minds and reach beyond our physical forms, it all clicked--I wrote my MA thesis on feminist theories of the body in relation to feminist poetry books, and I essentially came to the same conclusion. If you're interested in feminist body theory (and I truly hope I'm not seeming condescending 😅), you should look into Bruno Latour's essay On Technical Mediation. He writes that technology, when combined with a human body, creates a new special third "thing" that has the capabilities of both tools, but the relationship is symbiotic--the new special third "thing" can't exist without the existence of each individual tool. I always felt like a woman's body lives in the same space. We have to find our "true selves" somewhere in between society's interpretation of our physical bodies and our lived experience within our bodies. Anyway, sorry for the rant, but this video hit my exact niche!! thank you so much for this!! ❤
not condescending at all! :D i love receiving reading recs (and honestly it's the most effective way at getting me to read since i get overwhelmed by the vast multitude of choices out there). sounds interesting and i've been increasingly interested in seeing how tech affects our society and identities; i'll definitely put it on my list! thank you for watching!
Great analysis, I was looking for a good one to help me gather my thoughts after the substance. Me and my boyfriend just stared at each other in the end not knowing what to say 😂 it's been weeks now and I think I'm finally able to gather my thoughts after all those shocking scenes haha, it was so impactful, in like the weirdest way that I didn't even know was possible. Thanks for your insight, super interesting!
Thank you! My partner and I had a similar reaction after watching but instead of just staring, we just started laughing and making unintelligible noises. Quite an experience!
Commenting now cuz I bet this video will rock, but I can't watch until me & my partner see the Substance!!
@@ollieq3150 appreciate the comment anyway! Hope you and your partner have a fun viewing experience ^^
Awesome comparisons and analysis! I hadn’t made the connection between the two films before (since you know it’s been LIKE a decade lol😅) but your thoughts regarding scenes individually aligned with mine when i watched each respective film 💕💕
I got the video recommended. Majima's head was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one :D
yes, he is my co-host 😌 we both welcome u
This is the best analysis I've seen about these movies! 🤩You really ponited out what gave me this vauge disappointment and confusion about The Barbie Movie. It's too all over the place to really feel impactful with it's messaging.
It felt pretty strange to see all Ken's have the power taken away again and go back to an unequal society and it being treated as a win. If the Kens are the "women" of Barbieland is it really femenist to portray them as too stupid for their own good and that they will have to "earn" equal power? The movie is kind of making Barbie and Barbieland an opposite of the real world when it obviously is a product of it. It's kind of a girlboss feminist paradise where women can be dressed to the nines and still be taken seriously and be supported. There is freedom where there is a lack of shame. Shame is introduced when Barbie becomes more human for example gets cellulite. That this is a problem shows Barbieland to be a facade, you can't "be anything" as the tagline put's it. Even things that are not under your control, like cellulite, are somehow a failure. In this way Barbieland is the extreme version of our own world where women are shamed for being human as opposed to fitting an ideal. On the other hand the Barbies hold all political power but still seems to have bigger pressure put on them than the Kens. Barbieland is a false paradise even before Ken's introduction to partiarchy because it already has that female shame in it's core structure since based on our own patriarchal world.
I loved the substance, but I think the reason barbie hit a little stronger with me is because I'm already so hyper critical of myself, and I know its not bad, so the substance just reflected back feelings of myself I already knew were there and knew ere problematic, where as the sort of campy optimistic tone of the barbie movie was a bit refreshing. It made me feel a bit better about myself. I agree a lot of it's commentary is surface level, and I think that's sort of the hindrances of it's genre. Horror, as a genre, allows us to say a lot of things that something like a romcom/adventure/ whatever you'd classify barbie as can't.
Ah, interesting! That's the beauty of art- different folks will be inspired by different forms of presentation, so I totally get your point of view. I disagree with the limits of genre though- I'd say both horror and comedy have a ton of shallow media, but there have also been more layered comedies: The Truman Show, Swiss Army Man, Everything Everywhere All at Once if that counts. But that aside, like we said, surface level doesn't have to mean bad.
Will not watch Substance since I'm squimish as fuck but I greatly enjoyed this analysis.
completely understandable i am not too squeamish but even i had residual back pains after watching. thank you for listening to my analysis!
The Substance was an odd movie for me. I'm very uncomfortable with body horror and in a lot of ways couldn't get into the final third. That's not because it was dishonest to the movie it was, but the ending my vanilla tastes would've preferred was something a lot more grounded (read: subtle). Then again, I hadn't considered the "out of body" metaphor that you discuss which actually makes me appreciate it more.
As someone who has their own perceptions around age and image, the first 2/3 hit me very hard. It's rare for a movie to have made me feel something as deeply as The Substance did. I especially remember being physically repulsed at the overeating scene just because of personal experiences. For what it's worth, this movie is effective in conveying a lot of difficult emotions to the point I wish I could get on board with the finale. I think Barbie also works "better" for general audiences just because it's more intellectual debate than visualizing the talking points in grotesque fashion. There's a safe distance between generalizing and specification, which may be why Barbie didn't emotionally resonate for me as much despite being more palatable to my tastes. Its happy ending is obvious and inclusive.
With all that said, The Substance is weird because I was so disturbed by it that I struggled to get why anyone in my theater was laughing. Even the online discourse seems to pit it as dark comedy when the humor just looks like abject cruelty. Maybe I am again missing something, but I was too wrapped up in the drama/tragedy to chuckle.
I get that; yours is actually a common reaction I've seen when I was looking at reviews for this movie. I saw a lot of people express how they felt like the end ruined it for them, considering the more relatively grounded tone in the first 2/3rds of the movie.
I don't think you necessarily missed anything in the movie; "dark comedies" are always controversial because of the sensitive subject matter and humor itself is subjective. The comedic timing of the pause before the crowd starts screaming one by one to me though made me laugh, but combined with the tragedy of poor Elisasue, it was definitely a mix of humor and sadness for me.
Thanks for sharing though! I love hearing about the various reactions people have to this movie and how we've grown to view the Barbie movie over time!
i appreciate your efforts in this comparison but your critiques of barbie just read off as overly incendiary, it felt like you were refusing to engage with it in good faith at all
what did i misinterpret?
I very thoroughly enjoyed this analysis!