Shamin Yazdani from the 13th floor was busy sitting in the dark and watching as many NZIFF videos as possible, including The substance on closing night. Here is her review and a summary of what was good and not so good at the film festival.

During the film’s introduction, the audience is warned that they are in for a wild ride and that they should expect to be on the edge of their seats, but in my opinion, it is a ride to be missed and a seat to be left behind.

Better on paper than on screen, the concept of The substance, is strong, but is perceived by the filmmaker as weak implementation Coralie Fargeat. The film touches on some very important and relevant themes (namely aging, conflicting ideologies between the new and older generations, the way we (women?) bend ourselves in pursuit of unattainable perfection, “the grass is greener”, etc.), but ultimately Fargeat fails to explore these concepts in any meaningful way. Instead, she resorts to lazy tropes, supports and perpetuates the male gaze through the unimaginative fetishization of the female body, and takes an unexpected turn into the absurd in the final act that fails to land. The film plods along in a self-congratulatory attempt to provoke and shock for no other reason than to be memorable, and that’s not a good reason to waste two hours and 20 minutes of anyone’s time. TL;DR: What the film delivers in aesthetics, it lacks in substance. How meta!

The Silver Lining – the closing film was in no way a reflection of the quality of this year’s selection (and hopefully not a hint of the 2025 program)! My rating: