Social Meeting to Discuss Movie "The Substance"

This is a social meetup to debate and discuss the recent movie "The Substance" staring Demi Moore, which addresses a theme we have had a few meetings on - aging.

I myself have not watched the movie yet, and don't want to provide details that are a spoiler to the film. But here is the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNlrGhBpYjc

This social event will take place at Francine's on the west end (location will be sent to participates a day or two beforehand). Thanks Francine for hosting again!

Please bring along a side dish or dessert for sharing, and BYOB. Be responsible, if you plan to indulge with any drinks, share a ride with a DD or plan to order an uber.

Look forward to seeing some of you there.

**UPDATE***

Spoiler Alert: If you have not yet watched the movie, do not read my review and comments until after you do so.

I was intrigued to watch this movie, and have a discussion of it, because of the fundamental premise of the movie. However I will say, now that I watched the movie, I think it is a bad, very bad, movie. The last 30 minutes in particular was painful and embarrassing to watch. The gratuitous gore and blood towards the end reminded me of the movie “The Fly” (which actually is a good movie) and an Alice Cooper concert! (when the audience are sprayed with blood) :)
Having said that, there are themes in the movie I think raise interesting issues we can discuss. For example:

#1. There is the relation between your past, present and future selves. The actions you undertake now, concerning nutrition, exercise, socializing, etc. can impact the physical and mental health of your future self. The prescription for taking the substance was “balance”, and the star struggled to find this balance as her younger self was more impulsive and cared little for the negative effects her actions would have on her older self. Though the same was also true of her older self (who put herself in this mess because of her desire to restore her physical beauty). In the real world we of course first live out our youth before, if we are fortunate, surviving into later ages. So I took a central theme of the movie to be one which encouraged us to strife for balance, as well as accept how aging impacts us at different stages of the lifespan and not obsess with achieving an excess of one thing (e.g. physical beauty) over living well throughout the complete lifespan.

#2. Another major theme in the movie—the obsession with physical beauty. The main character predicates her whole value on being adored by others for her physical beauty. I have never seen a movie feature more butt coverage than this movie ha ha. The main character’s obsession with beauty was captured by the card on the flowers that had the caption “They will love you”. This message compels the older version of the character to revive her younger self, because she wants the love of the crowd. If, instead, she had come to love herself (warts and all), her life would have gone much better.

I am sure there will be plenty of topics we can discuss at this social meetup. Looking forward to it!
Cheers,
Colin