This 93% RT Oscar-Nominated Movie Has A Surprising Connection To The Substance

Feb 9, 2025 - 10:00

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This 93% RT Oscar-Nominated Movie Has A Surprising Connection To The Substance

A Different Man is one of 2024's most underrated movies, a film that deserves much more attention for its fascinating, progressive examination of self-identity in a world that's becoming dangerously obsessed with image. Starring Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson in two of the year's most complex, empathetic roles, the film explores the inseparable connection between how one is perceived by the people around them and how they feel within themself. Sebastian Stan won a Golden Globe for A Different Man, but the film performed surprisingly poorly at the Oscars.

Incidentally, there's a clear connection between A Different Man and one of this year's most popular Best Picture nominees, The Substance. Both films have clear similarities in their stories and messages, despite adopting wildly different methods of conveying this to the audience. The Substance's Best Picture nomination was fairly surprising given its brash, genre-driven storytelling that the Academy usually isnt drawn towards — which makes it even more shocking that A Different Man was snubbed.

A Different Man Is Another Movie About Changing Your Appearance

Aaron Schimberg's Film Is Just As Transformative As The Substance

While the two films have very different visual styles and storytelling methods, both A Different Man and The Substance are films about changing one's physique and the mental impact that follows such a procedure. Sebastian Stan's film is a dark, gritty portrayal of self-identity that follows an actor named Edward who undergoes medical surgery to drastically transform his appearance, hoping that it will improve his career and make his life easier. What he finds, however, is that his new visage cannot reclaim the real person that he left behind.

A Different Man is a very important and timely film that explores the relationship between success, fame, and beauty; Edward only feels successful when he’s conventionally attractive, but this constant need for appraisal leaves a dark mark on his psyche. It's very similar to The Substance in this way, which also uses a dystopian form of body transformation to explore the importance of conventional beauty in today's celebrity culture.

A Different Man Was Sadly Snubbed At The Oscars

The Academy Chose To Award Stan For Another Project

Sebastian Stan received his first Oscar nomination in 2025, but it wasn't for his work in A Different Man. The actor was rewarded for his equally compelling turn in The Apprentice, where he plays a young version of Donald Trump during the early years of his career. While it's refreshing to finally see Stan rewarded for his consistently great performances, it's a shame that A Different Man didn't receive similar praise. The film is a captivating story that resonated with countless audiences around the world but somehow didn't make the cut for (most of) the Oscars.

Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle in front of a split cell from The Substance

Do you think Demi Moore will win her first Oscar for The Substance?

Demi Moore’s first Academy award nomination being for The Substance was shocking to some, both in the fact that it was her first nomination and it was for a divisive body horror film. Demi’s performance in The Substance was transformative, fascinating, and gut-wrenching in many moments. Seeing her transform and embody difficulties that nearly all women face was incredible, and I think she’ll likely win the Oscar for her performance.

A Different Man feels like a project that audiences can rally around and champion, but sadly, it missed out on all the major nominations, its only nod being in Makeup and Hairstyling. In addition to the movie's lead, Adam Pearson also had an (admittedly small) chance of landing a Best Supporting Actor nomination, but voters passed on that opportunity too. The movie's lack of success at the Oscars is doubly surprising given how strongly the Academy rewarded The Substance, which deals with many of the same timely themes and ideas.

A Different Man & The Substance Have Similarly Tragic Endings

Both 2024 Films Have Intentionally Dark & Unfulfilling Endings

While A Different Man and The Substance have wildly different endings in terms of tone and atmosphere, they're equally tragic and present a very similar message about identity and self-destructive behavior. A Different Man's ending jumps forward in time as Stan's protagonist is released from prison and meets up with Oswald, who shares the same physical appearance that Edward tried to surgically destroy at the beginning of the film. He learns that Oswald is living a much happier life than him, and he's forced to reckon with the fact that his choices have brought him nothing but pain.

The Substance has an equally bleak ending, as Demi Moore's protagonist is effectively killed by the younger version of herself that she created out of her own insecurity.

The Substance has an equally bleak ending, as Demi Moore's protagonist is effectively killed by the younger version of herself that she created out of her own insecurity. The pair struggle to exist at the same time, abusing the titular substance until their bodies are combined into a horrible monster that destroys them both. While this is a much more violent and sensationalized ending than A Different Man, both films attempt to prove that the destruction of one's self cannot destroy the insecurities that caused it, but merely amplify them.

A Different Man

4/10

Release Date October 3, 2024
Runtime 112 Minutes
Director Aaron Schimberg
Writers Aaron Schimberg
The Substance

10/10

Release Date September 20, 2024
Runtime 140 Minutes
Director Coralie Fargeat
Writers Coralie Fargeat

Demi Moore
Elisabeth Sparkle