() – Unless you already like genre films, it might be easy to dismiss “The Substance,” at first glance, as an overly gory entry in the body horror category.
But upon closer inspection, this sophomore effort from French writer-director Coralie Fargeat (whose first feature, 2017’s “Revenge,” was adored by critics) is a staunchly self-aware, feminist fable that warns, quite explicitly, about the dangers of blindly pursuing youth.
The premise and plot of “The Substance” are simple: celebrated actress and fitness guru Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) has a star on the Walk of Fame and a popular exercise program. At the top of the movie, she’s celebrating her 50th birthday and finds out that her boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid), a vile and rude entertainment executive, is going to fire her.
From there, an increasingly distraught Elisabeth learns of a mysterious black market drug known as the Substance, which promises to provide her with a younger, more vital version of herself – with certain caveats. Enter Sue, played by Margaret Qualley, a younger, more voluptuous and vivacious “me” who plans to reclaim Elisabeth’s former glory. Both just have to follow a few simple but non-negotiable rules, as dictated by the shadowy company providing the Substance. Of course, that balance doesn’t last long.
Without giving too much away, what follows is a zany look at Elisabeth’s desperate attempt to stay on top, combined with Sue’s growing addiction to the admiration she garners from everyone around her. It all culminates in a final act that gives new meaning to the term “bloodbath.”
Fargeat le He recently told Christiane Amanpour ‘s Dr. Seymour told that when she herself hit 40, she “started having these crazy, violent thoughts that my life was going to be over, that no one would be interested in me anymore, that I would have no value. And I really realized how violent and powerful those thoughts were.”
The director went on to note that she “wanted the film to express the violence” in how society treats and depicts women, which led to the explicit nature of the content. “I really wanted to push the boundaries and not be coy. That’s how we are led to internalize so much violence. That’s how disgusting it is, that’s how extreme it is.”
It’s a sentiment Moore has also touched on when talking about how “The Substance” not only uncovers what society and the world inflict on aging women, but also what women and men inflict on themselves.
“There was a more extreme standard of beauty, and I personally experienced being told to lose weight on quite a few movies before I had my kids,” Moore recently recalled in the podcast “The Interview” from The New York Times.
“Those were humiliating experiences, but the real violence was what I was doing to myself, the way I was torturing myself, doing extreme, crazy exercises, weighing myself and measuring my food because I was putting all my worth into what my body was like, what it looked like, and giving other people’s opinions more power than my own,” she added.
While Elisabeth and Sue set out to find balance — but ultimately found themselves in a maddening conflict toward the end of the film — Fargeat said she wanted the two characters to “really represent all the voices that we have inside of ourselves, that can be super violent and conflicted and whisper all the time, ‘You’re not good enough, you’re not beautiful enough, you’re not sexy enough,’ because that’s what we hear all day long and see all day long throughout society.”
Moore He also commented on the nude scenes of the film, which never seem unwarranted. “Going into it, it really laid out … the level of vulnerability and rawness that was really required to tell the story,” she said. “And it was a very vulnerable experience and it just required a lot of sensitivity and a lot of conversation about what we were trying to accomplish.”
The Substance’s sleek mail-order packaging (which involves a series of injections) speaks to the quick-fix quality of current fads like Ozempic, and is reminiscent of the 1992 comedy “Death Becomes Her,” starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn, which soon made its way to Broadway as a musical.
“The Substance” may also remind us of some other well-known titles, but this does not detract from its originality: there are hints of “All About Eve” and Oscar Wilde’s classic tale “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” with John Carpenter’s “The Thing” thrown in for a touch of disgust.
It’s a solid film, and supporting actors Qualley (whose mother, Andie MacDowell, has often commented on the pressures of aging in Hollywood) and Quaid are excellent.
“The Substance” was praised at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it competed for the Palme d’Or and won best screenplay. Earlier this month, it took home the Midnight Madness audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
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