Movie Review: ‘The Substance’ | Moviephone
Demi Moore in ‘The Substance’. Photo: Mubi.
Opening in theaters on September 20 is ‘The Substance’, directed by Coralie Farget and starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Denise Quaid.
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Initial thoughts
Coralie Fargeat’s 2017 feature debut, ‘Revenge,’ was supposed to be a feminist spin on the well-known rape-revenge horror tropes that are so common in genre fare – and handled with varying quality – from ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ to ‘Nightingale.’ But ‘Revenge’ doesn’t subvert those tropes so much as reclaim them, as if shifting to a woman’s gaze can somehow liberate the film from its still exploitative image.
“Substance” is an entirely different animal. While no one is going to accuse Fargate’s epic second feature of light touch or subtlety, it’s a feminist body horror story that uses its own tropes to hammer home its point and subvert its own exploitative images, telling a story about identity, aging. Beauty standards, and celebrity fare that are equal parts poignant, hilarious, and completely gross (in a good way). It’s all anchored by Demi Moore in what might be her best performance ever, while Margaret Qualley provides equally fantastic support – as two sides of the same shattered person.
Story and direction
‘Substance’. Photo: Mubi.
Moore stars as Elizabeth Sparkle, a one-time A-list actress who settles (or is forced, really) into a second career as the host of a morning fitness TV show, where she shows off her still-fit body every day – until she turns 50. On his th birthday, he is abruptly fired by the loathsome head of his network, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), who is looking for small meat. Suffering minor injuries in a car accident on the way home from their meeting, Elizabeth is given a flash drive by a nurse in the ER that leads her to a company that makes a serum called “Substance”.
According to the company – represented only by an emotionless voice on the phone – the serum will create a beautiful, youthful, “perfect” version of its user. The catch is that it is only valid for seven days before the new version and the original has to be replaced again for a week. Elizabeth proceeds to order the serum and inject it, which leads to a painful process in which a new, younger, “North” version of herself – named Sue (Margaret Qualey) – is born from her own back as she goes about her week. – Prolonged coma.
Sue quickly auditions and lands Elizabeth’s old job hosting a fitness show, while a lustful Harvey and his colleagues propel her to the heights of fame. As the “real” Elizabeth sinks into despair and jealousy, she allows herself to wander around her high-rise apartment during the weeks of her “active” period, breaking Sue’s rule to increase her use of the serum during the mandatory seven-day period—the results of which including ones that go from annoying to annoying to all-out terrifying at the end.
Margaret Qualley in ‘The Substance’. Photo: Mubi.
Directed with increasingly gonzo gusto by Fargate, who also wrote the deliciously satirical screenplay, ‘The Substance’ plays like a mix of early David Cronenberg and Peter Jackson, anchored by Paul Verhoeven’s satirical bluster and the feminist angst of Greater Speech. Gerwig wrote on ‘Barbie’ for America Ferrera. The visual effects overseen by Brian Jones (mostly practical) are grotesque and in-your-face, yet lead to the extreme conclusion of every miracle drug and body “enhancement,” showing us the dark path that trash like Ozempic and Botox and the ridiculousness of beauty like endless plastic surgery, Searching for unattainable standards drags women down.
Unlike ‘Revenge’, ‘The Substance’ explores objectification but is not trapped by it. Moore and Qualley are often naked or barely clothed, but there is nothing sexual about the way the film treats them; Quali in particular, her body taut, unblemished, and practically glowing, never seems real to the glaring eyes of the TV cameras that endlessly follow Sue. And even with Sue’s horrible reaction to the required dose of serum once and deviating from the deadline, in some ways the most shocking scene in the film is a close-up of Dennis Quaid’s face as he punches his way through a plate full of shrimp for lunch while shooting Elizabeth.
‘The Substance’ is a bit long at 140 minutes, but Fargeat almost never loses control of material or tone. The movie becomes as much an assault on the senses as the nonstop gamut of sexualized female bodies constantly thrust at us in ads, videos, TV series and movies, but that’s the point: pressuring women to submit to us and see the bloody consequences, sounding. To do and feel like flawless physical goddesses whose silky outer shells believe they’ve been pressed on.
the cast
Margaret Qualley in ‘The Substance’. Photo: Mubi.
As a middle-aged actress in her early 60s, Demi Moore knows exactly what this movie is about and throws herself fearlessly into the role of Elizabeth, creating a complex, fractured, yet witty performance that may be the best she’s given. When we first meet her, Elizabeth isn’t exactly happy but is doing her best to navigate the cruel currents of a business that’s slowly wearing her out. Her despair leads her to extreme physical and emotional pain, and Moore is all (literally and figuratively), wailing her own despair and rage through some heavy makeup in the final stages of Elizabeth’s downfall. It’s dig-deep, raw stuff from an actor who was often dismissed as just a pretty face.
Qualley beats Moore, playing a darker flipside to Elizabeth as his narcissism and potential for instant gratification are unwittingly realized through Sue. Qualley – who is having a great year between this work, ‘Kinds of Kindness’ and the otherwise dreary ‘Drive-Away Dolls’ – gives us fleeting glimpses of Moore’s Elizabeth that flicker across Sue’s porcelain surface like shadows on a bright screen. . Sue’s physical promiscuity matches her seemingly innocent persona, but her manipulative edge reinforces the idea of how Hollywood forces women to behave despicably to themselves and other women just to stay on top.
We also have to tip our hats to Quaid, who these days often spends his time in faith-based films but who portrays Harvey as the ultimate, lip-glossing, ugly distillation of the every-man show biz (perhaps deliberately named) exec who thinks that He is in control and whatever fleeting power gives him dominance over others, especially women.
final thought
Demi Moore in ‘The Substance’. Photo: Mubi.
As indicated earlier, ‘substance’ does not hide its agenda or objectives. The movie goes for broke with everything, from out-of-the-box performances to crazy tilts, spinning camera angles to sizzling editing and a pulsating score (by Rafferty). Its third-act ballet of body horror may turn off some abstruse viewers, but that’s sort of the point — what women are forced to do in order to uphold the standards imposed on them is a bodily corruption that almost certainly has aftereffects that we don’t. Don’t know about it yet. ‘The Substance’ reveals that bitter truth in a way that is subtly funny, deeply sad and profoundly uncomfortable.
‘The Substance’ received 8.5 out of 10 stars.
“If you follow the instructions, what can go wrong?”
78
2 hours 21 minutes20th September, 2024
Showtimes and tickets
A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of himself. Read the plot
What is the plot of ‘The Substance’?
A former A-list actor (Demi Moore), his career on the decline as he ages in the business, takes a mysterious drug that transforms him into a younger, perfect version of himself (Margaret Qualley). But he soon discovers that if the rules of taking the substance are not followed to the letter, there are dire consequences.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Substance’?
‘Substance’. Photo: Mubi.
