The price of fame drives one of the most intense and remarkable films of the year. The Substance is about physical beauty, adoration, self-love and loathing. It explores the lengths someone will go to remain relevant.
Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) used to be a movie star, before transitioning to hosting a successful workout show on TV. Her bad-tempered, self-centred, boss Harvey (Dennis Quade) decides she’s dead weight and that her time is up. So, he gives her the heave-ho. Driving home, with the torment still reverberating in her mind, Elisabeth is involved in a car accident. Scans reveal no broken bones, but she breaks down in tears.
As she leaves, one of the medicos hands her a USB drive directing her to something called the Substance. It’s a cell-replicating drug on the black market that promises a better version of yourself. Isolated and with no immediate prospects, Elisabeth finds it galling that Harvey has placed an ad for an 18 to 30-year-old to replace her. Throwing caution to the wind, Elisabeth decides to give The Substance a go. A mysterious male voice directs her to a rundown backwater. She picks up a cardboard box containing the necessary ingredients that will allegedly restore her youth.
The instructions are strict and need to be followed to the letter. They involve a single-use injected activator, followed by a stabiliser and a series of food pouches. So Elisabeth injects herself and after her body contorts and falls limp, she “births” her newer, younger, prettier self. The perfectly proportioned and turned-out Sue (Margaret Qualley) emerges. And, of course, she’s just what Harvey is looking for. She’s hired to front a new workout show and viewer numbers skyrocket.
The thing with the Substance though is that Sue and Elisabeth must switch back and forth every seven days. Not doing so will have dire, irreversible consequences. Be that as it may, Sue quickly gets caught up in her own self-importance, while Elisabeth becomes enraged. Remember, Sue and Elisabeth are two halves of the same whole in what becomes a fight to the death.
The Substance is an incendiary piece of work – a pointed commentary on gender, societal expectations and the obsession with physical beauty. Writer and director Coralie Farget (Revenge) continues to push the envelope throughout the picture. And when you think enough is enough, she does it again. Of course, that’s the point: to shine a light on the saturated world in which we live, where body image is everything.
It marks a superb return to the limelight for Demi Moore, who is outstanding and chilling in her portrayal of the fallen diva. Sue is well captured by Margaret Qualley, who exudes entitlement. In a brilliant portrayal, obnoxious narcissism marks Quade’s representation of the television mover and shaker.
Cinematographer Benjamin Kracun (Promising Young Woman) has vividly captured the contrast between shine and grunge. He catapults us into the heart of darkness, desperation and despair.
Horrifying, but potent, The Substance is dramatic and traumatic cinema at its best. Although not for the feint-hearted, it holds a mirror up to society and the image is deeply disturbing. While the movie is tad long, Farget has established herself as a filmmaker of renown.
Alex First
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Alex First is a Melbourne based journalist and communications specialist. He contributes to The Blurb on film and theatre.