The Substance
The objectification of the human body is parodied in a surreal, broad satire with teeth and all sorts of bodily bits.
On the face of it: Demi Moore
Image courtesy of Mubi.
In the words of the French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.” For the movie star Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), hitting fifty means a loss of dignity, self-worth and even the loss of her own long-running TV aerobics show. After all, she is in the business of show and her contract with nature can no longer defeat the forces of gravity. She is past her best-before date and the signs are everywhere: in her spreading hips, the breakdown of natural collagen, the sagging flesh, wrinkling skin and just the way people treat her. This is Hollywood, after all, the epicentre of the superficial, where cosmetic perfection is valued above kindness and wisdom. What is a gal to do?
Foreshadowing her forthcoming future, Elisabeth Sparkle sees her face unceremoniously torn off a billboard (advertising her old show), a distraction that leads her to careen into an oncoming vehicle. In hospital, where she is declared miraculously unscathed, a young male nurse slips her a USB stick along with a note saying, “it changed my life.” The flash drive promises that a certain serum known just as ‘The Substance’ can produce “a new cellular version of yourself,” a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” edition: a Demi Moore 2.0.
The Substance is a disturbing commentary on the beauty-is-skin-deep me generation and the male gaze, and rightly so. It is also stylishly confrontational and, not entirely perversely, is directed by the female filmmaker Coralie Fargeat, whose previous outing, the rape-and-revenge thriller Revenge (2017), solicited rave reviews in her native France.
Mme Fargeat likes to confront the status quo, to challenge the viewer with an extra helping of gravy (or vomit, as is the case here). Nothing is off limits. Indeed, she is the most astonishing, intrepid and original female director to emerge from Europe since her compatriot Julia Ducournau (Raw, Titane). Besides her no-holds-barred, grossly entertaining and sickly satirical approach to her material, Fargeat is in total command of her vision, from the brilliant sound design, editing and gynaecological close-ups of food to the ferociously courageous performance of Demi Moore. It perhaps helps that Ms Moore is actually 61-years-old in real life and can let her vanity slip a tad playing a woman traumatised by reaching her half-century. Moore looks amazing for a 45-year-old, and can get away with playing the various ages of Elisabeth Sparkle, from the apogee of glamour to the less savoury stages of her transition – with or without her clothing.
The make-up effects are also sensational, embodying the more corporeal aspects of a Francis Bacon triptych, while the production design owes an obvious debt to Stanley Kubrick. There are thematic nudges, too, to everything from Cinderella and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray to a healthy dose of Brain De Palma’s Carrie. The brilliant opening shot of an egg yolk might presage a certain sense of over-egging the final pudding, but Fargeat delivers her fable with such verve and panache as to stifle cries of mon dieu! The message is clear: you don’t mess with nature. Old age is not so bad as long as you don’t disguise it with false flattery, by dressing up the mutton with an unnatural prescription of Botox, dermal fillers and hair dye. That’s when ageing gets really creepy. As Mme Fargeat shows.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Edward Hamilton Clark, Gore Abrams, Robin Greer, Hugo Diego Garcia, Daniel Knight, Akil Wingate.
Dir Coralie Fargeat, Pro Coralie Fargeat, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, Screenplay Coralie Fargeat, Ph Benjamin Kračun, Pro Des Stanislas Reydellet, Ed Coralie Fargeat, Jérôme Eltabet and Valentin Feron, Music Raffertie, Costumes Emmanuelle Youchnovski, Sound Valérie Deloof and Victor Fleurant.
Working Title Films/Blacksmith-Mubi.
141 mins. USA/France/UK. 2024. UK and US Rel: 20 September 2024. Cert. 18.
