Film Review: The Substance

The Substance
Director: Coralie Fargeat
The Match Factory, Working Title Films and Blacksmith
In Theaters: 09.20

Every so often, a movie gives me something I didn’t expect, and I have to take some time to digest it. It might even require a second viewing. I’ve seen The Substance three times now, and I’ve settled on two primary thoughts: it’s an outrageously in your face piece of shameless shock schlock, and it’s also a genuine masterpiece. 

Demi Moore (Ghost, Striptease) stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, an Oscar-winning former actress who is now over 50, and she’s enjoying a successful second career as an aerobic instructor on an early morning television show. When she overhears her smarmy producer, Harvey (Dennis Quaid, The Rookie, Far From Heaven), talking about replacing her with someone younger, Elisabeth leaves the studio so upset that she gets in a car crash. While at the emergency room, Elisabeth is approached by a disarmingly handsome male nurse (Robin Greer, The Serpent Queen), who slips her a flash drive with information about a new product called The Substance. This groundbreaking anti-aging treatment promises “a better version of yourself.” Desperate, Elisabeth orders The Substance, which grants her a younger, better version of herself played by Margaret Qualley (Poor Things, Drive Away Dolls), who adopts the moniker “Sue” and gets the job as the new morning show host. The catch is that Elisabeth and Sue trade off every seven days, one living an active life and the other sleeping and taking in nutrients intravenously. While the two women are one, they soon find themselves pitted against each other for control and survival. They each try to push for more time, but learn to the hard way that if the strict rules of how to use The Substance are now followed, the consequences can be severe.

Writer-director Coralie Fargeat made a significant impression with her 2017 directorial debut, the audacious action thriller Revenge. She brings the same envelope-pushing energy to the body horror genre with The Substance, and doesn’t pull any punches. The Substance is a furious and frenzied fever dream of shocking imagery and boldly wacky moments, and it’s the most interesting and unapologetically bonkers B-movie style take on the Jekyll and Hyde story since John Woo’s 1997 cult classic Face/Off.  While much of the buzz about the film is focused on the shock value—and not without reason, as the amount of nudity, gore, and disturbing imagery is quite extreme—the incredible skill and precision of the direction is astounding, with each stylish and complex shot intricately thought out and flawlessly executed. While the premise is intentionally silly, the themes of fear of aging, societal expectations of women, exploitation and objectification, along with the ways these ultimately pits women against each other for survival, are thought-provoking and disturbing. The movie jumps from beauty and sensuality to extreme ugliness so often that, at times, it’s hard to tell which is which, and that’s exactly the point. It’s designed to keep the viewer fixated yet deeply uncomfortable. Fargeat ogles her stars backsides with her camera so often that at times I felt like the movie should have just been called Ass/Off, yet there’s a calculated method to what she’s doing. It may seems like a lot of gratuitous eye candy, yet it quickly becomes something far less sweet, and the crass bluntness of her approach makes for a spot-on indictment of a misogynistic and obsessively vain world. As Elisabeth and Sue battle for control in order to gain the approval and adoration of Harvey and those like him, as well as feelings of self-worth and fulfillment, they do so at the expense of themselves and each other. While I don’t want to give away any details about how they are used, the aging and creature make-up effects are jaw droppingly good and you won’t be able to forget them if you try.

Moore gives a fearless and mesmerizing performance, the bravest and boldest of her prolific career. While Elisabeth is described as over 50, Moore is over 60, though she certainly doesn’t look it. The fact that Moore is still a remarkably attractive woman, not just “attractive for her age,” makes a strong statement about narrow standards of beauty. Moore’s portrayal of the deeply insecure Elisabeth’s desperate descent into willingness to take extreme measures, and ultimately, into madness, is raw and alarming. Qualley, one of the most appealing and versatile character actors of her generation, who happens to have the stunning face and body of a leading woman, is beyond captivating, and it’s about far more than just her looks. Qualley deftly uses the mask of Sue’s pretty to make Harvey think there’s nothing going on in her head while simultaneously letting the audience in on the fact that there’s so much going on we can’t hold to keep up with it. Quaid, who recently played the title role in Reagan, is given a similarly one-note yet far more believable character here, and his scenery chewing is obnoxiously effective.

It goes without saying that The Substance isn’t going to be for all audiences, and it’s such a shocking mix of seductive and grotesque that I can easily see myself hating it at another time in my life. It’s both a hard-hitting visceral experience and an astonishingly brilliant price of visual storytelling, and the final shot may well make my all-time best list. While it doesn’t so with a lot of subtlety,  The Substance makes its point so powerfully that it’s easy to get it stuck in your head. –Patrick Gibbs 

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