Director: Coralie Fargeat

Starring: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Yann Bean

Primary genre: Satire

Secondary genre: Body horror

“The Substance” comes at a very interesting time where humans are increasingly employing any method to make themselves relevant in the public sphere. With an emphasis on superficial appearances, plastic surgeries, digital augmentation, and 24-hour advertisements through social and legacy media, there is no denying that man has lost his appetite for intimacy and acceptance of his own nature. If immortality was readily available, you would be surprised at how many would jump at this opportunity to satisfy their vanity ignoring ethical and moral dilemmas (let alone possible psychological and physiological consequences). As such, “The Substance” deals with this aspect through the eyes of a fading Hollywood starlet and director-writer Carolie Fargeat attempts to offer an insightful critique and satire of Hollywood.

Elizabeth Sparkles, a once mighty A-lister, has now faded (according to executives) due to her ageing looks and thus, she should not carry the mantle of a desirable female presenter because people know, deserve and want better. Disregarded and laughed behind her back, no one can disagree with humanity’s outrageous beauty standards that apply for women (there are those for men too, a story for a different essay though), especially for those who achieve superstardom. Yet, Elizabeth is guilty herself of perpetuating this vicious system (represented in the film by a superb Dennis Quaid) which chews naive females and spits them out broken after they served their purpose for younger and more outrageous versions. When the substance “births” Sue, she is a sassy, demanding and manipulative doll who will do nothing to achieve fame due to her overwhelming beauty and Lolita inspired mannerisms.

Fargeat plays cleverly the tropes here making us believe Elizabeth and Sue are two different people yet they are not. Heavily implied that Elizabeth in her youth (as Sue) would have acted the same way, the script highlights a lot of things under the most minimum of dialogue. On one hand you have a strong critique of a superficial infrastructure which places heavy burden on physical appearance (a magnetic and explosive Margaret Qualley). On the other, while few would have chosen a new life with this gift and make most out of it, Sue goes straight back to this hell-pit, driven by a constant need for approval, adoration and admiration. Coralie’s assessments do not mess around, an admirable trait in this age to be able to have this brutal discussion.

The camera lens, itself an artifact for worshipping the god of popularity and desirability represented by the vast quantities of the unknown audience members is placed front and center. Under a Peeping Tom quality, the extreme body closes up of Sue accentuate her physique on purpose resembling modern pornography, while the cold and distant framing of Elizabeth indicates our fascination with a relic of a bygone era. As modern society tends to rewards humans based on a singular element, the script heightens this: either young and beautiful (and nothing else) or old and forgotten (and nothing else). Shooting their respective scenes like two different films, Fargeat reflects this though different editing and visual styles including the use of Raffertie’s pendeluming score demonstrating a maturity (and confidence) very few directors possess today. Fargeat’s energy is unmatched through a strong production design and audio mix that accentuate Elizabeth’s sensory overload in a way not done (or felt) before rendering “The Substance” a novel cinematic experience. If Aronofsky, Lynch and Tarantino had a baby together, “The Substance” would be the closest thing to it.

Moore excels in a career defining role that could mirror her own experiences; the past sex symbol who got paid extravagant amounts of money to showcase her body (“Striptease” (1996)), by the early noughties quietly retracted herself from the industry despite a much anticipated villainous take in “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” (2003). With a handful of lines and enough suppressive stoicism, Moore is a force to be reckoned here, giving a fearless performance few American actress would dare to go to resembling the early work of Eva Green (“The Dreamers“ (2003), “Penny Dreadful” (2014-2016) or Isabelle Hubert’s in “Elle” (2016).

However, despite all the good will behind the film and its ambition to tackle several themes, “The Substance” becomes overflowing initially with style and in the end mumbles through several underdeveloped layers of psycho-social subjects: ageism, self-loathing, social isolation, superficial relationships, body shaming, fame addiction and more all thrown into a visually arresting and aggressive mix which eventually runs out of steam in a bonkers finale. Unable to maintain her level of confidence, Fargeat loses sight of her original aim by elevating the body horror aspects which although might bear a Cronenberg notion to them to mirror both of these women’s experience in the idiolatric arena of TV, they remain unconvincing due to badly done prosthetic effects. The inevitable clash between old and new is swept away for a banal resolution which under different circumstances could have had reached a satisfying catharsis. Aronofsky’s work in “The Wrestler” (2008) and “Black Swan” (2010) tackled similar matters with more grace that Fargeat’s efforts here.

For all its well meaning intentions, “The Substance” does not know what to do. Is this a story of Elizabeth trying to recapturing her glory days, a strong condemnation of a exploitive-for-women system or a destructive onslaught on society’s obsession with beauty? She does not seem certain either and similarly to how Elizabeth’s plan turns out, the film elects to hammer its messaging through its bonkers execution which could be the only thing besides Moore’s performance that might linger in memory after the credits roll.

+Strong production design

+Exceptional sound mixing

+Score, cinematography top notch

+Moore is fantastic; so does Halley

+Social themes

-Unstable

-Too much style over substance

-Unconvincing proshetics

-Heavy handed