The Substance (2024, dir. Coralie Fargeat)

by Jack Martin | Sep 18, 2024

Certificate: 18

Running Time: 141 mins

UK Distributor: MUBI

UK Release Date: 20 September 2024

WHO’S IN THE SUBSTANCE?

Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Hugo Diego Garcia, Phillip Schurer, Joseph Balderrama, Tom Morton, Robin Greer

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Coralie Fargeat (director, writer, producer, editor), Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner (producers), Raffertie (composer), Benjamin Kracun (cinematographer), Jerome Eltabet and Valentin Féron (editors)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

An aging celebrity (Moore) is introduced to a mysterious youth-revitalising procedure…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON THE SUBSTANCE?

You think you may already know what to expect with writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. You may have seen every scrap of released footage and read every review under the sun from its riotous debut at Cannes earlier this year, and from them all formed an idea of what the film is surely like. You might have even already formed your opinion of it based on everything that you’ve heard about it.

But I promise you, no matter how prepared you may think you may be for The Substance, you have no idea how woefully underprepared you actually are. You could walk in believing you know more about the movie than the actual filmmakers, and you will still come out of it in a state of absolute shock after witnessing the absolute insanity within this movie.

What Fargeat has accomplished with only her second film (after her similarly provocative 2017 debut Revenge) should be studied as a bona fide example of a filmmaker going several extra miles after already seeming like she’s gone far enough, and flatly refusing to ease off the accelerator even when it seems like she’s approaching a dead end. This is ride or die cinema, the kind that rarely gets made anymore, and it’s something to not only celebrate but cherish, for who knows when we’ll get another film like The Substance in our lifetime?

Set in Hollywood, the film introduces us to Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), the star of a successful aerobics programme who is unceremoniously fired after turning 50, by her grotesquely chauvinistic producer Harvey (a delightfully over-the-top Dennis Quaid). She soon catches wind of a mysterious treatment called “The Substance”, which promises to create a newer, better, and most importantly younger version of herself via a meticulous series of injections and self-medicated procedures, which she must undergo once every seven days with no exceptions.

Without getting too descriptive, the procedure quickly births “Sue” (Margaret Qualley), a fresh-faced and almost impossibly beautiful woman who rapidly becomes the new face of Elisabeth’s old show – which, in reality, is her old show – and takes the industry by storm. However, it’s not long before the balance between Elisabeth and Sue (who, as we are reminded throughout, are one and the same) is disrupted, leading to an increasingly shocking turn of events that… well, you’ll just have to wait and see.

Similar to Revenge, but in many ways far beyond even what that film did, Fargeat imposes a heavily exaggerated vision of a world that is openly and blatantly predatory, where the vast majority of men in powerful positions use any opportunity that they get to degrade or objectify women for their looks, their age, and just about anything they say or do that threatens their egos in any capacity.

The filmmaker has such a fascinating way of approaching the male gaze and then deconstructing it in front of our very eyes, especially in this film with its highly sexualised close-up shots of young women in skimpy workout clothing that are purposefully framed like something you would find on Pornhub.

However, the intent is far from scopophilic, as Fargeat uses these very glamorous and alluring shots in conjunction to numerous other scenes wherein the real horror lies, as powerful men practically slobber over young and doe-eyed new talent while berating women who have aged beyond their own desires, all during a number of disorienting wide-angle shots that are tightly edited (by Fargeat herself) around gross sound effects and an almost David Lynch-level surrealness in the overall cinematography.

The film, at its core, is a scathing commentary on what women have to do in order to simply survive in this obscene patriarchal society. The film treats its titular Substance as a metaphor for all the plastic surgery, body augmentations, weight loss jabs et al that a lot of women in real-life Hollywood, particularly those who may be past their physical prime, may choose to undergo in order to retain a sense of youthful beauty that may have defined their earlier careers.

Of course, the irony is the more that the Substance takes hold of both Elisabeth and Sue – brought to life through a fantastic pair of extraordinarily fearless performances by Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley respectively – the less beautiful they become, both inside and outside – and that’s even well before the actual body horror kicks into insane gears.

To give away anything else would be to deny you the experience of witnessing the utter madness for yourself. There are things in this movie that I’m fairly sure I’ve not yet seen in any motion picture, from its monstrous and occasionally extremely gory visuals to the pure physicality of some of the performances, and it’s all executed with a resounding ferocity that will make you jaw drop more inches than it can possibly stretch.

Above all, it is endlessly entertaining, with nary a single second wasted as it tells this horrifying story with a resilient pace that only starts to lose stream in its final act. Even then, however, there is so much stuff to lay your eyes upon that it makes the slightly overlong runtime completely worth it, and you are never bored with the countless swings that Fargeat is making with this wild and unpredictable ride.

Even after all that I have to say about it, you still may think that you know what The Substance may actually end up being. But you don’t. You really, really don’t. And that is perhaps the highest praise I can give a film like this.

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Substance is a jaw-dropping body horror that sees filmmaker Coralie Fargeat create a knowingly grotesque satirical world that is filled with consistently insane commentary on beauty standards that will leave you in utter shock from its never-ending ability to surprise and entertain.