It has been a very long time since I’ve seen a movie as brave as “The Substance”, in terms of theme and technique.
It had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May this year, where it was much talked about and won the prize for Best Screenplay, a prize very well deserved. In fact, I’m very surprised it wasn’t made before, because it’s a theme very much of the 21st century – the fear of growing old and looking less attractive. Maybe that wasn’t produced before because it was waiting for a director (Coralie Fargeat) brave enough to show it graphically from a woman’s point of view and waiting for an actress (Demi Moore) brave enough to make fun of her own past image. (Movie distributor PRIS)
Demi Moore plays Elizabeth Sparkle, a mega star that was a big “It” girl in the past and is now presenting a fitness tv show (very much like Jane Fonda in the eighties). But the clock is ticking for her because she gets to know she’s about to be fired by the head producer Harvey (a very sleazy turn by Dennis Quaid) and replaced by a younger woman.
When she has a car accident and is assisted in the hospital she gets to know of the existence of a substance that can create a younger, fitter version of herself. After some indecision, she injects herself with the green liquid, that creates another person literally born from her back. This younger hotter version of Elizabeth, is called Sue (beautifully played by Margaret Qualley) goes to a casting that makes her famous and a mega star that outshines Elizabeth and all the others.
The instructions of the medicine were very clear – once you use the substance you have to return at least one week to your old body to recharge and recuperate fluids. The real problem is when Elizabeth starts to get addicted to being youthful and begins to delay returning to her old body. Like heroin, the substance can be very very addictive.
The film has to be seen to be believed, when it started I couldn’t believe they would go that far. But they went. Played by Demi Moore with a gusto and courage worthy of Bette Davis back in the 60’s, this might be the comeback of a lifetime and her best role yet.
“The Substance” is a kind of body horror movie in the vein of Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray but much more graphic. In the course of the movie, the director also has time for lots of homages to cinema classics such as Carpenter’s “The Thing”, De Palma’s “Carrie”, Kubrick’s “Shining” and even Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”.