In its first two hours, “The Substance” is a well-made, entertaining film. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused physique horror.
But the movie’s deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing however nonetheless comparatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, ultimately erupting — fairly actually — right into a full-blown monster film. Let the viewer resolve who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this yr's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for “The Fly” director David Cronenberg, and followers of the godfather of physique horror will see his unmistakable affect. But “The Substance” is additionally wholly distinctive and advantages from Fargeat’s perspective, which, in line with the French filmmaker, has concerned in depth grappling together with her personal relationship to her physique and society’s scrutiny.
“The Substance” tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics teacher with a televised present, performed by a powerfully susceptible Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her fiftieth birthday by a ruthless govt — a superbly forged Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a city that after beloved her and despairing over her bygone star energy, Sparkle learns from a good-looking younger nurse a couple of black-market drug that guarantees to create a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” model of its consumer. Though she initially tosses the telephone quantity within the trash, she quickly fishes it out in a determined panic and locations an order.
The one rule to comply with is that Sparkle and her higher self (Margaret Qualley) should commerce locations each seven days. So for one week at a time, she is compelled once more to stay as her 50-year-old self. But the attract of youth and a made-for-TV butt proves too robust to withstand. What's the worst that may occur if she squeezes an additional day or two in?
Benjamin Kracun’s cinematography, notably his low-angle photographs and close-ups harking back to David Lynch’s films — one other filmmaker Fargeat credit as having influenced her as a director — expertly seize the omnipresent claustrophobia and anxiousness that exist even whereas Sparkle is within the physique of her higher self.
Also evocative of Lynch is Fargeat’s compelling building — between the style, structure, aerobics and extremely superior cell-replicating medicine — of a sort of atemporal world.
Given that body horror has been all the trend at festivals — with Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” and Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” additionally premiering at Cannes lately — it could possibly be straightforward to jot down this film off as capitalizing on the zeitgeist.
But “The Substance” resists being misplaced in that shuffle.
What is maybe most spectacular is the truth that, in its 140-minute runtime, the film by no means feels prefer it’s dragging on. Fargeat ups the ante till the final second of the movie, with a jaw-droppingly deranged last scene that is nonetheless in some way poignant.
If there’s a critique to be made concerning the movie, it’s that the satire and caricatures are a bit heavy-handed, with a lot of the male characters being not-so-subtle misogynists. But that overkill is a part of what makes it a lot enjoyable.
“The Substance,” a Mubi launch, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for robust bloody violent content material, gore, graphic nudity and language. Running time: 140 minutes. Three and a half stars out of 4.
