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, finally erupting — fairly actually — right into a full-blown monster film. Let the viewer determine who the monster is.
Fargeat — who received greatest 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” can be wholly distinctive and advantages from Fargeat’s perspective, which, in accordance with the French filmmaker, has concerned intensive 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 weak Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her fiftieth birthday by a ruthless government — a wonderfully solid 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 few black-market drug that guarantees to create a “younger, more beautiful, more perfect” model of its person. 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 reside 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 pictures and close-ups reminiscent of 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 development — between the style, structure, aerobics and extremely superior cell-replicating medicine — of a sort of atemporal world.
Given that physique horror has been all the fashion at festivals — with Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” and Cronenberg’s “Crimes of the Future” additionally premiering at Cannes lately — it could possibly be simple 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's nonetheless one way or the other poignant.
If there’s a critique to be made in regards to the movie, it’s that the satire and caricatures are a bit heavy-handed, with most of the male characters being not-so-subtle misogynists. But that overkill is an element 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.
