THE SUBSTANCE*****

French writer-director Coralie Fargeat's THE SUBSTANCE is a body horror film that also works as social satire.  It is visually and aurally stunning and features a career-defining and award-worthy performance from Demi Moore that veers between MOMMIE DEAREST and heartbreak. It works all the better for Gen X viewers like myself because we have watched Demi's body-choices litigated over decades. Her buzz cut and ripped muscles for GI Jane.  Her Vanity Fair cover proudly showing her nude with a baby bump.  Her recent extreme plastic surgery. And there's an irony that she looks so good at 60 that she can play 50, but even good at 50 isn't good enough for Hollywood, or real life.

Moore's Elisabeth Sparkle is a preternaturally well-preserved middle-aged actress who now hosts a Jane Fonda-style aerobics show.  She is summarily sacked by her shark-like boss on her fiftieth birthday and turns to a black-market drug to remain attractive. The problem is that the brat-green injection doesn't restore your own body to youth but creates a younger, perkier avatar.  The avatar - "Sue", played by Margot Qualley - gets all the fame and adoration.  You, Elisabeth, become like the portrait of Dorian Grey, something abandoned, lonely, old, old, old.  And that's before you misuse the drug, stay longer as Sue, and reap the cost as Elisabeth.

There's a lot of stylish fun to be had in this film. It reminded me of Cronenberg and Vachon with its disciplined graphic design and willingness to push body horror to absurdity. Whoever did the sound design deserves an award. We hear and feel the grotesquery of every crunch of a prawn and every needle puncture. Dennis Quaid is game as the disgusting venal TV producer.  Moore and Qualley are courageous with their nudity and objectification. I laughed out loud a lot all the way through the film as well as having to look away and particularly gruesome scenes.

But there's so much more going on here.  Demi Moore is heartbreaking as Sparkle - a woman who by all standards is stunningly beautiful and youthful but is tormented by the giant billboard of Sue facing her apartment. There's a pivotal scene around half way through the film when Elisabeth tries to go out on a date and looks stunning to our eyes, but she is crippled by her internalised misogyny and ageism. It's tragic and credible and stunningly performed. She deserves an Oscar nomination for this career-best performance.

THE SUBSTANCE is rated R and has a running time of 140 minutes. It won Best Screenplay at Cannes 2024. It will be released in the USA and UK on September 20th.