Final Rating: 4/5
The Substance centres on Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), an Oscar-winning actress and host of a popular fitness program whose star is rapidly fading. On her fiftieth birthday, Elisabeth is unceremoniously let go, her producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) deciding instead to search for a younger starlet to replace her.
Distraught and spiraling in the wake of her firing, Elisabeth undergoes an experimental treatment giving her a second, younger body every other week. Taking the name Sue (Margaret Qualley), Elisabeth is immediately cast as her own replacement, and experiences a meteoric career resurgence.
The heightened world Coralie Fargeat creates in The Substance is seemingly timeless and intoxicatingly stylish. It’s a world where the biggest star in Hollywood stays on top with an 80s-flavoured fitness program, and eternal youth is delivered as a bi-weekly subscription. The contrast between the sweat-soaked, overproduced, oversexualized weekly music video that replaces Elisabeth’s fitness show, and the grimy streets of nowhere-specific, Los Angeles makes visually explicit the artificial nature of show business.
It’s more than “this is all fake,” though: everything outside of Elisabeth’s apartment and studio is uncomfortable. Under Fargeat’s direction, every imperfection stands out, abhorrent. Sparkle going to a café is shot like a thriller; her encounter with an old classmate is more notable for a nearby puddle than the actual interaction.
The very sales pitch for the titular Substance cements the film’s focus on imperfection. “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? Younger, more beautiful, perfect.” Though it may, on the surface, sound like an enticing promise, this statement actually serves to encourage the audience to notice every blemish and every fault with every character.
Fargeat regularly pulls away from her actors to instead focus on discarded chicken bones, bugs, and used medical supplies. We see every inch of Moore and Qualley’s bodies repeatedly, so that once they experience side effects of the Substance, it’s glaringly apparent. With the film’s focus on physical perfection, every sign of aging is catastrophic, any shot of food gluttonous.
Moore and Qualley are phenomenal as Elisabeth and Sue. As part of her treatment with the Substance, Elisabeth must alternate weekly, living a literal double life. As Elisabeth, Moore plays an aging, lonely woman with little to do other than watch TV. The world and Elisabeth are a little colder as she gradually retreats into her lavish, decaying apartment. As Sue, Qualley is dynamic, bringing an infectious energy to her show, her interactions with her cast and crew, and fully relishing the experience of being 25 again.
While the two ostensibly play the same person, their experiences are so different that the conflict between them forms the backbone of the film. Elisabeth begins to resent Sue, seeing her as ungrateful, while Sue sees Elisabeth as lazy, gluttonous, and a waste of space in her apartment.
As Elisabeth finds new success as Sue, she looks for ways to spend more time in her new life. But as she spends more time as Sue, the Substance and loneliness start to take its toll on Elisabeth. Over time, Elisabeth’s weeks become more absurd, as she devolves into a classical hag. One excellent scene has a disheveled Elisabeth angrily toiling in her kitchen preparing a recipe from a French cookbook she received earlier as a gift. Rather than simply cooking, though, the scene is framed to depict her as a witch, furiously brewing up some concoction as she mutters and rants about how Sue doesn’t appreciate her enough.
Technically, the film is immaculate. Practical effects are used to create body-horror abominations ranging from terrifying to hilarious, as well as depict the more subtle signs of aging that nevertheless refuse to go unnoticed. The cinematography keeps the movie tense while variations in framerate and playback confuse the passage of time. The score, by Raffertie, uses high-energy, bouncing synths perfectly suited for both the scariest and sexiest scenes.
As a fable about the fleeting nature of physical beauty and the ways judgment seeps into every aspect of life, The Substance is brutally effective. A visceral, tense experience that captivates with an exaggerated world that nevertheless feels just real enough to be familiar. Visceral, shocking, and cruel, The Substance is a stunning achievement from Fargeat, and an excellent showcase for Moore and Qualley.
The Substance was seen during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Thank you to Touchwood and Mubi for the advance screening.
