For its first two hours, “Substance” is a good, interesting film. Writer-director Coralie Farget gives audiences a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood with some sweet body horror and splatter.
But the film’s delicious, bloody, and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What starts out as a horror movie, but a relatively passable one, turns absurd and violent and eventually explodes into a full-blown monster movie. Let the audience decide who the monster is.
Farjit, who won the best screenplay award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, expressed respect for Masha director David Cronenberg and fans of the godfather of body horror. But “Substance” is also entirely unique and benefits from Farji’s vision, which the French filmmaker said involved an extensive struggle with his own relationship with his body and an examination of society.
“The Substance” tells the story of Elizabeth Sparkle, a famous aerobics instructor on a television show, played by a very vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless boss: a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who hits the nail on the head in an ugly and disgusting way.
Disillusioned by a town that once loved her and disillusioned by her former star power, Sparkle learns from a beautiful young nurse about a black market drug that promises to create a “younger, prettier, more perfect” version of its user. Though she initially throws the phone number in the trash, she quickly pulls it out in a panic and orders it.
The only rule is that Sparkle and her upgraded self, played by Margaret Qualley, must switch roles every seven days. So for one week, 50-year-old Spark has to wake up and get on with her life, and the next week it’s her younger self’s turn. But the youthful charm and made-for-TV angle are too strong to bear the weeks – the worst that can happen if you stick around for a day or two too long?
Benjamin Krakun’s cinematography, particularly its low shots and close-ups reminiscent of the films of David Lynch (another director, Farget, influenced him as a director), masterfully captures the claustrophobia and pervasive anxiety that exists even when Sparkle appears in her best body.
He also reminds Lynch that Farget’s fascinating structure (between fashion, architecture, aerobic exercises and a very advanced cellular regeneration medicine) is a kind of timeless world.
With body horror all the rage at festivals, and Julia Ducournau’s Titan and Cronenberg’s Future Crimes also having premiered at Cannes in recent years, this could be seen as yet another film that refuses to enter the zeitgeist.
But “Substance” refuses to get lost in this confusion.
What’s perhaps most impressive is that throughout its 140-minute running time, the film never feels boring. Fargiat doubles down to the very last second of the film, with a shocking final scene that remains somewhat moving.
If there’s a criticism to be had about the film, it’s that the humor and caricatures are a bit heavy-handed, and that most of the male characters are not-so-subtle misery. But that exaggeration is part of what makes it so much fun.
“The Substance,” a Mubi release, has been rated R by the Picture Association of America (MPAA) for extreme violence, blood, gore, graphic nudity and language (viewing by those under 17 requires parent or guardian presence). Running time: 140 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
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