Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) – yes, that’s the protagonist’s dumb name – is an Academy Award winner turned cast member in a morning show. Specifically, she does the morning show’s fitness segment when her manager starts (Dennis Quaid) to phase her out. All of this happens during her birthday, leading to a car accident where she learns about… The Substance. This titular substance produces a more fit and younger version of herself who calls herself Sue (Margaret Qualley). Sue, though, goes rogue, making Elisabeth doubt that doing the weekly ritual with the substance in the first place.
Well, at first, The Substance makes the serum feel like a good idea because out old, in with new. Through this film, Coralie Fargeat, a triple threat, creates a world with a groupthink of characters that worships female youth.
Other critics called this film ‘entertaining(ly) theatrical’ which, depending on the viewers, has its time and place. As pretentious as this sounds, I do want something deeper, which this film has in a few moments. One of those moments in The Substance is when Sue meets Elisabeth – well, her unconscious body – for the first time. In a film that’s too glossy, this scene is the first drop of viscera, a sign of humanity. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley do their best with the rest of the material that The Substance gives. A substance that clones you is believable, but the film lost me when it showed snow in LA and it never got me back.
- Rated: R
- Genre: Drama, Horror, Science Fiction
- Release Date: 9/20/2024
- Directed by: Coralie Fargeat
- Starring: Daniel Knight, Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid, Gore Abrams, Hugo Diego Garcia, Margaret Qualley, Tom Morton
- Produced by: Coralie Fargeat, Eric Fellner, Tim Bevan
- Written by: Coralie Fargeat
- Studio: A Good Story, Blacksmith, Working Title Films
