Sometimes to make a point you need to leave subtlety behind. Coralie Fargeat understands this, perhaps better than almost any other living director. Her first feature, Revenge, was a rape-revenge thriller that she mystifyingly turned into a great time and her follow-up is another winner. The Substance, whether you can stomach it or not, is an experience you won’t soon forget.
Nor should you! Beyond a discussion piece on the value of women in media, it turns itself into a discussion of how media affects viewers and our standards of beauty. The Substance aims directly at women but it can also apply to anyone that feels uncomfortable in their body, lesser and forgotten or irrelevant, and it’s a story that I’m certain many (if not most) can feel too deeply.
Demi Moore, starring as actress Elizabeth Sparkle, is turning in a magnificent performance as a woman in the public eye that’s being sidelined for turning fifty (the fact that she’s sixty and playing this role adds another layer). She’s dismissed from her long-running aerobics show by its producer, Harvey (Dennis Quaid). Desperate to regain the spotlight, she’s made an offer by a young man and begins to receive correspondence from a business simply known as “The Substance.” What follows is a boggling series of misadventures involving body horror, spinal fluid, a myriad of color-coding, and Margaret Qualley. Reborn as “Sue,” the younger model must switch on-and-off with her older form every seven days due to the nature of the treatment. It gets wild from here and I just…don’t want to spoil the surprise.
With an incredible pair of lead performances and one truly scuzzy supporting performance, The Substance may be one of the most entertaining films of the year. Demi Moore, who has famously had her body discussed in everything from tabloids to cover-photos to blog posts, delivers a raw and naked role that requires so much vulnerability. It’s unsettling and sexy and disturbing all at once, while also serving as story that feels utterly personal due to her career ups and downs. Qualley matches her energy, bringing a vibrancy and aggression to her role as Sue that contrasts Moore’s Sparkle quite nicely. Sue is an instant hit and that comes from equal parts Margaret Qualley’s performance and the VFX team. Sue constantly appears dewey, healthy, and vibrant while Elizabeth Sparkle bounces further and further down the opposite end of the spectrum.
And then there’s Quaid. I think it’s hilarious that The Substance and Reagan came out so close together as one role allows him to play disgusting and gross out in the open while other forces him to bottle it to try to preserve an American fantasy. Not sure which I’m assigning to which? A few bites of shrimp in and that should clear it up for you. Dennis Quaid is able to capture the brightness and openness of misogyny while unfortunately avoiding parody. I know people like this, as do all of you; men that tell young women they should smile more, that make a commodity of youth and beauty, and that don’t worry one lick about consequences because there are none. I may not fully have the capacity to understand Demi Moore’s character (though Fargeat makes it loud enough that only a dumbass wouldn’t get it) but I sadly DO understand this character and its snide, gross evil.
The sound design in this is half of the horror. Sure, things get gross onscreen and there’s plenty of fluids to go around, but equally disturbing is Quaid chowing down on cocktail shrimp while attempting to speak and chew with his mouth open. This early moment sets the tone and the entire sound team for The Substance deserves a round of applause. Not since Denethor bit down on those cherry tomatoes in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King have I been so disgusted by the images and sounds of a man eating and it’s an excellent foundation on which to build so much audible nastiness. It honestly rivals Eraserhead as one of the best audio mixes I’ve ever heard.
This nastiness is compounded by a score from electronic artist Raffertie. The One Way and Zone 414 composer has delivered one of the most uncomfortable scores of 2024, filled with everything from dramatic highs to 80s sleaze and every horrendous noise in-between. When the music screams it really screams but there’s also a lovely voice in there, touched by a sinister whisper and spit out at the audience with such disdain and aggression that it makes some of the visual effects seem tame at times. Music can often make or break a film but Raffertie chose, instead, to support. Sounds like this aren’t carrying a film, they’re weaving through them.
If you can’t already tell I really dug The Substance. The sophomore film from Coralie Fargeat is a winner but will most likely be too disgusting for a good amount of viewers. I felt thrilled, elated, disgusted, and even attacked at times. Art for art’s sake, and The Substance is a piece that will stun if you engage with it on its level.
The Substance is still playing in a few theatres. Catch it on the big screen while you can!
WRITE DRUNK; EDIT DRUNK 