The Substance

The Substance delivers an intense, visually mesmerizing commentary on the entertainment industry's obsession with youth and outward beauty. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley offer remarkable, maybe even career-best performances, with Dennis Quaid excelling in his role as well. Coralie Fargeat explores how aging stars, particularly women, are discarded when they no longer meet the industry's strict beauty standards. Moore's character, haunted by the memory of her former fame and beauty, goes down a dark path in pursuit of a "better" version of herself. The story is also a sharp critique of…

For a film that’s laser-focused on the human body, it’s gloriously on point that THE SUBSTANCE begins with a freshly cracked, bright yellow egg yolk. Eggs are the ‘giver of life’, right? They’re the origin of all of us. Gleaming and plump, the yolk suddenly gets pricked – not by a fork, but a syringe. That’s the first juicy visual metaphor of many in this meaningfully bonkers body horror, for which French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat picked up the prestigious Best Screenplay prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. To call the film ‘bold’ is a weapons-grade understatement. It’s an audacious,…

Demi Moore's performance in The Substance is so potent that it's hard to tell what's more intoxicating; her inevitable Best Actress win or Coralie Fargeat's razor-sharp screenplay that's already got the Oscar in the bag.

There’s a big difference between being funny and being laughable, yet the latest from writer-director Coralie Fargeat has somehow found a way to be both. After amassing a considerable amount of largely well-earned cinematic goodwill in the film’s opening segments, the picture mercilessly squanders that support in the final act with an overlong, meandering, disgustingly gratuitous and grotesque exhibition of utterly bad taste. This story of an aging actress (Demi Moore) who seeks to revive her career by retrieving some of her lost youth with the aid of an enigmatic injectable follows her…