Your 141 minutes insanity package!
Written by Kenza Bouhnass-Parra
Coralie Fargeat’s return to the big screen is here and it is turning heads!
In this futuristic body horror, Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is an aging celebrity who has been deemed past her prime. Refusing to accept her fading stardom, she resorts to using a black-market drug, a specific substance, that creates a younger and therefore, better version of herself (Margaret Qualley).
The Substance is one of the boldest films I have ever seen. Not only does it dive headfirst into its subject of women aging without ever shying away from shameful aspects such as jealousy and pure envy, but Fargeat seizes the effects the male gaze has had on female protagonists in cinema and plays with camera placements and character tropes that have been used to either sexualise or demonise them. It is a breath of fresh air in how it portrays both an older woman fighting for every tiny bit of relevance that is left to her, and a head-on newcomer who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and their interdependent relation.
Body horror is a major aspect of the film and instead of being used as a tool to other women and their experiences, it so cleverly becomes an imagery of the major, and sometimes traumatic, changes they go through. The fractured bodies reflect a fractured society, and the parallel of both gives great symbolism to when women have had enough with the pretension of quietly transforming and the mask comes off.
The film brilliantly weaves between despair and comedy while staying very close to its social commentary, but when it delves entirely into the shock value, it loses me a little bit. The concept of the substance and its consequences is stretched to its very last breath. Although you leave the theatre feeling you have experienced catharsis, the social criticism could have been more subtly fed to us, rather than pushed down our throats with its literalness.
Margaret Qualley is transcendant and has us hanging on her every word as she charms us with her winks, smiles, and moves, and Dennis Quaid excels as Elizabeth’s demanding boss and the film’s comedic relief, but it is Demi Moore’s spectacle. The revered actress particularly shines in a role that showcases her acting on a level she was never given the opportunity to go to before. The performance is full of intensity and even brutality, but the vulnerability is what grips us and ends up making us stay on the edge of our seats, our hearts in our throats.
With a captivating set design, stunning cinematography reminiscent of Kubrick, and punching editing that leaves us breathless as we advance through the narrative, a very heightened visual identity is created. And yet, it is the sound design that has particularly affected me. It alone makes it worth seeing it in theatres. It is gutturally primitive and made my skin crawl more times than I could count. The sounds of the liquid substance, the futuristic tools, the grunts of pain, and the click of heels become a character in itself and elevate the whole film to a glorious experience that is never to be forgotten.
The Substance is now playing in theatres, go see it! Believe me, you will want to experience it with a crowd.
really amazing review!! š
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