Women often greet the new year with resolutions for a reboot. This desire to become a better version of one’s self is the premise of The Substance (2024).
Coralie Fargeat’s sci-fi satire begins when Hollywood star Elisabeth Sparkle (portrayed by a 60-something Demi Moore) is canned from hosting an aerobics show on her 50th birthday. Because of sexism and youth culture, boys’ club execs ensure female celebrities fade into the sunset once they mature.
Unfortunately, this practice occurs in all walks of life. Two years into the pandemic, women 65 and older hadn’t recovered their COVID-related employment losses. And women lucky enough to be in the workplace are less likely than men to be promoted.
Although Sparkle maintains her sparkle, she’s devalued at 50 while an older producer named Harvey (Dennis Quaid) can be outwardly repulsive without endangering his career. Similarly, an obnoxious male neighbor (Gore Abrams) complains without risk of being called a Karen. The Substance also presents a good-looking/rude-behaving young lover (Oscar Lesage) and an older suitor (Edward Hamilton-Clark) so ineffectual, he lets Elisabeth retrieve a piece of paper with his phone number on it from the mud. With the exception of a slightly caring stud (Hugo Diego Garcia), these men fail to clear an already-low bar set for them.
It doesn’t help that society doubles down on double standards by imposing impossible expectations on women. Instead of pushing back, many internalize the unrealistic task to be perfect and hurt themselves for not measuring up. In her desperate quest to be forever young, Sparkle falls prey to a black market miracle drug that has killer consequences. Without going into detail, the substance’s fermenting side effects rival the repercussions described in Oscar Wilde’s gothic novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1891).
The film’s glamour and gore are enhanced by Benjamin Kracun’s cinematography and the prosthetics designed by Pierre-Olivier Persin. Composer Raffertie rounds out the sensory production with a punchy score. Yet it’s Moore who brings the most to the movie per her public persona.
Through the decades, audiences have watched the Brat Packer alter her body both naturally (the pregnant 28-year-old celebrated the female form when she posed naked on the cover of Vanity Fair in 1991) and cosmetically (after having breast augmentation at 34, Moore reportedly exchanged the implants for a breast lift). Before 40 was considered the new 20, the quadragenarian made news for rocking a bikini in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle in 2003. That same year, she started dating 25-year-old Ashton Kutcher, followed by their marriage in 2005 and divorce in 2013.
Apart from a presumed buccal fat mishap, Moore’s age-defiant brand provides a much-needed shorthand to an otherwise underwritten character and dialogue-lite script. Without words, she conveys a series of emotions while applying her makeup in the mirror. No doubt, this effective scene helped pave the way to a deserved Golden Globe victory with wins at the upcoming AARP Movies for Grownups Awards (Jan 11), Critics’ Choice Movie Awards (Jan. 12), and Independent Spirit Awards (Feb. 22) pending.
The Chicago Film Critics Association also nominated Moore for Best Actress as well as her co-star Margaret Qualley for Best Supporting Actress. In addition to sharing the screen, their characters are connected by blood and guts and a turkey leg. Yes, The Substance offers the body horror of a David Cronenberg flick and the duality of David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999).
As a director, Fargeat excels at “showing not telling” but that doesn’t mean her film is without flaws. Despite winning Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, Fargeat’s treatise on the objectification of ingénues and the erasure of aging divas leans into sexploitation and hagsploitation the longer the movie goes on.
Had the 2-hour and 21-minute film told its story in half that time, it could have delivered a feminist message with stylish and campy elements rather than becoming an overly-long shock-fest for ass fans. More importantly, if the entertainment industry wants to let actresses grow into interesting roles without pegging them as pin-up girls or psycho-biddies, it will produce, promote and praise more age-positive movies like Thelma.
The Substance and Thelma can currently be streamed online.
