A review of the shocking recent film “The Substance”
Girls and women are constantly under pressure to stay young-looking, slim, attractive. Perhaps nowhere is this pressure more insidious than in the entertainment sector. And the pressure really comes on when a woman reaches a certain age.
But what if there was a black market drug that enabled a woman to be transformed – at least for a time – into the most appealing version of herself, but with various conditions? Should she take the option if it saves her career and could she adhere to the limiting conditions?
This is the outrageous plot of this stunning film and the message is put over with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in a shocking satire that turns into a body horror movie.
It is a tale which could – or, at least, should – only be told by a woman and the writer and director is French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat who was the only female director in the 2025 Academy Awards shortlist of 10 contenders for Best Picture.
The casting is a piece of cinematic magic. Demi Moore, who was so high profile in such commercially successful films as “Ghost”, “A Few Good Men”, “Indecent Proposal” and “GI Jane”, has not been seen in movies much in the last couple of decades which might have something to do with the fact that she is now 62.
Here she plays a television star aged 50 who is dropped from the schedule because of her age. Moore is brilliant in a role than has actually won her awards for the first time in her career, although she didn’t quite manage to win the Academy Award for Best Actress (being pipped by a 25 year old).
Be warned though: this is not a work for the faint-heated. It is disturbing and violent. In the last segment, when you think it can’t become any more gory or bloody, it does – again and again. The final shot is a wonderful return to the opening sequence on Sunset Boulevard – a neat sense of symmetry in a stylish film full of clever shots and powerful images.