At every Cannes Film Festival, there are rumors of fainting in the screening rooms. This year, it was Coralie Fargeat's The Substance that was accompanied by its fair share of rumors, due to the violence shown on screen. Not surprising for this French director, whose first film, Revenge, was a radical, gory rape and revenge.
Former movie star Elisabeth Sparkle(Demi Moore) is now the host of an aerobics show. Her producer Harvey(Dennis Quaid) tells her that she's reached her"sell-by date" - there's nothing sparkling about her anymore - and that she's to be replaced by a younger presenter (understand, more attractive to the target audience and investors). Back in her minimalist apartment, overlooking Los Angeles, she orders The Substance, a mysterious and innovative product based on cell division, to be injected in order to generate another version of herself - younger, more beautiful, more perfect, of course.
Demi Moore gives birth to this best version of herself from her back in a particularly crude scene. Thus was born Sue(Margaret Qualley, Andie MacDowell's daughter, seen on Yórgos Lánthimos' Poor Creatures, Kinds of Kindness and Ethan Coen's Drive-Away Dolls). This plastic alter-ego was quickly hired to replace her on the show, taking it from a Jane Fonda-style aerobics sequence to the Call on me video. But there's one instruction that must be followed to the letter for the protocol to run smoothly: the obligation to switch every 7 days, one week for Elisabeth, one week for Sue. It's easy to see that things aren't going to go according to plan.
While Coralie Fargeat offers Demi Moore a fabulous return to the limelight (and she doesn't do things "by halves", such as daring to go full nude), the French director also has the good sense to call on a completely different actress to portray Moore as a youngster, thus avoiding the need for special rejuvenation effects that could have been botched. And with such a body horror film, there's nothing like using plastic special effects, however unsavory they may be - pus, blood and other bodily fluids are legion.
Feminine and feminist, The Substance is a real genre bonanza, criticizing the star system and white cis men's obsession with youth, which is reflected, year in, year out, in women over 50 - Dennis Quaid's role is particularly sickeningly disgraceful. With, to signify the passing of time and celebrity, a long shot of Elisabeth Sparkle's star on Hollywood Boulevard enduring the years and the affronts of passers-by.
Coralie Fargeat's saturated colors, ultra-aesthetic shots, meticulous set design, numerous daring shots (particularly immersive macro shots ) and meticulous editing place all the references that make up her cinema(Carrie, Elephant Man, Shining when Demi Moore's body starts to rot), but the film quickly goes round in circles.
With an hour-long soft spot in the middle - after all, the film is 2 hours 20 minutes long! The Substance would have benefited from a sharper cut through the fat, going beyond its (very good) initial idea to offer its actresses a less namby-pamby way out (even if the hemoglobin-guzzling ending is certainly assumed) and more focused onfemaleempowerment.
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