The Substance, French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s second film after her brutal directorial debut Revenge, has had a tumultuous road to the screen. After being developed at Universal, the movie made its way to Cannes as an acquisition title, where it made a massive splash, delighting and disgusting audiences. Although the visuals and performances in The Substance are impeccable, the bloated length and poor pacing keep the film from connecting as well as it should.
The Substance Review
The movie follows an aging, once-beloved celebrity in Hollywood who discovers what she thinks may be the opportunity of a lifetime: a black-market drug that allows her to temporarily create a better, younger version of herself. It’s an intriguing, creative premise that offers a feminist spin on a genre that is often dominated by male filmmakers and stories.
Fargeat’s script has the subtlety of a sledgehammer, but that’s not unusual for the body horror genre. Body horror is designed, first and foremost, to shock and revolt — both in what you see and what you feel. The Substance uses its gore and psychological terror to deliver an unsettling message about ageism and beauty standards. While it is extremely overt, perhaps that is what this discussion needs.
With a satire like this, the characters are also very shallow. The characters are more important in how they represent the themes and emotions of the story. It’s a little easier to forgive that the character’s arcs are so predictable and their motivations are so bluntly outlined because they exist to serve a purpose.
In the lead role is Demi Moore, who gets the role of a lifetime as the beautiful starlet who struggles to get work because of her industry’s unreasonable expectations of age. There aren’t a lot of meaty roles like this for women in their 50s and 60s, and the movie serves as a meta-commentary on that fact of the industry. Because of this, there is a definite vulnerability and authenticity to Moore’s performance, as the character’s struggles (well, at least the less tangible ones) have an element of truth to them.
Yet, while this is primarily a starring vehicle for Moore, Margaret Qualley’s performance as her younger counterpart is also excellent. Qualley takes many of the mannerisms of Moore’s turn and dials them up to 11, giving a performance that’s campy, fun, and sexy, with an impressive wicked streak. Qualley’s performance is a perfect foil to Moore’s more emotionally grounded, often devastating one.
The Substance also thrives in its visuals. The special effects, make-up and hairstyling, and production design are all among the year’s best. Fargeat does a tremendous job of immersing the viewer in this world in a way that makes it feel like a strange alternate reality to our own. It’s a colorful, energetic, bustling world, setting up a perfect juxtaposition to the grotesque body horror we see. Raffertie’s pulsing score also does a fantastic job of consistently ramping up the tension.
However, as strong as the film is in all of these areas, it fails to keep up its momentum throughout its 140-minute runtime. Thankfully, Fargeat brings plenty of visual energy to the movie, and with plenty of bursts of excitement throughout, she is able to keep viewers invested. Still, the conflict grows repetitive, making it feel like the movie stretches on for at least half an hour too long.
Is The Substance worth watching?
Nevertheless, The Substance is an incredibly discomforting film, and that length only contributes to it. It has some of the best visual effects of the year, tremendous performances from its two leads, and a premise that offers plenty of thought-provoking commentary. Plenty of moments will get people talking, and in a body horror movie like this, that’s what matters most.
The Substance hits theaters on September 20.
The Substance Review — Overlong Body Horror Has Some of the Year’s Best Effects
The Substance has some excellent visual effects and stellar performances from Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, but at 140 minutes, its repetitive nature grows tedious.
