The Substance is a horror film directed by French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat (Revenge), winner of the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival 2024. It borrows the premise from The Picture of Dorian Gray, the classic novel by Oscar Wilde, but uses it to comment on issues such as ageism, beauty standards, and body dysmorphia, specifically in the context of Hollywood. The plot follows Elisabeth (Demi Moore), a successful actress who, in the latter years of her career, has become the host of a fitness television show. That is until a studio executive (Dennis Quaid, in a grotesque caricature of Harvey Weinstein) decides she is too old for it and ends her contract. Desperate, Elisabeth turns to the mysterious drug of the title to "activate" a younger and improved version of herself, "Sue" (Margaret Qualley). Both women must maintain a delicate balance for seven days, which begins to unravel when Sue achieves success and starts to resent Elisabeth as a burden. With waves of blood, mutilations, pus, and other bodily fluids that words can't begin to describe, The Substance is a delirious and clever satire of the arbitrary yet predatory and exploitative frivolity with which the media imposes and perpetuates unattainable beauty standards. At the same time, it is an astute representation of the self-destructive extremes many women are willing to subject their bodies and self-esteem to in order to fit into the system and play the game. Regardless of the conclusions, one thing is for sure: you will experience a whirlwind of emotions and have an incredible time... if the nausea doesn't defeat you halfway through.
Demi Moore: The best movies of the Oscar-nominated actress for ‘The Substance‘
Great performance by Demi Moore, here playing a lieutenant who wants to prove she can pass the same tests as the other men in the Army. A great action movie, with an important message behind the explosions and shots.
A military lawyer is tasked with defending two US Marines charged with murdering a fellow Marine and intends to prove they were only following their base commander's orders.
A musical comedy best described as Love Without Borders through the kitsch and camp of John Waters and Pedro Almodóvar, Please, Baby, Please follows a couple who witness a murder, becoming the obsession of a gang, starting with fear and ending in lust. The chameleon Andrea Riseborough (Mandy) delivers a delirious performance alongside Harry Melling (Crimes of the Academy). It will please more fans of Rocky Horror Picture Show than traditional musicals, but it's certainly an experience.
A novelist blinded in a car crash which killed his wife rediscovers his passion for both life and writing when he embarks on an affair with the neglected wife of an indicted businessman.