It’s been a while since we’ve had the legend that is Nick Clement deliver us a review here on Back to the Movies but in the festive season of giving we have this killer review of The Substance starring Demi Moore for you to enjoy! He really is Saint Nick!
Elisabeth Sparkle, renowned for an aerobics show, faces a devastating blow on her 50th birthday as her boss fires her. Amid her distress, a laboratory offers her a substance which promises to transform her into an enhanced version of herself.
The Substance is a certifiably nuts piece of work, a bold-faced satire about Hollywood’s obsession with youthful tits and ass, and how when actresses reach a certain age, they aren’t deemed “fuckable” anymore, so they get cast off to the sides in favour of the next young, hot thing.
The insane narrative follows a fading celebrity (Demi Moore) who, after being fired by her producer (Dennis Quaid) due to her age, uses a black-market drug that creates a much younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley) with unexpected side effects.
But that’s just scratching the surface, and while it might not be anything new from a thematic perspective – these are items that have been discussed for many years – we’ve never seen the topic tackled with this type of sci-fi/horror mind-bending.
The extremely stylish, wide-angle lens cinematography by Benjamin Kračun stresses a vibrant, primary-color-dominated visual sheen that immediately engrosses the viewer on an aesthetic level. The sound design is also supremely mounted – high level of craft POWER.
It must be said: Bold and brave writer/director Coralie Fargeat went for the jugular with this disgusting and gloppy piece of work, which hits a Grand Guignol climax in a way that few other films ever have, or at least, that I’ve ever seen.
I honestly couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. Not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach, the Cronenberg-esque body horror elements are supremely grotesque and eye-opening in a “how the fuck did they do that” fashion, and in general, when something goes as ALL-IN as this movie does, you just have to sit back and take the ride, even if the experience overstays its welcome by 15-20 minutes.
Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are positively breathtaking in their own ways throughout this nasty, angry movie, and they should be commended for not giving a fuck about prudish nudity norms that have infested Hollywood movies like the plague in recent years. Massively revolting Dennis Quaid POWER.
The Substance is streaming on MUBI and is anxious to melt your face off.
A big thanks to Nick Clement for The Substance review!
Our Rating
Summary
This may just be one of the craziest WTF movies of 2024 but it just works! I can’t recommend it enough, it’s BONKERS!
