The Substance review: 'thrillingly sick and twisted' satire
Demi Moore stars as a former Hollywood actress turned exercise guru

For much of the 1990s, Demi Moore was one of "the biggest female box-office draws in Hollywood", said Alistair Harkness in The Scotsman. But then, in 1996, her career was unfairly derailed by "Striptease": though the film did well at the box office, the critics hated it.
Add in the relentless "physical scrutiny" she'd been subjected to since her breakthrough in "St. Elmo's Fire", and you can see why the writer-director Coralie Fargeat thought her "perfect casting" for "The Substance", a satire that "takes a flame-thrower to the misogynistic beauty standards of the entertainment industry – and has plenty of fun doing it".
Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, "a once in-demand Hollywood actress whose latter-day career as a Jane Fonda-esque exercise guru" comes to an end when she is fired by her repugnant boss (Dennis Quaid). At a low ebb, she takes a drug that promises to generate a younger, more beautiful version of herself (played by Margaret Qualley). The "conceptual twist to this Dorian Gray-like premise" is that both versions of her share a consciousness, and must alternate weeks in the world – which leads to "all hell breaking loose". "Thrillingly sick and twisted", this isn't a subtle film, but it has an unexpectedly poignant ending, and Moore is superb.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Be warned, said Wendy Ide in The Observer: the film is "gut-churningly visceral". But it "plunges us into the deranged, disorienting emotional carnage of menopause in a way that few other films have".
I found it "puerile" and "intellectually specious", said Kevin Maher in The Times. With her endless close-ups of Qualley's bum, Fargeat wants us to think that she is "bravely satirising the 'male gaze'". But she is still fetishising the female body; I don't buy the idea it's different because she is a woman.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
6 sun-drenched homes by the sea
Feature Featuring a large patio overlooking the ocean in Laguna Beach and a marble rainfall shower in Norwalk
-
Garsington Opera opens its summer festival with two 'very different productions'
The Week Recommends A 'fabulous' new staging of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades and Donizetti's fake-love-potion comedy L'elisir d'amore
-
The Rehearsal series two: Nathan Fielder's docu-comedy is 'laugh-out-loud funny'
The Week Recommends Television's 'great illusionist' has turned his attention to commercial airline safety
-
The Ballad of Wallis Island: bittersweet British comedy is a 'delight'
The Week Recommends A reclusive millionaire lures his favourite folk duo to an island for an 'awkward reunion'
-
Aston Martin Vantage Roadster: 'a rare treat indeed'
The Week Recommends The Roadster version of Aston Martin's new Vantage coupé makes even 'the most mundane journey feel special'
-
Bad Friend: Tiffany Watt Smith explores why women abandon friendships
The Week Recommends A 'deeply researched' account of female friendship through history
-
Film reviews: The Phoenician Scheme, Bring Her Back, and Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
Feature A despised mogul seeks a fresh triumph, orphaned siblings land with a nightmare foster mother, and a Jane fan finds herself in a love triangle
-
Music reviews: Tune-Yards and PinkPantheress
Feature "Better Dreaming" and "Fancy That"