NECESSARY EXCESS: Coralie Fargeat's THE SUBSTANCE (wri/dir Coralie Fargeat, w/ Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Mubi, USA/France, 140mns, Arri Alexa)

This review may contain spoilers.

First, this is a dynamite movie.

Second, maybe don't watch this movie when eating leftovers for lunch.

Coralie Fargeat's THE SUBSTANCE is powered by a rage so palpable that all of its repetitive excess just ends up fueling its satiric sharp edge.

Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley commit to the vision and requirements of this all-out body horror in a way one would have thought unthinkable in 2024. 

Writer/director Coralie Fargeat and her incredible team also achieve the seeming impossible in pushing body horror well beyond the frontiers explored by the likes of David Cronenberg. 

This isn't to say that Fargeat surpasses Cronenberg. Cronenberg is Cronenberg, Fargeat is Fargeat.

But just buckle up. 

Elizabeth’s new younger self “Sue” experiences complications almost immediately…

The movie follows fifty something faded star and just fired TV exercise host, Elizabeth Sparkle (a 200% there Demi Moore), who, in desperation, tries a definitely NOT FDA approved drug therapy called "The Substance". 

Suddenly her back splits open and out comes fit, gorgeous twenty something, "Sue" (an equally 200% there Margaret Qualley).

The catch is Elizabeth and Sue are one and the same and must trade off every seven days per the instructions and drug regimen. But when the suddenly red hot Sue doesn't want to have to switch back to the middle aged depressed Elizabeth, the side effects of "The Substance" start to ruin everything.

Kubrick anyone?

Filmmaker Fargeat is so open in her love of Stanley Kubrick and "The Shining", it's hard to even call "The Substance" an homage. From Dennis Quaid's CLOCKWORK ORANGE/DR. STRANGELOVE like extreme performance to near exact duplications of THE SHINING hallways and bathrooms in the tv studio where Elizabeth/Sue works, the movie is almost a meta-cinematic representation of THE SUBSTANCE between two filmmakers. 

The excessive Kubrick inspiration is echoed in the excessive runtime. This movie did not need to be 140 minutes. It probably could have had the near same impact at 100 minutes. 

And yet, the punishment of those extra forty minutes both on the audience and the actors portraying Elizabeth/Sue feels equivalent to getting "scared straight" by prisoner inmates doing life with no chance of parole. 

This is about as subtle as the movie is gonna be folks…(really).

Those extra 40 minutes make sure there is no feasible way to deny the message of the movie. 

And since this writer judges a movie by its overall impact and final impression, this approach has to be deemed a success.

Because while large parts of the movie were watched cringing through hands over eyes (yes, this is true), its satire and point also found this audience member laughing very darkly.

It's no news flash to say that the U.S. has a very dysfunctional relationship with aging and death. Or to say that our entertainment industry uses up and discards its actors with horrific disregard. Or that the misogyny in our culture turns women against themselves. 

THE SUBSTANCE drives all these points home with guts (literally).

It is a messy movie (literally and figuratively). And the tone is so satiric and allegorical that ultimately, as an audience member, you have to give up trying to suspend your disbelief. 

That unattainable green light across the bay we Americans always chase that Fitzgerald wrote about…

It's not a scary movie because it's clearly a comedy. But it's so excessive in its gore and practical effects (big applause to the practical and visual fx teams) that it becomes an experience to be endured rather than enjoyed. But again, that seems to be the point and that point is effective.

There is even a bittersweet quiet revelation in the movie that had Elizabeth pursued a potential relationship with an also aging high school classmate and embraced her still beautiful, naturally aging self, she would have had a vastly more fulfilling experience than chasing eternal youth with the feverish delirium of a moth to a naked light bulb.

But like so many things in our society and current moment, it seems like obvious good decisions are beyond our reach. We no longer have the self-reflection, awareness, or control to put ourselves on the better path.

Instead, we are all becoming monstrosities of impulse, rage, resentment, and id.

We are all taking the substance. 

Craig Hammill is the founder.programmer of Secret Movie Club.

Ah Demi, don’t be so hard on yourself…