Demi Moore stars in the most morbid film of the year, if not of the decade. In Coralie Fargeat’s much talked-about body-horror film The Substance the CGs are monstrously ghoulish, and the covert message on the anxieties of aging gets drowned in pools of gross examination and revulsion. By the end of it all, you are sickened by the way body parts are twisted, crushed, exploded, and disembodied right there in front of your eyes, with no aesthetic concessions.
But then, there is Demi Moore, and you want to give the film the attention and reverence that it ostensibly aims for the film opened at the Cannes Film Festival where the director Fargeat won the award for Best Screenplay. Admittedly The Substance makes a shrill pitch for aging and body shaming with an aggression that defies all aesthetic norms. The direction is highly stylized.
And some of it looks worthy of a snapshot treatment, like the flaming orange overcoat that Demi Moore wears every time she steps out into the Hollywood sun. Most of the film is fascinated with high-end trashiness. Director Coralie Fargeat doesn’t know where to stop.
What starts as a critique of excesses plunges into an orgy of excessive self-indulgence. ALSO READ: THIS Hollywood Actress Converted To Hinduism For 'Spiritual Satisfaction' Has Indian Names For Children To begin with, Elisabeth Sparke (Demi Moore) is an aerobics host on a popular TV show, something like what Jane Fonda once used to be. At 50, Elisabeth is sacked by her obnoxious bo.
