The Substance 2024
7.2 /10
952 Votes
A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
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All 9 Videos & 98 Photos
cast
Full Cast & Crew
... Elisabeth
... Sue
... Harvey
... Fred
... Oliver
... Troy
... Man at Diner
... Male Nurse
... Doctor
... Diego - Boyfriend
User reviews
See All 6 ReviewsA review by Manuel São Bento
20 September 2024
The Substance delivers an intense, visually mesmerizing commentary on the entertainment industry's obsession with youth and outward beauty. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley offer remarkable, maybe even career-best performances, with Dennis Quaid excelling in his role as well. Coralie Fargeat explores how aging stars, particularly women, are discarded when they no longer meet the industry's strict beauty standards. Moore's character, haunted by the memory of her former fame and beauty, goes down a dark path in pursuit of a "better" version of herself. The story is also a sharp critique of power dynamics, with white men controlling who's in front of the spotlight, while women are pitted against one another for validation. The film's production is equally impressive, especially the makeup and prosthetic work that elevates its body horror elements. While the first half of the movie is more subdued, the gore ramps up significantly as the plot unfolds, culminating in a chaotic "fourth act" that will leave audiences bewildered. The fast-paced editing, paired with an impactful score, heightens the tension and surrealism of the narrative. Though there's a part of me who prefers a version of the film that ends before the wild final act, the overall experience is an unforgettable, audacious exploration of vanity, control, and desperation in the entertainment world. Rating: B+
Director:
Coralie Fargeat
Writer:
Coralie Fargeat
Stars:
Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid
Genres:
Release Date:
September 7, 2024
Run Time:
141 min
Plot Keywords:
Reviews of
The Substance
A review by Manuel São Bento
20 September 2024
The Substance delivers an intense, visually mesmerizing commentary on the entertainment industry's obsession with youth and outward beauty. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley offer remarkable, maybe even career-best performances, with Dennis Quaid excelling in his role as well. Coralie Fargeat explores how aging stars, particularly women, are discarded when they no longer meet the industry's strict beauty standards. Moore's character, haunted by the memory of her former fame and beauty, goes down a dark path in pursuit of a "better" version of herself. The story is also a sharp critique of power dynamics, with white men controlling who's in front of the spotlight, while women are pitted against one another for validation. The film's production is equally impressive, especially the makeup and prosthetic work that elevates its body horror elements. While the first half of the movie is more subdued, the gore ramps up significantly as the plot unfolds, culminating in a chaotic "fourth act" that will leave audiences bewildered. The fast-paced editing, paired with an impactful score, heightens the tension and surrealism of the narrative. Though there's a part of me who prefers a version of the film that ends before the wild final act, the overall experience is an unforgettable, audacious exploration of vanity, control, and desperation in the entertainment world. Rating: B+
A review by good.film
23 September 2024
For a film that’s laser-focused on the human body, it’s gloriously on point that THE SUBSTANCE begins with a freshly cracked, bright yellow egg yolk. Eggs are the ‘giver of life’, right? They’re the origin of all of us. Gleaming and plump, the yolk suddenly gets pricked – not by a fork, but a syringe. That’s the first juicy visual metaphor of many in this meaningfully bonkers body horror, for which French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat picked up the prestigious Best Screenplay prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. To call the film ‘bold’ is a weapons-grade understatement. It’s an audacious, jaw-dropping examination of what screens & billboards demand of women (especially as they age), and how laughably impossible it is to meet those demands. Well, if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry. After watching THE SUBSTANCE, you might do both. Here's our deep dive for good.film: https://good.film/guide/holy-sh-t-the-substance-is-a-weapons-grade-takedown-of-the-male-gaze
A review by griggs79
26 September 2024
Demi Moore's performance in The Substance is so potent that it's hard to tell what's more intoxicating; her inevitable Best Actress win or Coralie Fargeat's razor-sharp screenplay that's already got the Oscar in the bag.
A review by Brent Marchant
28 September 2024
There’s a big difference between being funny and being laughable, yet the latest from writer-director Coralie Fargeat has somehow found a way to be both. After amassing a considerable amount of largely well-earned cinematic goodwill in the film’s opening segments, the picture mercilessly squanders that support in the final act with an overlong, meandering, disgustingly gratuitous and grotesque exhibition of utterly bad taste. This story of an aging actress (Demi Moore) who seeks to revive her career by retrieving some of her lost youth with the aid of an enigmatic injectable follows her grand misadventures when the mysterious substance prompts the emergence of a younger doppelganger (Margaret Qualley), who becomes a Hollywood sex kitten sensation virtually overnight. To make this experimental venture work, however, the two individuals must follow a complex set of rules, dictates that become increasingly difficult to follow as they each vie for their respective shares of attention. And, as this scenario unfolds, tension grows between them, leading to complications and unexpected developments that become progressively harder to manage. But that’s where what works in the film ends. As the story plays out from there, it becomes stupendously absurd, and, even though there are some hearty laughs in this, there are even more ridiculously implausible and unexplained occurrences that try audience members’ patience and tolerance, so much so that I couldn’t wait for this trainwreck to end. In addition to the foregoing shortcomings, the film includes myriad changes in tone, making it difficult to determine whether this is supposed to be a serious thriller or a campy road, very much in the same way as in the incomprehensible French offering “Titane” (2021). It also shamelessly “borrows” elements from other movies in various ways, most notably imagery and narrative references from “The Shining” (1980) and “Young Frankenstein” (1974), costume designs from the “Hunger Games” franchise, and bafflingly inexplicable soundtrack excerpts from films like “Vertigo” (1958). Then there’s the picture’s obvious, heavy-handed message about the perils of misogyny, observations that, as important as they are, could easily stood to have been turned down more than a few notches (yes, we get it already). At the same time, though, there are also some fundamentally innate questions about the narrative that go wholly unanswered, leaving us with numerous head-scratching moments. Sadly, these failings detract significantly from the elements that do work (at least early on in the film), such as the fine performances of Moore and Qualley, the picture’s inventive cinematography, and a central premise that could have made for an engaging story if handled with greater finesse. But these strengths are effectively cancelled by what ultimately results when this release goes off the rails. Indeed, how “The Substance” captured the 2024 Cannes Film Festival award for best screenplay is truly mind boggling. I’m certainly a fan of the weird, wild and wacky, but this release undermines the virtues of those cherished qualities. Regrettably, I was seriously looking forward to seeing this offering, and I was decidedly impressed by what I saw in its opening acts, but that was all wiped out by how this one ultimately played out, a picture that, in the end, ironically relied more on style than “substance.”
A review by CinemaSerf
28 September 2024
This takes a logical step on from Coralie Fargeat's earlier "Reality+" (2014) drama, only this time it takes a much more substantial swipe at all things vain. "Elisabeth" (Demi Moore) has been at the top of her fitness game for many a year when her boss "Harvey" (Dennis Quaid) decides that she's now too old and that a younger model is needed to present those programmes we all saw on the television of gorgeous, fit and healthy, people showing us how to exercise on a mat in from of our televisions each morning. Distracted by her imminent removal, she is involved in a car accident that introduces her to an handsome young nurse (Robin Grear) and then to a curious invitation to test out a mysterious fluid that can essentially give her her cake and eat it. In best "Jekyll and Hyde" tradition, injecting this quite literally creates a split personality. One is her current self, the other a perfect, younger specimen. They work in a rota system each gets a week of consciousness then has to take a week out. Thing is, the more vivacious character "Sue" (Margaret Qualley) is not so religious about sticking to these sharing rules and we quickly discover that what is "borrowed" can never been returned - with increasingly harrowing results. With the gushing "Harvey" determined to capitalise on his new ratings winner, things become decidedly irritating for the now marginalised "Elisabeth" - but shat can she do? There's no going back...! I think this is Moore at her best. Her palpable sense of evolving fury, exasperation and frustration is expertly captured as is the selfishness of her alter ego by an on form Qualley. Quaid steals his scenes as the truly odious epitome of corporate greed for whom it's all about the business, the money and never the actual people concerned. The denouement is reminiscent of something concocted by one of the David's - Lynch or Cronenberg, and allows the throbbing ghastliness of this story of vanity gone mad to demonstrate just how fickle life can be when there's little actual substance at all to their shallow and vacuous lives. A savage indictment of the short-term and unprincipled "beauty" industry that aims squarely at just about everyone and everything involved, is engagingly toxic and well worth a watch.
A review by r96sk
10 October 2024
Certainly an experience! 'The Substance' is a lot. It's one of those sorta movies that I needed to let settle in my mind before I even started to think about reviewing it. I'm not even sure where to start. It's insane from pretty much the beginning to the very end of its 140 minute run time, some scenes are particularly rough to watch unfold! I think the only body horror flick I've seen up until this point is David Cronenberg's 'Crimes of the Future' from 2022, which I found to be solid enough but it came across, at least to me, as a bit too forced for shock value. This 2024 release has plenty of that, if not more, but it somehow feels totally at home with what surrounds it. The story itself is fascinating, even taking out all the craziness with the gore et al. So by no means is this a film that is style over substance (sorry). It isn't anything actually overly original in terms of the base plotline, though the way it is portrayed and brought to life is astounding - every inch is expertly crafted. Demi Moore is outstanding in this! I haven't seen her in much, at least anything released post-2002, but here she is top quality throughout. Margaret Qualley is obviously the opposite in terms of the former, though is just as fantastic in regards to the latter - great performance! If you see anyone giving warnings ahead of watching this, they are very much warranted! Even with all the graphic twistedness, which will turn many away, this is an impressively enthralling picture. I may need a lie-down though.
Cast & Crew of
The Substance
Directing
... Third Assistant Director
... First Assistant Director
... Director
... Third Assistant Director
... Third Assistant Director
... Third Assistant Director
... Second Assistant Director
... Script Supervisor
Production
... Executive Producer
... Location Manager
... Location Production Assistant
... Production Accountant
... Producer
... Producer
... Producer
... Executive Producer
... Executive Producer
... Assistant Production Manager
... Unit Production Manager
... Production Accountant
... Production Coordinator
... Location Assistant
... Extras Casting
... Assistant Location Manager
... Extras Casting
... Assistant Location Manager
... Casting Assistant
... Casting
Art
... Production Design
... Set Decoration
... Concept Artist
... Assistant Art Director
... Location Scout
... Property Buyer
... Props
... Props
... Set Dresser
... Assistant Set Decoration
... Assistant Art Director
... Assistant Property Master
... Property Master
... Graphic Designer
... Art Direction
... Art Direction
... Art Direction
... Set Decoration
... Art Direction
... Art Direction
... Art Direction
Costume & Make-Up
... Hair Department Head
... Prosthetics Sculptor
... Prosthetic Makeup Artist
... Special Effects Makeup Artist
... Prosthetics Sculptor
... Costume Supervisor
... Costume Supervisor
... Makeup Artist
... Special Effects Makeup Artist
... Special Effects Makeup Artist
... Key Hair Stylist
... Special Effects Makeup Artist
... Key Makeup Artist
... Hairstylist
... Additional Hairstylist
... Hair Supervisor
... Special Effects Makeup Artist
... Makeup Artist
... Makeup Artist
... Prosthetic Supervisor
... Prosthetic Supervisor
... Special Effects Makeup Artist
... Set Costumer
... Prosthetics
... Makeup Effects Designer
... Costume Designer
Crew
... Stunt Double
... Stunt Coordinator
... Stunts
... Stunt Double
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Stunt Driver
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Stunts
... Video Assist Operator
... Post Production Supervisor
... Carpenter
... Post Production Supervisor
... Special Effects
Visual Effects
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Special Effects Supervisor
... Digital Compositor
... Digital Compositor
... Visual Effects Supervisor
... Digital Compositor
... Digital Compositor
Camera
... Director of Photography
... First Assistant Camera
... Camera Intern
... Camera Operator
... Key Grip
... Grip
... Second Assistant Camera
... First Assistant Camera
... Steadicam Operator
... Camera Operator
... Third Assistant Camera
... Grip
... First Assistant Camera
... Additional Grip
... First Assistant Camera
... Additional First Assistant Camera
... Digital Imaging Technician
... Still Photographer
... Additional Second Assistant Camera
... Steadicam Operator
... Camera Trainee
Editing
... Editor
... Colorist
... Assistant Editor
... Editor
... First Assistant Editor
... Editor
Lighting
... Electrician
... Electrician
... Electrician
... Gaffer
... Electrician
... Best Boy Electric
Sound
... Original Music Composer
... Music Supervisor
... Sound Re-Recording Mixer
... Sound Designer
... ADR Mixer
... ADR Mixer
... Sound Mixer
... Supervising Dialogue Editor
... Dialogue Editor
... Sound Re-Recording Mixer
... ADR Editor
... Boom Operator
... Foley Editor
... Foley Artist
... Boom Operator
... Sound Editor
... Sound Editor
... Supervising Dialogue Editor
Writing
... Writer
Videos & Photos of
The Substance
Videos (9)
Photos (98)
