Demi Moore

THE SUBSTANCE (SFF 2024) CLOSING FILM


Body horror at its finest, most fucked up and entertaining.

Taking visual cues from Stanley Kubrick and special effects from the maestro of b horror, David Cronenberg this ups the ante and goes where you won’t imagine.

So strap in and let French director, Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) take you on a hilarious satirical journey on ageing, the fetishisation of youth and commentary on self worth.

This was the closing film at this year’s, the 71st Sydney Film Festival, and fair play to the organisers for picking it. This is not for the faint hearted and if you get, in any way, squeamish about the body and gore of any kind, please give this a miss. You have been warned.

Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance

Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle in The Substance

Demi Moore makes the comeback of comebacks playing Elisabeth Sparkle, a one time star, who is being forced out of the industry by her age (It’s still me!!!!!) and is given a hard drive entitled The Substance that upon viewing is promised a chance at a better version of herself and, like many who go down the plastic surgery route IRL, she grasps at the branch of youth with the verve of a thirsty desert dweller.

Years ago, I saw a film called Society that this reminds me of. I love it when horror makes social statements and The Substance makes a powerful and important one about the fear of ageing especially to women and women in the spotlight.
I get why they would have cosmetic work done, they are surrounded by beauty that they are constantly having to compete with but age will not be beaten, it’s a losing battle. 

I’m not telling you anything else apart from the acting is fabulous, from Demi Moore, the talented Margaret Qualley and the always sturdy Dennis Quaid, here having an absolute riot playing an absolute knob.

A Warning.......

A Warning…….

The cinematography by Benjamin Kračun owes much to the sensibility of Kubrick and the music supervised by Guillaume Baurez is pulsing, driving and intense and fits perfectly with the images.

The Substance won Best Screenplay at Cannes this year and I’m not surprised, it seems like the kind of film that the folk at Cannes would love having recently been wowed by Julie Ducournau’s Titane.
What is it with the French and body horror, they loved Crash as well, it premiered there and won the Special Jury Prize.

Maragret Qualley in The Substance

Maragret Qualley in The Substance

I loved this film, it is so balls out or tits out crazy that it deserves the accolades. It is also a horror film, which rarely get the kind of critical recognition they deserve.

Strap in and bring a sick bag, it’s going to be rough if you have a weak stomach.

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MARGIN CALL (2011)

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Written and directed by J.C. Chandor this tautly wound script and story-telling style brings to mind a great play. Mostly due to the workman-like office settings, this enables Chandor and his merry bunch of talented actors to unfurl the story in a way unusual to film. That’s not to say it hasn’t been done before and brilliantly (12 Angry Men, Glengarry Glenross, All the President’s Men) but it’s rarely done well and often enough.

The realistic, theatrical approach allows the protagonists of the piece, yet antagonists of the well-being of capitalist society, to be shown as humans, not merely some callous rogues that will probably end up dead or in jail.

This is a film about capitalism, greed and how far it can be taken. Loosely based on the American financial crisis of 2008/9 it draws on, without being specific, the world of Goldman Sachs, the Lehmann Brothers and Bear Stearns. Using an un-named Wall Street investment company allows investigation of an event that was probably a long time coming. It manages to keep the stakes high and feel like this is how it could have probably went down.

Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci) gets fired from a big investment firm as part of a major culling. The project he was working on before he was ejected from the building has implications too huge for the immediate bosses to see. He hands over a USB to one of his underlings, Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), who stays behind to work on it, discovering information that requires him to call his boss late at night with the not so great news. And so the wheel begins to turn on an event that will have far-reaching effects on many, many lives.

Jeremy Irons (John Tuld) reminds us of how great an actor he is playing the head of the un-named company and Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey) has the moral dilemma at the forefront of his day/night and plays it brilliantly. Paul Bettany is very believable as a Londoner working with the big boys on Wall Street and Penn Badgely plays Zachary Quinto’s junior work mate well, as always.
Thoroughly well supported by Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Mary McDonnell and Aasif Mandvi, all the actors here realise they are getting a chance to really act…on film. Clever dialogue, no histrionics, just great story-telling makes this an important film that deserves to be seen.

Margin Call was J.C.Chandor’s first film, as a director and writer on it he shows that he is a director to watch out for. A mark has been made.

Now do I really have to watch All is Lost?

4/5

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