Movie review: In 'Substance,' Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley seduce, horrify

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Fountain of Youth stories often are cautionary tales about being careful what you wish for. The Substance, in theaters Sept. 20, takes that morality tale to provocative and horrifying extremes.

Elisabeth Sparkles (Demi Moore) is a fitness show host who's been famous long enough that her Hollywood Walk of Fame star has faded and cracked. On her 50th birthday, network executive Harvey (Dennis Quaid) informs her it's time for a new, younger host.

So Elisabeth turns to The Substance, a mysterious youth formula that literally creates a younger copy of her and who names herself Sue (Margaret Qualley). Sue auditions for the show and becomes her own replacement.

Writer-director Coralie Fargeat doles out rules for how The Substance works and keeps it mysterious and compelling. Elisabeth is called The Matrix and Sue is her Other Self.

Sue and Elizabeth alternate every seven days. While Sue is active, Elisabeth is unconscious, but needs to be hooked up to a feeding tube, and Sue must equalize the two women with daily injections of bodily fluids from one to the other.

Even obtaining The Substance tests how far Elisabeth is willing to go. The door to the facility only opens up to Elisabeth's knees, essentially asking: How curious are you? Will you duck under this opening to obtain your substance? (She does.)

The company behind The Substance insisted "You are one," but this is not entirely accurate. Sue and Elisabeth have different memories and experiences, and their needs and wants come into conflict.

When Sue cuts it close at the end of her week, or blatantly tries to extend her time by draining more from Elisabeth, it causes permanent damage to Elisabeth. Because they alternate, they can never have a face-to-face talk about the arrangement either.

Beyond the beauty parable, The Substance speaks to the macro issue that people should never expect any procedure to go 100% according to plan. The rules for maintaining the Matrix and Other Self are so rigorous, and yet nobody follows rules and procedures to a T.

So, like any precarious endeavor in society, The Substance is compromised by every user. There are also hints of people beyond Elisabeth and Sue having negative experiences. Elisabeth meets them during her active weeks.

The initial process of creating Sue is already horrifying, showing Elisabeth's body splitting apart and birthing a new body. The consequences become as horrifying as their relationship becomes adversarial, but the close-ups of needles may be more than many viewers can bear.

Fargeat's story follows the premise to the logical conclusion of this Faustian arrangement. She also renders literal some of society's misogynistic demands of women, like smiling more or even more inappropriate comments.

Fargeat also presents the events in a heightened, surreal aesthetic. It's not dreamlike, but long, colored hallways and vast tiled rooms create stark backgrounds to explore the film's themes, and bringing characters uncomfortably close to or above the camera achieves disorientation.

Moore and Qualley give bravura performances, both surely having faced the scrutiny women in Hollywood and the world are under. Moore allows the camera to film closeups of her thighs and the stomach of a woman who has had kids, though Elisabeth has not.

Of course, we would all be lucky to look like Moore tomorrow, let alone at 50, but Hollywood and audiences are mean, so she deserves credit. And being respectful of Qualley too, she's not just putting herself on display as the new and improved Moore.

Sue uses her new looks strategically, seducing a complaining neighbor into cooperation. Beyond her own career advancement, she relishes the power a certain body type and face holds over heterosexual men in society.

Fargeat contrasts how Elisabeth looks at her body with shame and Sue looks at her body with pride by putting them in the same matching shot.

Quaid also goes all in on portraying the extreme misogyny of Harvey. It's not as vulnerable as the women in the film, as men are usually not as vulnerable in life, either, but he commits everything he can to the supporting role.

The Substance is provocative, but it only works because it is so entertaining. This is an All About Eve story, except Eve is the same person as her mentor.

Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.