Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a one-time film star who has aged into being an aerobics goddess. Now she’s ageing out of that, no less than in line with her grotesque and piggish boss, pointedly named Harvey (Dennis Quaid), who’s photographed in some spectacularly unflattering huge angles. Even earlier than we meet Elisabeth, her profession trajectory is wittily relayed in a montage that reveals her Hollywood Stroll of Fame star being laid, devoted, after which topic to the ravages of time till somebody lastly splatters it with ketchup.
After a automobile accident, Elisabeth learns of a mysterious product known as “the substance.” It unlocks DNA and divides cells. (This course of, illustrated with an egg yolk, is the very first thing viewers see within the film, to the extent that it is likely to be confused with a manufacturing firm brand.) Elisabeth might be cut up in two: She’ll be each herself and an ostensibly higher model of herself. The one catch is that she’ll have to change to the opposite physique each seven days, with no wiggle room on timing.
Elisabeth’s preparations for her first injection make for a genuinely nice scene. The directions from the makers of the substance are sparse (however are available in useful all-caps), and Moore’s character is compelled to determine on her personal easy methods to use the assorted packets and medical provides within the equipment. The transformation, as Elisabeth, nude in a white-tiled lavatory, experiences the feeling of getting her eye double in its socket and her spinal column open to permit a start, is legitimately creative. Elisabeth’s double emerges and appears at herself within the mirror—and as an alternative of Moore staring again, it is Qualley. The Qualley model of the character, who begins calling herself Sue, shortly auditions to be Elisabeth’s alternative on the aerobics present.
You possibly can criticize “The Substance” as having little that is new. The deferred-aging premise is no less than as outdated as “The Image of Dorian Grey,” and the body-horror results owe loads to David Cronenberg, whose personal new characteristic, “The Shrouds,” is ready to premiere at Cannes tomorrow. However “The Substance” has its personal means of dealing with psychology and metaphor. (The menstrual analogies—the calendaring of the physique swaps, the ill-timed bouts of bleeding—are manifold.)
Fargeat’s earlier characteristic, “Revenge” was primarily notable for an impressively drawn-out cat-and-mouse chase by a home close to the tip, however “The Substance” permits her to color (in blood) on a a lot larger canvas. And whereas Qualley has proved her facility with smiley malevolence earlier than (in this fest, no much less), Moore has by no means had the chance to tear into a job like this. The one logical transfer is for the Cannes jury to present them a shared best-actress prize and pressure them to mail it to one another each week.