The Substance Had a Lot of Style But Very Little Substance

Last night, I went to the Kendall Square Cinema to see The Substance starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid.

I am sorry to say The Substance, while full of style, had very little in the way of substance.

The story is a variation on the fountain of youth. Moore plays an Academy Award winning actress Elisabeth Sparkle who hosts her own fitness show. Although the program is successful, the sleazy network executive Harvey played by Quaid thinks that now she is 50 she is too old and abruptly fires her. In reality, Moore is 61 and looks delightful

After surviving a near fatal car accident with hardly a scratch, a young doctor gives her a thumb drive called (you guessed it) The Substance. Simply put, The Substance gives one an opportunity to create a better version of yourself. The only caveat is that you have switch back and forth every seven days. 

Sue, the newer and better version of herself played by Qualley becomes the new host of the fitness show and is an overnight sensation. Due to this success, she does not abide by the seven-day regime and slowly takes the sparkle out of Elisabeth.

What follows is a series of heavy-handed symbolism, horror cliches, cheesy prosthetics and gratuitous nudity.

OK, I was just fine with the gratuitous nudity. There are worse things to do on a Saturday night than seeing Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley in all their naked glory.

That is until the nudity got mixed with the cheesy prosthetics. 

French born director Coralie Fargeat does deploy some interesting vertical shots and shows the female body in all its glory. I'll also never look at shrimp quite the same again after Harvey wolfed it down as he was firing Sparkle. 

But for the most part, the film is far too derivative of The Shining and Carrie. The Substance falls apart in the third act as the audience was laughing derisively during the climatic (or should I say anti-climatic) scene. Their laughter was reminiscent of the snickering I heard when I watched Bad Girls Go to Hell at the Brattle Theatre back in May. 

With that being said, I do think Moore gave a remarkable performance progressing (or perhaps regressing) from stoicism to rage before finally attaining peace. Remarkable enough that we might see a lot more of Moore than we have seen since career peak in the 1990s. Hopefully, The Substance is a springboard to more substantiative roles for Moore.