I've tasted The Substance, and it is gross and good

Some mild spoilers ahead so consume at your own risk

I’ve started seeing significant numbers of ads for the new Mubi-acquired French horror film The Substance by Coralie Fargeat, and thought it was finally time to roll out my review. I’m not surprised that this film is getting a slow and mysterious advertising campaign. First, it was just: the substance. What is the substance? Why should we try it? Then, slowly, Margaret Qualley and especially Demi Moore began to make an appearance in the teasers. Obviously Mubi is trying to get as much bang for their buck as they can, and thankfully The Substance has bite-sized snippets aplenty. Why not, in this cynical era, place small crumbs of slick, simple, hyper-saturated images one after the other, leading us to the movie theater (or at least, the couch, and a Roku device)?

The film is an example of French “new extremity,” a highly stylized mostly-horror genre that include some of the best films (or at least, some of the most talked about) films of the 21st century: Julia Ducournau’s Titane (2021) and Raw (2016), Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void (2009) and Climax (2018), Claire Denis’s Trouble Every Day (2001), many films by Leos Carax and Lars von Trier, etc. Intriguingly, “new extremity” runs the gamut from fiercely misogynist (von Trier) to fiercely feminist (Ducournau); the politics of the films tend to vary widely and have no real consistency, in the same way that modernism can be both fascist (Pound, Marinetti) and antifascist (Vertov, Renoir). The Substance isn’t quite as abstract and heady as Ducournau’s Titane, my absolute favorite work of this genre, but it is as feminist, and will prove easier to swallow for the average viewer— a bit shocking of a statement, given that the film is nothing if not incredibly, pleasantly, joyously gross.

And when I say gross I mean GROSS. Students at Cannes reported that at the premiere of the film (I saw it in its third or fourth screening at the festival), a woman fainted and had to be carried away from the theatre. It being Cannes, the show must go on, so the screening wasn’t paused. Yet immediately the buzz began to hover around the film’s shocking elements. I went in prepared to lose my lunch, but was pleasantly surprised that the film, though clearly indebted to Cronenberg and Lynch, is more body-horror-for-the-instagram-aesthetic. It is body horror but it is stylized. It is gross but beautifully so, like some combination of neon green Nickelodeon slime and a horrifyingly hyper-stylized Tiktok filter.

So, what is the eponymous Substance? **slight SPOILERS for the next para only** The Substance is a mysterious mail-to-order injection that can turn its user into the perfect, younger, more beautiful version of themselves— only for 7 days at a time, and only if they follow a series of rules. Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, a famous aerobics instructor who is promptly fired on her 50th birthday by her misogynistic boss, played to exaggerated perfection by Dennis Quaid (yes, the dad in The Parent Trap). Elisabeth tries said Substance and turns, for 7 days at a time, into Sue (Margaret Qualley). The corporation making the substance is quick to point out that each user of the Substance must remember that both people are part of the same person, but of course things go awry, as Sue and Elisabeth fight against one another in an attempt to control their life/lives. This results in a supremely gross denouement that sent the Cannes audience into screeching squirming guttural expletives for the entire last third of the film (that lasts, I think, a good 20 minutes too long). Supremely gross, supremely delicious. **end SPOILERS**

Students were obsessed with this film— it was, by far, the most discussed film in their final papers—and most pointed out that The Substance is clearly a reference to Ozempic, the type 2 diabetes drug that has basically turned all of Los Angeles County back into the heroin-chic 90s. (I know it has an important medical use, but I primarily know it as a diet drug). The reference is obvious and fairly easy. In fact, for me this is the biggest drawback of an otherwise stellar film: it is so very easy, so very simple, so very obvious. Which doesn’t necessarily mean it is a bad film. After all, The Substance won the Jury Prize at Cannes. But sometimes the slickness rubbed me the wrong way. For a film clearly indebted to David Lynch’s Elephant Man and especially Tsukamoto Shinya’s Tetsuo (the body situation at the end of the film is an obvious reference to the latter), it has the stylization of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. (Unsurprising, then, that the film won such a prestigious award, given Gerwig’s role at Cannes this year).

It is this formal and narrative ease that will win the film huge overtures, especially with the Gen Z crowd, who tend to favor simple messaging (not a diss, but a detached observation). Which isn’t a reason to skip it! It is fun, and gross, and weirdly pretty. Have a drink, enjoy yourself. But maybe skip the snacks…