In a 2018 interview promoting her feature debut, Revenge, director Coralie Fargeat revealed a personal fact that would later become extremely obvious. “I really like Paul Verhoeven as a director,” she told the YouTube channel HeyUGuys.
In the context of Revenge, a relatively grounded action thriller, this nod to the director of allegorical (and frequently misunderstood) sci-fi classics like RoboCop and Starship Troopers felt slightly out of place. But six years later, with the added context of her latest film, Fargeat’s interview suddenly makes a lot more sense.
In the French filmmaker’s second movie, The Substance, those influences are laid bare. Like Verhoeven before her, Fargeat creates an artificial world whose only purpose is to fuel her story. Her characters exist in a version of Los Angeles where the most popular show on television is simply called “The Show.” With this framing, the purpose of The Substance becomes clear.
The Substance, which is streaming now on Mubi after a successful box office run, stars Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging Hollywood star who gets fired from her job as an aerobics TV show host on her 50th birthday. Despondent and depressed, she accepts a mysterious offer for a pharmaceutical treatment called “The Substance” that promises to bring back her youth.
The Substance turns out to be far more invasive a procedure than any could have imagined. After injecting herself with a neon-green “Activator” serum, Elisabeth falls to the ground and passes out as her back splits open and a beautiful, young woman played by Margaret Qualley crawls out and names herself Sue. Through a series of increasingly goopy injections, Elisabeth and Sue take turns living their shared life, trading off every seven days — until Sue decides she needs more.
Like Verhoeven in Starship Troopers with his alien bugs and psychic humans, Fargeat isn’t interested in explaining the rules of her movie. We never learn how The Substance works or where it comes from. But that’s beside the point in a film that’s somehow both a razor-sharp commentary on female beauty standards and also the grossest body horror in years.
Logic, in general, pretty much goes out the window as soon as Sue reveals herself. One plot hole that continues to bug me: Why does Elisabeth, who we know is an award-winning actor with a star on Hollywood Boulevard, return to the TV aerobics business when she’s given a fresh shot as Sue? The answer is: stop asking questions and enjoy the ride.
In a later scene, Fargeat directs a group of studio businessmen to prance through an office hallway like awkward ballerinas. It’s a hilarious moment that only works if you accept you’re watching a cartoon come to life.
In that same 2018 interview, Fargeaut explains her fascination with a classic cinematic concept: suspension of disbelief. Describing the movies that inspired her (including Verhoeven’s), she says, “They use a very unreal touch to create very powerful emotions ... the use of the colors and the visuals and of all the symbols that are very simple and powerful at the same time.”
This one quote explains The Substance better than any review or analysis of the film ever could. The Substance doesn’t make sense because it’s not supposed to make sense, and in freeing herself from the confines of logic, Fargeaut creates something emotionally visceral and visually stunning that speaks to the audience on a psychic level.
It’s not for everyone, but if you let The Substance wash over you, you’ll leave the experience feeling as transformed Elisabeth Sparkles.
