Pick of the week
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat’s no-holds-barred satire about the tyranny of female beauty standards – and the perceived horrors of ageing – features an inspired bit of casting in Demi Moore, who plays a role with echoes of her own career. More than holding her own amid a splurge of wince-inducing makeup effects, Moore is Elisabeth, a 50-year-old film star reduced to doing an aerobics show on TV. Edged out by her slimy boss, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), she seeks to prolong her relevance by undergoing a mysterious – and very gruesome – procedure called the Substance. This spawns a younger clone, Sue (Margaret Qualley), and an increasingly vampiric relationship between the two.
Friday 17 October, Paramount+
