Writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s second feature may seemingly address a familiar narrative trope — the ageing beauty who makes a faustian bargain to be young again — but this potent body horror is executed with skill and compassion, bringing fresh insights alongside generous helpings of graphic gore. draws excellent performances from Demi Moore as a has-been Hollywood star and Margaret Qualley as the younger, prettier version she creates by injecting herself with the titular serum. Even if the film occasionally risks overplaying its hand, Fargeat keeps furiously churning through ideas — in particular, about how the entertainment industry traumatises women into doing terrible things to themselves in order to remain employable.
With , Fargeat further confirms her status as a bracingly feminist filmmaker using extreme genres to skewer systemic misogyny. Her 2017 debut, the brutal revenge thriller , played at Toronto, and her sophomore film debuts in a Cannes Competition slot. The two leads, alongside a nicely loathsome Dennis Quaid, will help hook viewers — MUBI is handling theatrical for the UK and US — but should be especially attractive to midnight movie crowds, who will dig its twisted Cronenberg-ian elements.
Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an award-winning actress who, as she approaches 50, must now content herself with hosting a cheesy workout show. But even that gets taken away when her slimy producer Harvey (Quaid) fires her for being too old. Despondent abo.
