Jaw-dropping, nauseating, defiant, hilarious “ The Substance ” — a body horror thriller from French director Coralie Forgeat starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley — rocked Cannes Film Festival on Sunday night with an 11-minute standing ovation. Its the tale of a once-great actress (Moore) whose certain age has relegated her to a Jane Fonda-style fitness show. When she’s fired, she is offered a trial of the medical treatment the film is named after.
It promises a younger, better version of herself through a cell replicating process. Moore takes a leap of faith and winds up on the bathroom floor spine split open like a Christmas ham when this new version — played by Qualley — comes slithering out of her back. Young, supple and brimming with possibilities, the two characters are allowed to coexist with one important caveat: they must trade one week on, one week off in each body.
The film is rife with metaphors about women in Hollywood, the cruelty of age and the repercussions of self-hatred. But the Cannes crowd was delighted to gobble it up — even some of the serious, cringey, hide-behind-your-hands horror. Covered in blood, ripped-out teeth, peeled-off fingernails and some of the most grotesque prosthetics in recent memory, the movie is not for the faint of heart.
“It’s been a ride,” Fargeat said once the audience had finished its rapturous applause, beating the record set by “Emilia Pérez’s” nine-minute ovation on Saturday night. Added Moore, .
