Demi Moore Bares It All in Shocking New Film “The Substance”
The Croisette is still buzzing over the explosive premiere of Demi Moore’s daring new film “The Substance” at the Cannes Film Festival. The feminist body horror movie from “Revenge” director Coralie Fargeat has audiences and critics fiercely divided – is it a bold statement against Hollywood’s misogyny and obsession with youth, or does it simply objectify women’s bodies in a new way?
In the film, Moore plays aging celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle, who is unceremoniously fired as the host of a long-running exercise show when she turns 50. Told that “things just stop after 50” for women, Elisabeth takes a gamble on an illegal drug called “The Substance” that creates a younger, perfected version of herself (played by Margaret Qualley). What ensues is a nightmarish, gory exploration of beauty standards, identity, and the male gaze as Elisabeth is forced to share her existence with her doppelgänger.
The film does not shy away from full-frontal nudity, with extended nude scenes featuring both Moore and Qualley. At the Cannes press conference, Moore discussed the “vulnerable experience” of baring all. “It was really spelled out – the level of vulnerability and rawness required to tell the story,” she said. “It was a very vulnerable experience and required a lot of sensitivity and conversation about what we were trying to accomplish.”
Reviews out of Cannes have been polarized. Some praised “The Substance” as an “audacious, body horror fuck you to the way Hollywood treats aging women,” while others called it “the worst thing I’ve seen at Cannes” and criticized Fargeat for “replicating an existing history of horror’s exploitation of women’s bodies.”
When asked if the film was “another [exposing] of females as objects,” Fargeat responded, “I hope the movie is not [that]…the violence we direct to ourselves is the violence around us. So that was the metaphorical way to show this.”
Moore seemed to embrace the film’s rawness, calling it “freeing” and saying, “It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I feel like I came out on the other side in greater acceptance of myself as I am.”
As for whether she felt “canceled” by Hollywood due to her age, Moore rejected that narrative: “I don’t hold myself or the situation as a victim…the real issue is how you are relating to the issue.”
With its brutal visuals and uncompromising perspective, “The Substance” is certainly one of the most controversial and talked-about films at Cannes this year. Love it or hate it, Demi Moore’s total commitment to Fargeat’s vision is undeniable. The world will soon decide if this daring descent into body horror is a trailblazing feminist statement or another example of the objectification it seeks to criticize.
