The beauty industry is everywhere these days—not just in people’s bathrooms, but in novels (Mona Awad’s Rouge) and multiple movies, from the upcoming Skincare to Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, which blew people’s minds at the Cannes Film Festival (and won best screenplay). According to The Daily Beast, “It’s the grossest thing you will see all year.”
Demi Moore stars as a woman with the impossible name of Elisabeth Sparkle who has just lost her job for being too old. A new product—the Substance, natch—promises to fix that. And it does: It turns Elisabeth into a new, younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley). Literally. She has to share her body with this other her; they each get seven days, and then they trade back. In theory.
As the trailer suggests, it all goes sparklingly. Until it doesn’t. Moore’s delivery of “There’s been a slight misuse of the Substance” is, somehow, maybe the most chilling moment in this trailer, which is flashy and vibrant and seems to only hint at just how apeshit things are going to go.
Moore, who is earning buckets of praise for her performance, told IndieWire, “If we step back from it being about an actor, [the film is more about] a desire to have validation, to be seen, to be appreciated, to belong, and what it is to feel rejected and to feel not-enough, that there’s something wrong with you. When you add into it the aspect of aging — which is really about our inability to control — [it becomes] an exploration of a lack of acceptance of self.”
The Substance will be available in theaters on September 20th.
