Coralie Fargeat’s sinister sci-fi horror satire The Substance took out best screenplay at Cannes this year, after premiering at the film festival. And now it’s finally coming to cinemas.
Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley lead the unsettling teaser trailer for the film, which takes aim at the beauty industry through some twisted turns and the titular product dubbed “The Substance”. Said product lets you “generate another you” which which you must share time: “One week for you. One week for the new you.” But of course, as the trailer shows, that’s not as breezy as it sounds.
“While visceral in spurts, The Substance is never quite in control of its satire on sexualization, an excess in which it revels without always meaningfully subverting,” writes Siddhant Adlakha in his review for Mashable. “Its lead performances are fine-tuned — especially from Demi Moore, who delivers intrepid, career-best work — but the film is more a collection of mild jabs than a full-throated deconstruction of a cultural gaze.”
The Substance hits cinemas Sept. 20.
