The Substance

Some films whisper. This one grabs your collar. The Substance has exactly one idea about how the world treats women as they age, and it repeats that idea at maximum volume until it becomes something closer to an experience than an argument.

That sounds like a criticism. It is not. The bluntness is the point. Fargeat shoots everything in close, greasy, wide-angle detail, and the film gets steadily louder and redder until the final act, which we are not going to describe. You will know.

Demi Moore is doing something genuinely brave here, and the best scene in the film is also the quietest: a woman getting ready to go out, then not going out. No effects, no gore, no music. It is the bit that stays with you.

It is too much. It is supposed to be too much. If you are the sort of person who says a film went too far, this one went considerably further than that, on purpose, while looking directly at you.

Eat before you watch. Not during.