In a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, Demi Moore plays Elisabeth Sparkle, an actress who became an aerobics star, reminiscent of the iconic Jane Fonda. Yes, but here we are, Elisabeth has just turned 50 and, according to the harsh law of Hollywood, we might as well send her straight to a retirement home. One day a beloved star, the next violently plastered, this sudden news materializes through the literal shock of a accidentaccident of carcar. Leaving the hospital without any scratches, physical at least, she finds a key in her pocket USBUSBslipped there by a nursenurseon which there is a video presenting the famous “substance”: an injection of this serumserumand she could become a better version of herself.
Elixir of life
From the myth of the fountain of youth to the alchemists’ philosopher’s stone, to the Blueprint project of American millionaire Bryan Johnson…The quest for eternal youth has fascinated the scientific world and fiction since Antiquity. However, in The Substanceunlike the potion of youth that Meryl Streep swallows in Death suits you so wellthe serum that Elisabeth Sparkle injects does not restore her former appearance but makes her “give birth” to a younger clone, with almost artificial beauty, in a scene that will make you wonder.stomachstomach. In the universe imagined by Coralie Fargeat, a better version of ourselves is therefore necessarily younger, more beautiful, more desirable.
The double, named Sue, then finds herself catapulted into the upper echelons and in turn becomes an aerobics star. There is only one strict rule to follow at all costs: the two women must alternate every seven days. When one lives, the other becomes an empty shell that must be hidden and fed intravenously. Furthermore, so that its brainbrain works correctly, Sue must take and then inject Elisabeth’s cerebrospinal fluid and it is through a transfusiontransfusion blood that they take turns every week. Linked by these fluids and by their genome, they will always be just two sides of the same coin. We detect a subtle exploration of taboo subjects surrounding parenthood: jealousy, projection… and of course, stage-moms – stage mothers – of Hollywood, those mothers who want at all costs to make their children famous, sometimes to satisfy their own fallen aspirations. In his provocatively titled autobiography, Great, my mother is dead!actress Jennette McCurdy describes a difficult relationship with her mother, who lived her dream of fame through her, without worrying about her desires or the dangers of a career as a child star.
Mirror, mirror
Obviously, this seven-day rule is there only to be broken. Like a child star who has become responsible for her career choices, Sue refuses to give up her place. Insignificant, reclusive, still too old, Elisabeth finds herself closeted again, literally this time. And it’s a fate worse than the return to anonymity that awaits him. A fate that she will continue to inflict on herself, unable to put an end to the experience.
But if the film also works as an excellent allegory of addiction, this degeneration does not seem like a punishment inflicted on Elisabeth for having given in to the promises of a “substance” sold on the black market. Here, we witness instead everything that this woman would be willing to sacrifice to exist through a young and desirable body with eyeseyes of the world: enduring what brought her here in the first place, her fear of growing old, and sacrificing her physical health, her mental balance, her life.
Elisabeth’s fate is only the beginning of a vicious circle and Coralie Fargeat spares no one, not even the Sues of this world. In a final enjoyable act, she borrows from Elephant Man by David Lynch and offers us a bloody revenge that would make Brian de Palma pale. In the strict, cold, sanitized but poisoned world that she tells, the director chooses chaos and destruction. Filth to destroy the established order, the only way to reinject a little life into a society that has become apathetic and cruel.
