Movie Reviews
‘The Substance’ Review: An Excellent Demi Moore Helps Sustain Coralie Fargeat’s Stylish but Redundant Body Horror
Not long into Coralie Fargeat’s campy body horror The Substance, Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is unceremoniously fired from her gig as the celebrity host of a daytime exercise program. The former actress’ credentials — an Academy Award, a prominent place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — aren’t enough to save her Zumba-meets-Jillian-Michaels-style show, fittingly called Sparkle Your Life. Her producer, an oily personality conspicuously named Harvey (Dennis Quaid), wants to replace Elisabeth with a younger, more beautiful star. In his words: “This is network TV, not charity.”
The Substance, which premiered at Cannes in competition, is Fargeat’s second feature. It builds on the director’s interest in the disposability of women in a sexist society, a theme she first explored in her hyper-stylized and gory 2017 thriller Revenge. She gave that film a subversive feminist bent by turning the trophy girlfriend — a sunny blonde who is raped and murdered — into a vengeance-seeking hunter.
The Substance
The Bottom Line
Uneven genre offering boosted by formal ambition and Demi Moore.
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Competition)
Cast: Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid, Margaret Qualley
Director-screenwriter: Coralie Fargeat
2 hours 20 minutes
In The Substance, a woman also takes fate into her own hands and combats underestimation, only this time she’s at war with herself, too. Fargeat combines sci-fi elements (as in her early short Reality+) with body horror and satire to show how women are trapped by the dual forces of sexism and ageism. Beauty and youth are the targets at the heart of this film, but the director also takes aim at Hollywood’s ghoulish machinations and the compulsive physical and psychological intrusiveness of cisgender heterosexual men.
Fargeat flaunts an exciting hyperactive style. Ultra wide-angle shots, close-ups and a bubble-gum color palette contribute to the film’s surreal — and at times uncanny — visual language. The British composer Raffertie’s thunderous score adds an appropriately ominous touch, especially during moments of corporeal mutilation.
There’s a lot going on in The Substance, and while the ambition is admirable, not everything works. The thin plotting strains under the weight of its 2 hour 20 minute runtime; there are scenes, especially in the middle of the film, that land as leaden repetition instead of clever mirroring. But strong performances — especially from Moore and Quaid — help sustain momentum through the film’s triumphantly amusing end.
During his final meeting with Elisabeth, Harvey doubles down on his offensiveness. By the time women reach the age of 50, he suggests to Elisabeth while stuffing his mouth with shrimp, it’s over for them. Fargeat heightens the perversity of Harvey’s blunt assessment with shots of his mouth masticating on shellfish bits. As he crushes the coral-colored creatures with his molars, Elisabeth stares at him with a faint disgust bordering on hatred. Quaid’s character lives in the more satirical notes of The Substance, and the actor responds with an appropriately mocking performance.
Harvey’s words, coupled with the blank stares Elisabeth now receives from passersby, drive the actress to seek a solution. She reaches out to the anonymous purveyors of The Substance, a program that allows people to essentially clone a younger version of themselves. While Fargeat’s screenplay leaves much to be desired when it comes to conveying the company’s scale of operations or how they function in her version of Los Angeles, the rules of the experiment are straightforward. After individuals spawn their duplicates, it’s critical they maintain a balanced life. Every 7 days one of them enters a coma, kept alive through a feeding tube, while the other roams free. Then they switch. The catch, of course, is the addiction of youth.
Elisabeth and her younger self (Margaret Qualley), Sue, follow the program rules for a bit. The middle of The Substance is packed with scenes underscoring the difference in treatment they receive. While Sue blossoms, winning the affection of Harvey and getting her own exercise show, Elisabeth languishes in the shadow of her invisibility.
Moore imbues her character with a visceral desperation, one that enriches the unsettling undercurrents of Fargeat’s film. She plays a woman who can’t quit the addiction of having youth at her fingertips despite its lacerating effect on her psyche. In one particularly strong scene, Elisabeth, haunted by a giant billboard of Sue outside her window, struggles to leave the house for a date. She tirelessly redoes her makeup and each attempt reveals the layers of anguish behind the actress’s pristine facade.
Moore leans into the physical requirements of her role later in the film. Elisabeth eventually learns that upsetting the balance of the experiment reduces her vitality. Sue, greedier for more time outside the coma, becomes a kind of vampire, and Elisabeth wilts. Moore’s slow walk and hunched shoulders add to the sense of her character’s suffering. Special makeup effects by Pierre-Olivier Persin render Elisabeth’s withering even more startling and persuasive.
Qualley does not have as meaty a role as Moore. Her character functions as Elisabeth’s foil, seeming to exist only to help us understand the perversion of Hollywood’s gaze on the starlet. That’s a shame, because The Substance’s smart premise and direction promise more revelatory confrontations between Elisabeth and Sue than the one we are offered.
The reality of this experiment is that it traps both characters in the same toxic, self-hating cycle as the standards imposed by society. The most compelling parts of The Substance deal with how social conventions turn women against themselves. A stronger version of the film might have dug into the complexities of that truth, instead of simply arranging itself around it.
Movie Reviews
‘By Design’ Review: Juliette Lewis Plays a Chair in an Absurdist Comedy That Fascinates and Alienates
Since her female-led Lord of the Flies riff Ladyworld premiered at Fantasia Fest in 2018, director Amanda Kramer’s films have gotten progressively weirder and more abstract. Her subsequent films Please, Baby, Please and Give Me Pity! were both experimental musicals shot and performed in a vintage style. Please, Baby, Please — the more ambitious of the two — boasted the return of Demi Moore, bringing her into the arthouse and paving the way for her career resurgence as the star of The Substance.
By Design also makes a point to bring back actresses Hollywood has been ignoring for years — Robin Tunney, Samantha Mathis, Melanie Griffith and, of course, Academy Award nominee Juliette Lewis. And in Kramer’s dreamland they don’t have to play tired moms or put-upon teachers; they can simply live a stylish life, quipping and conversing with each other onscreen.
By Design
The Bottom Line
Not for everyone, in a good way.
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (NEXT)
Cast: Juliette Lewis, Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney, Udo Kier, Mamoudou Athie, Alisa Torres, Madison McKinley, Clifton Collins Jr., Betty Buckley, Melanie Griffith
Director/Writer: Amanda Kramer
1 hour 32 minutes
The film tells the story of Camille (Lewis) a single, middle-aged woman carving out a quiet existence with her two best friends, Lisa (Mathis) and Irene (Tunney). After lunch one day, the women go shopping and Camille falls in love with a beautiful golden brown chair. The narrator (Griffith) refers to it as a stunner, and the sentiment is shared by almost everyone who sees it. The wood is high-quality with a smooth, chic design that would lend itself well to an elegant home. From the moment Camille sees the chair, she’s compelled to purchase it, despite how expensive it is. Camille, Lisa and Irene all fawn over the chair while the saleswoman Sarah (Madison McKinley) looks on with annoyance. The chair is so expensive that Camille has to go home that night and check her finances before returning to purchase it.
But the morning she arrives, cash in hand, the chair has already been sold to Marta (Alisa Torres) as a parting gift to her ex-boyfriend Olivier (Mamoudou Athie), a handsome and heartbroken pianist. Dejected, Camille asks Sarah if she can touch the chair before leaving. But once she does, something magic happens: Her soul leaves her body and enters the chair.
Irene takes Camille’s body home while her soul is wrapped up with the chair and delivered to Olivier. Its presence immediately improves his mood, and Olivier begins using the chair as emotional support. Marta has taken all the other furniture, so the chair sits in the middle of his home, serving as his only companion. Perhaps it’s Camille’s spirit that draws him to the chair, giving him comfort and allowing him to work through his loneliness.
Meanwhile, Camille’s body lies motionless in her apartment while her friends and family come over and try to spend time with her. Comedically, they all assume she’s giving them the silent treatment for one reason or another, and they become convinced she’s suffering from a deep depression. But our narrator reveals the truth: Camille isn’t depressed or jealous of any other person. Throughout the film, Camille’s favorite quote is repeated: “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.” Camille doesn’t want the money or love lives of her friends. She’s not depressed in any traditional sense, being content with the smallness of her life. It’s living that she seems to have little interest in. What she wants is to be adored without having to perform the tasks of being a real, live person. Camille wants to be coveted, desired and admired for simply being a beautiful thing.
And Olivier loves her as the chair, perhaps because of Camille’s calming spirit. By Design is the kind of film that isn’t afraid to be corny, treating Olivier and Camille’s connection as man and chair as seriously as any other relationship. When Olivier goes to dinner with his friends, he brings the chair with him. When he sleeps, he dreams of people crowding him, intruding on his intimate time with it. Camille is just happy to be needed and provide care without having to be herself.
But eventually, as the people around them get increasingly frustrated with the odd couple’s dreamlike connection, real life threatens to kill Camille’s fantasy. Kramer’s script is philosophical, the film questioning the very nature of what it means to live and the burdens of emotions like love, hate and jealousy.
By Design is a gorgeous film, with stylized interiors and attractive people in stylish, colorful clothes. The world Camille inhabits is a beautiful one and all she wants is to be one of the beautiful things a production designer would add to a scene. Why star in the film when you can just be still, waiting for admiring eyes? In contrast to Camille’s desires, By Design deploys a group of dancers who exist in her and Olivier’s dream spaces. It’s in these moments that the film feels more like performance art, externalizing a pleasure so abstract that it defies verbal explanation.
But Griffith’s narration puts all the absurd scenes into context, her iconic, flirty and feminine voice gently guiding us through the film’s theatrical beats. Much like Give Me Pity!, By Design feels like a performance piece centered on one woman’s unique mind. The insights and artistic inclinations that populate Kramer’s work aren’t for everyone, and there’s a good chance By Design won’t connect with most viewers. But the alienating nature of the premise is what makes it fascinating, pushing us to question how we want to be seen and experienced as people in the world. With all the constant demands of living, wouldn’t it be peaceful to sit still for a little while?
Movie Reviews
Deva Movie Review: Shahid Kapoor Exudes High Octane Fire & Rage As A Flawed & Roguish Cop In This Engaging Thriller Flick!
Star Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Pooja Hegde, Pravesh Rana, Pavail Gulati, Kubbra Sait, Girish Kulkarni
Director: Rosshan Andrrews
What’s Good: Shahid Kapoor’s performance, background score, action sequences, an engaging first half.
What’s Bad: An underwhelming climax, the twist introduced in the end does not strike a chord, loopholes in the plot in the second half, and few supporting characters go underutilized.
Loo Break: Even though the second half loses the momentum, we recommend the interval because of this one being an overall riveting thriller.
Watch or Not?: All the fans of Shahid Kapoor can certainly give this one a watch.
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 156 minutes
User Rating:
Rosshan Andrrews has probably managed to showcase Shahid Kapoor in his massiest avatar with Deva. The actor exudes swag and oodles of roguish charm, which also surpasses the machismo that he possessed in Kabir Singh. It is also a subtle ode to Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Angry Young Man’ era, wherein he witnessed the flawed but fiery hero putting things into momentum in his own way.
The plot revolves around Deva Ambre (Shahid Kapoor), a far-from-perfect police officer who prefers to stick to his roguish and aggressive ways of handling a crime case. Having put his own father in jail, he battles his own inner demons, which makes it difficult for him to abide by the judicial rules and protocols. His only weakness is his friendships with his colleagues and childhood friends, Rohan D’silva (Pavail Gulati) and Farhan Khan (Pravesh Rana). He also falls in love with a crime journalist, Diya Sathaye (Pooja Hegde).
However, when a personal tragedy turns his life upside down, he realizes that there is a mole within the system. Just when he has uncovered the truth, Deva suffers a life-threatening accident that wipes out his memory. He must go to any lengths to unravel the truth again from the remnants of his past memory.
Deva Movie Review: Script Analysis
Deva has an engaging pace in the first half. Along with the protagonist’s character buildup, we are introduced to the police authorities trying to nab a dreaded gangster (Manish Wadhwa) and his entire nexus. However, it is soon hinted that there is a mole within the police system, which helps him stay one step ahead of the police.
Deva’s aggression and rage toward solving the case are showcased as a sharp contrast to the discipline and principles that his colleagues adhere to. The writing does not waste any time to accelerate the storyline of a police investigation after a tragedy occurs. The suspects, underlying secrets, and ulterior motives of the characters make the first half extremely interesting, keeping you hooked to the screens.
However, it is the second half which falters. The plot twist leading to the climax appears to be very disoriented and does not strike the chord that you expect. It appears to be rather underwhelming after such a strong buildup in the second half. There is also a disconnect with Shahid’s performance, even though he manages to keep the energy high. There are also some loopholes which do not let you abide by the climax.
Deva Movie Review: Star Performance
Talking about the performances, Shahid Kapoor is an absolute treat to behold. He does immense justice to all the shades of his character, from the rowdy and flawed cop to a colleague sensitive about his friends, he delivers the varied aspects of this complex role flawlessly. There is a reason why this role takes the bar higher than Kabir Singh. The actor unleashes the required angst, fire, and ferocity in his performance and keeps the energy levels consistent.
Pravesh Rana and Pavail Gulati impress amongst the supporting star cast. However, Pooja Hegde, along with Girish Kulkarni and Kubbra Sait are heavily underutilized. A cameo appearance by veteran Marathi actor Upendra Limaye makes way for an entertaining watch.
Deva Movie Review: Direction, Music
The technical aspects of the Rosshan Andrrews directorial are top-notch. The cinematography and the production design add a fine catalyst to the plot. The background score by Jakes Bejoy, which plays the rap song ‘Marji Chaa Maalik’ keeps the adrenaline levels high, especially during the action sequences.
Deva Movie Review: The Last Word
Irrespective of the flawed second half, especially the climax, Deva is definitely one of Shahid Kapoor’s strongest works. The actor puts his heart and soul into this one, which is reflected in every frame. This promises to be a treat for all the die-hard fans of the actor.
3 star
Deva Trailer
Deva released today on 31 January, 2025.
Share with us your experience of watching Deva.
Must Read: Azaad Movie Review: Ajay Devgn, Aaman Devgan & Rasha Thadani Starrer Is A Compelling Tale Of Loyalty, Rebellion & Courage; The Black Beauty Is The Cherry On Top!
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Movie Reviews
Sundance 2025: all the latest movie reviews and updates from the festival
A new year means a new Sundance Film Festival, and a fresh crop of promising original features that could go on to become awards season darlings in a few months. It might be hard to top last year’s festival where Dìdi, A Different Man, and I Saw the TV Glow all made strong showings. But with films like Atropia, Bubble & Squeak, and Didn’t Die on the roster, this year’s Sundance might just do the trick.
Naturally, The Verge is going to be taking in as much of Sundance as we can and posting bite-sized reviews of everything we see. We’ll also be posting longer reviews and sharing trailers, and you can follow along here to keep up with all of the news out of the festival.
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