When
Tue 31 Dec 2024 - Sat 11 Jan 2025
See below for additional related events
An audacious and ferocious takedown of the impossible beauty standards women are conditioned into adhering to.
Elizabeth Sparkle (a phenomenal Demi Moore) is a fading celebrity forced into early retirement because of her age. When a mysterious, black market opportunity arises that promises her a younger, better version of herself, Elizabeth takes ‘the substance’ that plunges her headlong into a surreal nightmare of duplicitous doppelgangers and full-blown body horror.
Coralie Fargeat delivers on the promise of her excellent debut Revenge (2017) with this demented and grotesque fairytale. Demi Moore is phenomenal and her co-star Margaret Qualley is just as game. The practical effects are jaw-dropping and Fargeat creates a candy-coloured world of gleaming, clean surfaces that she doesn’t take long to spray with blood and viscera. Think David Cronenberg’s The Fly meets All About Eve.
As far as emotional fidelity is concerned, 'The Substance' is a documentary. No other film I have ever seen so perfectly captures my subjective experience of the culturally enforced dissociation that happens en masse when, as a woman, your body starts to age.
Program Passes
See more films in this program for less
ACMI Membership
Experience ACMI in the very best way. Get a range of discounts and invitations to exclusive previews.
ACMI Shop
Melbourne's favourite shop dedicated to all things moving image. Every purchase supports your museum of screen culture.