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The Substance Is Disgusting, Twisted, and Instantly Divisive
The graphic body-horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley is lighting up debate at Cannes.
French writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s second film after the 2017 thriller Revenge, the explicit body-horror fable follows Demi Moore as a Jane Fonda–esque starlet named Elisabeth Sparkle, who’s being unceremoniously fired from her decadeslong position as the host of a successful daytime exercise show. Sue can’t bear to give up her new life of Vogue photo shoots and late-night appearances, so she starts extending her weeklong stints into months, sustaining herself by stabbing a needle daily into Elisabeth’s lower back and extracting spinal fluid. Fargeat shoots Elisabeth — who begins to use food as a form of revenge against Sue — digging into a trussed chicken like she’s violating a human carcass and whisking eggs like they’re liquified guts, spraying the thick yellow liquid across the kitchen and her own decaying body.
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