The Substance
A fading television star takes a black market drug that generates a younger version of herself, and the two selves turn on each other with grotesque results.
Cannes Film Festival, Best Screenplay, 2024
Elisabeth Sparkle, an aging fitness star pushed aside for being too old, tries a mysterious substance that spawns a younger, idealised double of herself. The two are meant to share one life on a strict schedule, but the arrangement curdles into a violent war between them.
The film uses body horror to literalise self hatred and the split between the ego and an impossible ideal image, staging the punishment a person can inflict on her own body and age. It is a stark text for thinking about narcissism, the idealised self, and shame. It won Best Screenplay at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Details
- 2024
- United Kingdom
- English
- Film