Fargeat's follow to her fantastic film Revenge.

Reviews: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_substance

This one seems to the the talk of Cannes at the moment.
Interestingly, from the comments I've seen on Twitter, it seems very divided between male and female reaction.

Film have several scene of frontal nudity of Moore and Qualley also a nude fight between these two from what I read.

I read the same thing. I’m imagining a female Eastern Promises type fight.

I hope this is as bonkers as the little teaser implies.

Still sitting at 93% with 44 reviews.

Glad to see she kept that same visual style from Revenge.

Looks wild. Can't wait.

When does this come out?

"In theaters in the US, UK, Latin America, Germany, Canada and Netherlands on September 19 & 20. Coming soon to Turkey, India and more."

I'm glad the trailers of the film don't give much away other than the main premise. It looks good and I hear it's pretty crazy so I'm in.

This is the opening film at TIFF Midnight Madness this year, but it’s so close to the regular engagement that I’m on the fence about paying the higher ticket price. That and the fact that it will probably sell out too fast anyway because of the word of mouth. Guess we’ll see. The rest of the MM lineup doesn’t really jump out at me, but that’s been true ever since the new programmer replaced the previous one a few years back, and yet I do come away surprised sometimes.

The Shadow Strays!!! I'm looking forward to seeing Friendship eventually...

Good to know. Both sound intriguing. Most years I just see the whole lineup regardless, so I’ll probably be seeing those. Doesn’t hurt that I’m a chronic nighthawk, either, and getting out of downtown Toronto at 2 or 3 am is so much easier than any other time of day! The only one that caught my eye at first was DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY because it’s from Taiwan and from the director of DETENTION.

My guess is that SUBSTANCE will probably sell out shortly after the tickets go on sale (and as they have this ridiculous tiered membership preferential ordering system and I’m no longer a member, I won’t have much of a shot).

So this is essentially something of a female Jekyll and Hyde . Definitely interesting.

Really hope this delivers.

This is a theater watch for me. I’m excited that Demi Moore is in something really promising. Been awhile.

Out this week. There are preview screenings on Wednesday 7pm.
Still holding strong at 90% o RT.

This seems like the biggest release Mubi has given one of their films yet in the US.

Super interested in this one. I want to try to catch Revenge before this but we'll see.

Tried the Rush Line for this at the Midnight Madness premiere knowing my chances were pretty much zero, and indeed was in the last 30 or so people turned away. Every theatre-goer inside and out did receive an 80’s style aerobics headband for their troubles.



All three scheduled screenings sold out, which is actually pretty rare. “Sold out” at TIFF almost never means truly sold out. There’s always seats available, and not just because ticket-holders don’t show up. They just always leave a bunch open for whatever reasons, including presumably for the rush lines which almost never fill them up, even for some A-list shows (I saw Soderbergh’s PRESENCE and the place was pretty full, but they easily could’ve squeezed in another hundred people or more, so I don’t really understand the logistics at these things). SUBSTANCE had so much buzz, though, that all of its screenings actually filled up – tickets and rush – so they added a two or three more screenings throughout the week, but I wouldn’t touch those for the prices they charge because all of the ‘talent’ was long gone by then and the movie was only days away from its theatrical run.

EDIT: Also worth noting that SUBSTANCE won the Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award at TIFF, which probably wasn’t a surprise to anyone. First runner up was the Taiwanese () ghost comedy DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY, which I wrote about in the Asian cinema thread last week.

Just quoting this again to note that I did see THE SHADOW STRAYS, and for the most part it fucking rocks, but that’s for a different thread!

A trailer played for thisbplayed before Strange Darling earlier this week and I'm in for this.

Finally, we get a proper sequel to one of my favorite 80s cult classic horror movies, The Stuff!

I thought this was a big joke.

It certainly isn't boring, and cinematically it is very stylish, but the story doesn't make any sense (rules aren't established, or things work one way in this scene, and then differently in another). I suppose you could argue this shouldn't matter because the tone of the movie is like a satirical comic book (strips by R. Crumb came to mind), but because the movie is so long, and elegant looking, I got the idea that like Blink Twice it is alleged to be making an insightful comment on social issues, when really it's shallow, approaching its themes on a superficial level.

I did laugh a lot.

I've never seen a movie with so many close-ups of women's butts . I'm not exaggerating when I say the number must be thirty separate shots. If the male gaze became personified, this is how it would photograph a movie.

Just saw this in a mostly empty theater; got unlucky and had some talky old people come in about 20 minutes into the movie and sit like 3 seats down.

Lots of butt shots. The movie is too long and you wish there was a substance to trade butt shots for something to move the story along. But it was fun and looked good and I wasn't expecting the third act.

Have not seen a movie this wild since Titane. Absolutely bonkers-level body horror. A fucked up fairy tale.

Moore and Qually are fantastic. Gorgeous cinematography and sound design. Some of the best visual effects and prosthetics I can remember seeing.

Hmm...the comparison to Titane.is not a good one for me.

Really didn't care for that one and I usually like that kind of stuff.

Do you like Cronenberg?

Saw this last night and it was freaking nuts!! I loved it. It was like an updated Requiem for a Dream for the Ozempic crowd. I think the only thing that you can compare this to Titane is that they were made by a female director. This is more Lynch/Cronenburg. Demi was hot in the '90s and she's still hot today. I would love for her to at least get an Oscar nom because this was a really good role for her. Certainly an Independent Spirit award. It would be great if they did a campaign like they did for Andrea Riseborough. Quaid was the perfect slimy sleeze. Margaret was perfect to be a Demi clone.