Demi Moore Does Horror
Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Demi Moore Does Horror, Michael Bay barbaric, Shelley Duvall RIP and Nicolas Winding Refn’s revenge.
Let’s go!
DEMI MOORE DOES HORROR
The Substance, which premiered at Cannes and won Best Screenplay, literalizes the painful experience of aging in Hollywood.
Demi Moore plays a TV actress and delivers a career-best performance.
Here’s the official synopsis for the film, which just dropped an insane Reqium for a Dream-esque trailer:
A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
The film is wildly violent; it’s full-on maximalist body horror as a younger Moore (played by Margaret Qualley) literally bursts out of her body.
Moore explained:
“The script is that this was about the male perspective of the idealized woman that we have bought into as women. And what's so interesting in the film is here, this newer, younger, better version gets an opportunity and she still repeats the same pattern.”
She continued:
“She's still seeking this external validation. And in the end comes face to face with just fighting herself because that's where we have to really look within, not without.”
We are all seeking some level of external validation—this film brilliantly warns us not to be consumed by it.
Dennis Quaid, who plays Moore’s boss—a sublime vision of assholeness—called the director:
“A cross between Stanley Kubrick and Sam Peckinpah.”
The Substance is not derivative. It is so hard core stylized it feels entirely its own creation.
Debuting in theaters September 19th.
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