Goopy, gory and at times heartbreaking, The Substance is an audacious attack on the entertainment industry that isn't shy about employing a few gross-out and titillating carnival moments of its own. Former star turned aerobics show host Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore in a career-best performance) receives an unpleasant birthday surprise when her repulsive network boss Harvey (Dennis Quaid) informs her she's committed the ultimate Hollywood sin by aging. Now unemployed and desperate, Elisabeth has a chance encounter with an overly friendly stranger who recommends a solution that changed his life: The Substance. Just an injection and then following some easy rules (time management and scheduling are key) allows Liz to unlock a younger, more desirable version of herself and claw back her former stardom— as long as both of them work together, what could possibly go wrong?

What if the portrait of Dorian Gray wasn't content sitting quietly in an attic but had sinister ambitions of its own? There's a seemingly endless supply of movies about how Hollywood uses women and moves on, so the territory writer/director Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) explores here isn't unfamiliar— but it has an urgent, angry and deeply personal quality borne of 48-year old Fargeat and 61-year old star Moore's experiences as women in film. Moore is extraordinary, especially in the most deeply affecting moments where she, alone, acts out the violence of a societal gaze on her own body as punishment. Fargeat wanted to show that "the weapons that are internalised are the strongest ones”, andThe Substance does this with nothing less than total, brutal commitment.