Written and Directed by Coralie Fargeat

A fading celebrity takes a black-market drug: a cell-replicating substance that creates a younger, better version of herself. (IMDB)

Demi Moore is Elisabeth Sparkle, the archetypal ‘fading starlet’ who has likely made a lot of people at her network rich, but who has also been aged out of the industry by not being 30 anymore. She is unceremoniouly dumped by Harvey (Dennis Quaid) the not-so-subtly named, lecherous studio exec who eats shrimp as if the Cookie Monster lacked manners and ogles young girls while telling Elisabeth she is past it. All while wearing an unfading, shit-eating grin.

Caught up in a traffic accident on the way home from her firing, Elisabeth is approached by a mysterious medic who suggests she would be a ‘good candidate’ and slips a USB stick into her coat pocket. Intrigued, Elisbeth finds an advert for The Substance which promises her a brighter, younger version of herself. At first sceptical, she succumbs to the advert and contacts the company as events reinforce her alienation from the industry she loves.

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