See Demi Moore Turn Into Margaret Qualley in ‘The Substance’ Teaser

The premise of the new movie The Substance is simple: What would you do to improve your life? A teaser for the film, which won Best Screenplay at Cannes and Rolling Stone’s film critic selected as the magazine’s favorite at the festival this year, shows a tearful Demi Moore listening as a man asks her, “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? Younger, more beautiful, more perfect?” Images of a woman in workout gear play along with ominous music until a neon serum labeled “activator” kicks things off, showing how Moore becomes Margaret Qualley in the film, which the clip says will be “coming soon” to Mubi.

The synopsis of the film, which Coralie Fargeat directed, is more complicated. Once Moore’s character, Elisabeth Sparkle, doses herself, she’s transformed into Qualley (named Sue in the movie) for a week at a time. Every other week, she’s back to being Demi Moore (which countless people would want to be, but that’s beside the point.) Since a TV honcho played by Dennis Quaid recently fired Sparkle from her fitness show, she’s eager to get revenge, so she takes the titular substance. Of course, mayhem ensues, and the clip shows both blood shoes and lots of blood, all making for a satirical statement about women and beauty ideals.

In a statement, Fargeat, whose credits include Revenge and Reality+, said that she didn’t know a single woman who didn’t have body issues. “So I decided to write this film to confront this and to make a political statement to the world: we should be done with this shit,” she wrote. “Genre films are political. For me as a filmmaker, they are a great way to confront political and personal matters through the lens of entertainment, fun, and excess.”

“What starts as a satire of Hollywood hypocrisy turns into a take-no-prisoners indictment of youth fixations and impossible beauty standards,” Rolling Stone explained in a Cannes roundup.