The harm of impacting women with unrealistic beauty standards is not new, but one film, which premiered in the competition category at this year's Cannes Film Festival, has shocked audiences with its grotesque portrayal of just how horrible it is for an aging woman.

French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat's 2nd feature, The Substance, is a body horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, which premiered on 5/19 and is one of the festival's most divisive and conversational films of the year 1. According to the deadline, the film received a 13-minute standing ovation, the longest of the festival to date and the praise mostly directed at Moore. It has also generated early reactions ranging from "bad" and "misogyny" to "brilliant feminist Hollywood satire", in a review that notes "spectacularly tasteless" and calls it "the most box office film at the Cannes Film Festival" in the best way.

No wonder the substance is producing headlines. In the film, Moore (who made his Cannes debut this year) plays Elizabeth Sparkle, an actress-turned-TV workout instructor. Enraged by the decision, relayed to her by a network boss played by Dennis Quaid, she has a surrealist version of the film called Substance L.A.Receive the procedure available in. After hooking herself into various disturbing syringes and tubes, her skin splits her spine and a new, younger version of herself (played by Qualley) appears. She doesn't completely replace Elisabeth, but the shinier model goes and gets a job on her old TV network and, as Variety reported, a story about ageism, beauty, and the way women are meant to self-loathe, inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, plays out.

Fargeat, who last released the rape Revenge thriller Revenge in 2017, is said to be unable to contain her body's depiction of fear, and the individual scenes are particularly conversational. For one thing, Moore and Qualley face off in a supposedly very bloody battle with nudity.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Moore spoke at a press conference about how the movie "kicked her out of the comfort zone" but felt its abrasive images and vulnerable scenes "were necessary to tell this story."

She and Fargeat ascribed the film's no-holds-barred approach as needed to explain its central theme, or what they described as a critique of the "male perspective of an ideal woman.""

"I don't know any woman who doesn't have an eating disorder or anything else they do violence to their body," said the writer/director as she explained that she needs to portray the events in the film "in an extreme way because I think this violence is very extreme."

It seems that festival goers can't stop talking about the substance, but the audience can see it for themselves later this year. In the United States, indie streaming service/distributor Mubi has acquired it for release. Mubi has also already dropped the teaser, she sees Elisabeth in a luxurious waiting room, watching an ominous video about a sci-fi cosmetic surgery that promises a "better version of herself" with a single injection.

We can't wait for this to make our skin crawl every time the release date comes.