The Substance, A Different Man, His Three Daughters – 487

A haunting double feature of vanity and regret with The Substance and A Different Man. Plus would His Three Daughters work better as live theater?

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More about The Substance

Demi Moore gives a career best performance as Elisabeth Sparkle, a former A-lister past her prime and suddenly fired from her fitness TV show by repellent studio head Harvey (Dennis Quaid). She is then drawn to the opportunity presented by a mysterious new drug: THE SUBSTANCE. All it takes is one injection and she is reborn – temporarily – as the gorgeous, twentysomething Sue (Margaret Qualley). The only rule? Time needs to be split: exactly one week in one body, then one week in the other. No exceptions. A perfect balance. What could go wrong? 

Deliriously entertaining and ruthlessly satirical, Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes sensation turns toxic beauty culture inside out with a be-careful-what-you-wish-for fable for the ages. Explosive, provocative and twisted, THE SUBSTANCE marks the arrival of a visionary filmmaker.

Demi Moore in The Substance, Courtesy Mubi

More about A Different Man

Aspiring actor Edward undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. But his new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare, as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost.

(L-R) Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Adam Pearson – Credit: Matt Infante. Courtesy of A24

More about His Three Daughters

This tense, touching, and funny portrait of family dynamics follows three estranged sisters as they converge in a New York apartment to care for their ailing father and try to mend their own broken relationship with one another.

From writer-director Azazel Jacobs (French Exit, The Lovers) comes this bittersweet and often funny story of an elderly patriarch and the three grown daughters who come to be with him in his final days.

Katie (Carrie Coon) is a controlling Brooklyn mother dealing with a wayward teenage daughter; free-spirited Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) is a different kind of mom, separated from her offspring for the first time; and Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) is a sports-betting stoner who has never left her father’s apartment — much to the chagrin of her stepsisters, who share a different mother and worldview. Continuing his astute exploration of family dynamics in close-knit spaces, Jacobs follows the siblings over the course of three volatile days, as death looms, grievances erupt, and love seeps through the cracks of a fractured home.

His Three Daughters. (L-R) Natasha Lyonne as Rachel, Elizabeth Olsen as Christina and Carrie Coon as Katie in His Three Daughters. Cr. Sam Levy/Netflix © 2024.