It’s time to PUMP IT UP!!!
19+ EVENT!
Dumpster Raccoon Cinema continues its HAGGY NEW YEAR tradition with a celebration of a new and instantly classic hyper-camp polestar of the hagsploitation genre, THE SUBSTANCE!!!
On her 50th birthday, famed star of yesteryear Elisabeth Sparkle (a deftly, defiantly scenery-gnashing Demi Moore) sees the writing on the wall – and her glittering name being painted over. Unceremoniously dumped from her fitness show by an unctuous exec (a queasily lubricious Dennis Quaid) and feeling the whiff of age catching up to her, she plots a desperate comeback – by way of a black-market miracle system known only as THE SUBSTANCE. Restored (sometimes) to glowing youth as “Sue” (a dewy and devious Margaret Qualley), she takes the ratings by storm – until the perfect equilibrium of the Substance system begins to break down under the strains of fame, and Elisa/Sue begins one of cinema’s newest and greatest diva-spirals.
The knockout sophomore pitch from newly minted cineaste darling Coralie Fargeat (of Revenge fame), The Substance puts the greats of body horror, hagsploitation, and female rage in a blender and hits puree, serving us a nutritious goop of disgusting visuals, arch camp set-pieces, and one of the most achingly raw and unhinged performances of Demi Moore’s career – a bravura acting performance that is all the greater for its dizzying and obscene heights as much as its wry, carefully shrewd lows. Referencing Cronenberg’s Fly, Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard in equal measure, The Substance is a modern feminist masterpiece – and one of the grossest movies ever made.
Join DUMPSTER RACCOON CINEMA as we ring in the new year with another demented diva– with video preshow, host Anthony Oliveira, live performance, and cocktails by the Shameful Tiki Room!