A Decade Before ‘The Substance,’ Its Director Gave Us Another Equally Strange, Equally Watchable Sci-Fi Film About Beauty Standards

The Substance feels uniquely modern in its critique of beauty standards and aging in Hollywood. However, it seemsCoralie Fargeat had the foundational idea in her head almost a decade before its release, as her short film Reality+ feels like the blueprint for the Oscar-nominated horror movie. If The Substance is a biological analysis of image, Reality+ is a technological examination, focusing on the way we use filters to alter our image. The procedure feels much more widespread, and whilst it focuses on the protagonist Vincent (Vincent Colombe), it doesn’t feel like a personal story. Instead, it reads as an allegory for the image-obsessed society we live in, and the untrustworthy facade of social media – where you can never know someone’s true self.