In a few days from now, the Academy Awards will be announced, and Demi Moore is among the Best Actress nominees for her performance in Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance. Not exactly known for her acting prowess, Moore has won almost every major award announced before the Oscars.

The film (five Oscar nominations) has earned equal amounts of praise and criticism for its horror treatment of a satire on women’s fear of ageing, and the desperate measures they (men too, but not as much) take to hold on to their youth. It’s not all vanity, a large part of the blame goes to the society that renders older women invisible.

The casting of Demi Moore was spot on because her many cosmetic surgery procedures have been written about; her career has been based more on her appearance and personal life than on talent. (Her controversial photograph for a magazine cover in which she posed nude while pregnant is still remembered.)

In ‘The Substance,’ she plays Elizabeth Spark, who has an aerobics show on television and is so popular that she has a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Then, she turns 50, and the network boss fires her because she is too old — they need someone young and fresh to get higher ratings. Distraught, she has a minor car accident, and in hospital is furtively handed information about a new beauty serum........

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