‘What Do We Do With An Icon?’

TORONTO — It seems like every year an actor who fell out of the mainstream for a few years — or perhaps a decade or more — has an “-aissance.” Matthew McConnaughey had the McConaissance . Brendan Fraser received a warm welcome back to the spotlight with “ The Whale .” John Travolta’s career reignited in the ’90s following the success of “Pulp Fiction.”

Each of those examples are white men who also earned Oscar recognition for their comebacks.

It’s different for female actors “of a certain age” (at the risk of repeating such a ridiculous phrase, because aren’t we all a certain age?). The women who were both beloved and admired for a fleeting time in Hollywood, before the industry — and undoubtedly some fans — turned their backs on them for the hotter, younger It Girl that came along.

Their however-much-lauded “return” is met with a bevy of both objectionable and compelling ruminations on age and perseverance as much as it presents genuinely opportunities to engage with the complexities of maturing humanity as depicted in their films. This year’s Toronto International Film Festival featured several offerings and revived leading ladies that do just that.

It kicked off with the “ Demissance ,” a nod to Demi Moore, 61, who is back on the marquee with a star-reanimating role as an Oscar winner turned workout video guru named Elisabeth Sparkle in writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s writhing and deliriously smart horror, “The Substance.”

Dropped by a team of even older (if you can believe it) white male network executives — led by an appropriately maddening one played by Dennis Quaid — for basically being what they consider over-the-hill and unbankable, a spiraling Elisabeth resorts to the titular street drug. It guarantees