Under the Skin (B or 3/4 stars)
Ever see a movie that hypnotizes you from beginning to end, but you never quite really know what's going on as it goes or what it all means in the very end ... but you dig it? Such a film is 'Under the Skin', an existential sci-fi flick directed by Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast, Birth). This movie features a nameless, expressionless "woman" (Scarlett Johansson) looting the clothes of a dead woman & scouring the rainy streets of Glasgow & Scotland's rural highlands in search of lonely young men to coax into her white cargo van -- quite the mission. She seduces them with inane small talk & silently lures them to a house where she strips them naked and entombs them in a black substance to meet a strange, HORRIFYING fate. Just who is this mysterious femme fatale? Why is she doing what she's doing?
Well ... it appears that she is an alien who is harvesting male bodies to bring back as food for her dying planet -- nice, huh? The longer this female alien remains within her human shell, however, the less cold & clinical she seems. Initially a calculating serial killer (there's a terrifying scene in which she leaves a wailing baby alone on a beach after both of its parents have died), the alien begins to feel something akin to 'compassion'. She lets a disfigured victim escape (feeling somewhat sorry for him). She starts to enjoy the way her body 'feels'. All of this leads to her undoing. And the tables turn on the alien when a forest logger looks to rape her. Little does the logger know who he's dealing with. His 'discovery' of what she is stuns him ... all leading to a shocker of an ending.
'Under the Skin' is a languorous, creepy, stylized production that got my admiration & respect for trying something different with the thriller/horror genre. Having said that, if I have any issue with this film, it's that there is next-to-no character development or background to pull from (we're never told that she is an actual alien, it is inferred). But then, this is not the type of movie that is looking to impart rhyme, reason, or wherefor for what we're experiencing onscreen -- it's a mood film; a style over substance film. It's a movie that reels us in with it's enigmatic lead, it's atmosphere, it's surroundings, as well as it's bizarre plotline. Director Jonathan Glazer also favors long, lingering shots. This approach establishes mood, while also forcing patience for those who like things to unfold quickly.
Mico Levi's electronic musical score ups the dread level; as did some eerie sound effects. It all got under my skin {wink}. Scotland - so desolate, yet beautiful - is nearly as important a character as the alien is. The male victims? They're not important, here. In fact, most of them were non-actors who initially didn't realize that they were being filmed inside these vans when 'someone looking like Scarlett Johansson' was picking them up {funny, right?}.
Scarlett Johansson makes for a perfect otherworldly/mercurial female to fill the lead role. Her alien is mesmerizing & expressive, even as she seems completely devoid of feeling. Johansson has to build a character largely out of body language. She makes us believe that she really is from another world, and it's all in her eyes (the way she quietly, subtly takes everything in, just like an alien from another planet would). The scene in which she examines her naked body in front of a mirror is both erotic, yet haunting. I was entransed by Johansson, scared of her, even empathetic towards her. She plays the enigmatic entity role so very well.
'Under the Skin' got to me in ways that are hard to explain or even understand. It's messages/themes can be elusive (how predators can become the prey; provocative views on seduction & sexual power; what it means to be human). It's not an easy film to digest. And the ending - while a shocker - doesn't give a satisfying sense of closure, if you will. It's bleak, but I tend to like bleak. I like how disturbing it is. Though the film has it's slow sections (my fascination with it went in & out), and while it didn't need to be 107 minutes long, I can't deny how daring, absorbing, haunting, & enticingly strange this movie was for me.
Well ... it appears that she is an alien who is harvesting male bodies to bring back as food for her dying planet -- nice, huh? The longer this female alien remains within her human shell, however, the less cold & clinical she seems. Initially a calculating serial killer (there's a terrifying scene in which she leaves a wailing baby alone on a beach after both of its parents have died), the alien begins to feel something akin to 'compassion'. She lets a disfigured victim escape (feeling somewhat sorry for him). She starts to enjoy the way her body 'feels'. All of this leads to her undoing. And the tables turn on the alien when a forest logger looks to rape her. Little does the logger know who he's dealing with. His 'discovery' of what she is stuns him ... all leading to a shocker of an ending.
'Under the Skin' is a languorous, creepy, stylized production that got my admiration & respect for trying something different with the thriller/horror genre. Having said that, if I have any issue with this film, it's that there is next-to-no character development or background to pull from (we're never told that she is an actual alien, it is inferred). But then, this is not the type of movie that is looking to impart rhyme, reason, or wherefor for what we're experiencing onscreen -- it's a mood film; a style over substance film. It's a movie that reels us in with it's enigmatic lead, it's atmosphere, it's surroundings, as well as it's bizarre plotline. Director Jonathan Glazer also favors long, lingering shots. This approach establishes mood, while also forcing patience for those who like things to unfold quickly.
Mico Levi's electronic musical score ups the dread level; as did some eerie sound effects. It all got under my skin {wink}. Scotland - so desolate, yet beautiful - is nearly as important a character as the alien is. The male victims? They're not important, here. In fact, most of them were non-actors who initially didn't realize that they were being filmed inside these vans when 'someone looking like Scarlett Johansson' was picking them up {funny, right?}.
Scarlett Johansson makes for a perfect otherworldly/mercurial female to fill the lead role. Her alien is mesmerizing & expressive, even as she seems completely devoid of feeling. Johansson has to build a character largely out of body language. She makes us believe that she really is from another world, and it's all in her eyes (the way she quietly, subtly takes everything in, just like an alien from another planet would). The scene in which she examines her naked body in front of a mirror is both erotic, yet haunting. I was entransed by Johansson, scared of her, even empathetic towards her. She plays the enigmatic entity role so very well.
'Under the Skin' got to me in ways that are hard to explain or even understand. It's messages/themes can be elusive (how predators can become the prey; provocative views on seduction & sexual power; what it means to be human). It's not an easy film to digest. And the ending - while a shocker - doesn't give a satisfying sense of closure, if you will. It's bleak, but I tend to like bleak. I like how disturbing it is. Though the film has it's slow sections (my fascination with it went in & out), and while it didn't need to be 107 minutes long, I can't deny how daring, absorbing, haunting, & enticingly strange this movie was for me.