UNDER THE SKIN

With Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Joe Szula, Kryštof Hádek, Paul Brannigan, Adam Pearson, Michael Moreland, Dave Acton, Jessica Mance

Written by Walter Campbell & Jonathan Glazer (based on the book by Michel Faber)
Directed by Jonathan Glazer

Glazer has made some amazing music videos for artists like Massive Attack, Radiohead and Jamiroquai, as well as striking ads.  His debut feature film Sexy Beast made quite an impact.
With his third feature film Under The Skin, he draws the viewer into a hypnotic and stifling surreal otherworld (right here on earth) – with the crafty and highly effective use of both visuals and audio.  These two elements are fused amazingly and drive the movie by instilling a constant unsettling, but intriguing, engaging mood.

In the unlikely location of a drab Scotland, Johansson portrays an alien in the guise of a beautiful woman, luring men to their fates (which I won’t be spoiling with a reveal as I don’t want to deprive you of a unique cinematic experience by killing the impact).
The scenes where she meets men (picking them up in her van) feels very natural, even improvised, the regular guyscoming across as non-actors, just being themselves.

With a sometimes inexplicable narrative, and very different mood, this is a unique movie that takes the viewer on a trip, and like much of David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick's work, manages to draw you into its hypnosis by making a lasting stamp onto your psyche and flow out into a physical experience of the movie, incorporating you viscerally beyond a mere intake of visual stimuli.

An amazing movie with an unsettling, intriguing attraction, that may not impress those who want a shoot-‘em-up styled alien action-fest, but rather those who love the language of film and its possibilities to tell a story with very little dialogue. Special visual effects are by no means discarded with some great surreal sequences that will leave many baffled.

5 / B
- Paul Blom

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- A - B - C

See Glazer's music video collection review :

A: Multi-Viewing Potential

B: Could Enjoy A 2nd Look

C: Once Should Suffice