Under the Skin

Karsten4.5

Never in a million years did I think a movie that would make me contemplate my existence would also have Darude - Sandstorm in it.

DirkH5.0

I love it when a straightforward story gets a unique treatment. Glazer's film is deliberately alienating, visually and aurally arresting and singularly engaging. I say the latter with no small amount of reserve as it asks a lot of its audience making it difficult to click with. But click with it I did.Glazer opens with the birth of Johansson's character. In a beautiful visual sequence, we hear her find her voice followed by a rather disconcerting scene in which she clothes herself. Disconcerting because of the compete lack of empathy for the dead girl she is plucking her new wardrobe from. Against a sterile white background we see her clinically do what needs to be done. She gives the ant she subsequently discovers the same studious, distant look. And the ant kept popping up in my head for the remainder of the film. It is never Glazer's intention to fully clue you in on the what and the why. He communicates most of what he wants to say through imagery leaving it up to us to find whatever we think is there. Like in an ant colony the aliens in Under the Skin have a clear task division. There are soldiers (the bikers) and scavengers who have to bring food to the nest. Johansson hunts for food by using the shape she has been given to lure men who have no real attachments in life back to the nest, always closely followed by the soldiers to erase anything that would lead back to them.The first half of the film is a slowly paced observation of our species seen through the eyes of something very alien. Choosing Scotland with all its harsh beauty and having everyone speak with thick accents only enhanced the way Johansson's character views the world, as distant, complex and sometimes frightening. Glazer instills a haunting and unsettling atmosphere in this part of the film. The constant presence of the minimalistic score and the disturbing imagery amplify the threatening and cold hearted nature of the predatory aliens. Two scenes in particular stand out. The scene where they leave a small child crying on the beach with the tide coming in and the scene underneath the liquid just won't leave my retina. The first because of what we don't get to see but what is implied the second because of what we do get to see, beautifully composed but absolutely horrifying.Johansson's sex appeal which she uses to prowl on men is cold and clinical. I was impressed by her especially because she manages to completely step over her real life persona and makes it about the performance and nothing else. As the predator studies the prey, a bizarre reverse Stockholm Syndrome takes place. Every time she catches her own reflection, her gaze lingers a bit longer. Just what resides under the skin? Are they perhaps more than just nourishment? What would it be like to fulfil the promise I never keep when I seduce these men? The second half of the film explores the questions. After sparing a life, she tries to do human things, only to be confronted by her alien nature. In the end she encounters the nature of her prey at its juxtaposed extremes. Kindness and brutality of which the latter leads to her tragic downfall, in a state of bewilderment, shedding her skin to reveal her true self.Under the Skin is a unique film, one that I admire for its simple complexity and daring visual palet. It is a film that contradicts itself at every turn yet manages to amalgamate into a gripping and intriguing whole. Not for everyone, but certainly for me, Glazer's unique film could very well become one of my favourite SF films ever made.

shannon1.5

yeeahhhhh i'm way too dumb to understand films like this so i'm gonna go watch a seth rogen movie