Director: Jonathan Glazer
Writers: Walter Campbell, Jonathan Glazer, Michel Faber, Milo Addica
Photography: Daniel Landin
Music: Mica Levi
Editor: Paul Watts
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Kevin McAlinden, Andrew Gorman, Krystof Hadek, Adam Pearson, Scott Dymond
Under the Skin is one of those allusive shape-shifting science fiction horror movies that are not so easy to get a bead on. I didn't like it the first time I saw it. It seemed too charged with wanky mood and not enough explanation. But then I liked it a lot a second time. It put me in mind some of pictures such as The Man Who Fell to Earth, Liquid Sky, or Alien. These aliens are truly alien. They are on missions we don't understand. In Liquid Sky they are comically tiny and feed on human chemicals released during orgasm or opiate use. In Nicolas Roeg's Man Who Fell to Earth, the alien is solo, but humanized as Thomas Jerome Newton, attempting to save his family and dying planet by trading entertainment technology on Earth to amass the resources. In Under the Skin, "The Female" (Scarlett Johansson) remains inscrutable—perfectly alien. It is credited as "The Female" but that's misleading. It is gender-neutral, genderless. We don't understand its gender. It needs something, apparently from human men, and it wears a human costume, posing as a prostitute, to lure them into its trap and get it.
Director and cowriter Jonathan Glazer came up making music videos for '90s acts such as Massive Attack, Blur, and Radiohead. His first feature, Sexy Beast, is standard caper fare but has an amazing performance by Ben Kingsley, more of an actor's piece as a film. I haven't seen Glazer's second feature, 2004's Birth with Nicole Kidman, which got mixed reviews but seemed to be headed more in the direction of Under the Skin, with uncanny elements freely deployed. Under the Skin is the picture Glazer then worked on getting made for eight or nine years, and in fact he hasn't done a lot since, so in some ways we may need to think of it in terms of the work of a lifetime. But surely that's putting too much weight on it. You probably won't like it much the first time either with expectations set like that.
Under the Skin is one of those allusive shape-shifting science fiction horror movies that are not so easy to get a bead on. I didn't like it the first time I saw it. It seemed too charged with wanky mood and not enough explanation. But then I liked it a lot a second time. It put me in mind some of pictures such as The Man Who Fell to Earth, Liquid Sky, or Alien. These aliens are truly alien. They are on missions we don't understand. In Liquid Sky they are comically tiny and feed on human chemicals released during orgasm or opiate use. In Nicolas Roeg's Man Who Fell to Earth, the alien is solo, but humanized as Thomas Jerome Newton, attempting to save his family and dying planet by trading entertainment technology on Earth to amass the resources. In Under the Skin, "The Female" (Scarlett Johansson) remains inscrutable—perfectly alien. It is credited as "The Female" but that's misleading. It is gender-neutral, genderless. We don't understand its gender. It needs something, apparently from human men, and it wears a human costume, posing as a prostitute, to lure them into its trap and get it.
Director and cowriter Jonathan Glazer came up making music videos for '90s acts such as Massive Attack, Blur, and Radiohead. His first feature, Sexy Beast, is standard caper fare but has an amazing performance by Ben Kingsley, more of an actor's piece as a film. I haven't seen Glazer's second feature, 2004's Birth with Nicole Kidman, which got mixed reviews but seemed to be headed more in the direction of Under the Skin, with uncanny elements freely deployed. Under the Skin is the picture Glazer then worked on getting made for eight or nine years, and in fact he hasn't done a lot since, so in some ways we may need to think of it in terms of the work of a lifetime. But surely that's putting too much weight on it. You probably won't like it much the first time either with expectations set like that.
As in the formidable paragon of the type, Alien, Glazer wants us to understand that his alien is quite alien. That is its chief feature. At one point Glazer reportedly envisioned a special effects extravaganza for Under the Skin, but the special effects are not what make the point here. It's things like leaving behind a crying baby on a beach after its parents have drowned. The alien is there attempting to lure another guy, who responds when he sees the baby's couple struggling in the powerful waters. As humans, we are instinctively prompted by this baby's cries and the terrible scenes we see, even in the audience, especially when we realize the baby's parents have died. It cuts through all the artifice of looking at images on a screen. The alien, by contrast, never gives it a thought and beats it out of there pronto.
A lot of this picture is hard to figure out, no doubt as intended, set at a pace to keep up with, which as always is a bit annoying in the moment. Glazer may understand better than us, with our popcorn and unruly demands for entertainment, that alien means you can't understand it. This alien posing as a prostitute appears to have some kind of accomplice, a human male or with that appearance, who zips around on a motorcycle taking care of things. The actual capture of the men, which we finally learn takes places at a rental house belonging to the alien, is the most special-effects laden part of the movie, and the silliest. The room is decked out like an empty nightclub dancefloor and the alien playfully skips away from its victims, taking its clothes off, until the floor mysteriously gives way under the men and they begin to sink away, apparently without even realizing it as they never struggle, only keep their eyes glued to Scarlett Johansson showing a lot of flesh.
Another effective way that Glazer signals the deeply alien quality of this being is by how quickly it loses the thread of survival on Earth and starts to get into serious trouble. Its van breaks down (I think) and it abandons it and that's it. It can't eat human food—it gags on a bite of chocolate cake in a restaurant, making a minor spectacle. It can still attract human men but without the rental house to take them to it's more on the hook to really give sex in return for help. It is confused and alarmed by what these men seem to want or intend to do. It evidently has no vagina to accommodate them. When it attempts to escape to the woods, an encounter with a rapist as creepy as they come puts the finish to it, one more haunting case of going out with a whimper instead of a bang, finished off like a tire fire.
Johansson is good in an adventurous role, trading some of her glamour for some credibility, the way David Bowie did in The Man Who Fell to Earth. The score by Mica Levi is excellent—atmospheric, almost like sound effects, reminiscent of the way Dario Argento used the band Goblin but more subtle and low-key. The setting in Scotland is inspired. I was mystified and confused by lots of Under the Skin but that also contributes to the overall effect. What do these aliens want? What is that technology with the meltaway floor? Where did it get the van in the first place and why did it abandon it? The more there are no answers to these questions, the better this movie gets, which I know is kind of a strange recommendation.
A lot of this picture is hard to figure out, no doubt as intended, set at a pace to keep up with, which as always is a bit annoying in the moment. Glazer may understand better than us, with our popcorn and unruly demands for entertainment, that alien means you can't understand it. This alien posing as a prostitute appears to have some kind of accomplice, a human male or with that appearance, who zips around on a motorcycle taking care of things. The actual capture of the men, which we finally learn takes places at a rental house belonging to the alien, is the most special-effects laden part of the movie, and the silliest. The room is decked out like an empty nightclub dancefloor and the alien playfully skips away from its victims, taking its clothes off, until the floor mysteriously gives way under the men and they begin to sink away, apparently without even realizing it as they never struggle, only keep their eyes glued to Scarlett Johansson showing a lot of flesh.
Another effective way that Glazer signals the deeply alien quality of this being is by how quickly it loses the thread of survival on Earth and starts to get into serious trouble. Its van breaks down (I think) and it abandons it and that's it. It can't eat human food—it gags on a bite of chocolate cake in a restaurant, making a minor spectacle. It can still attract human men but without the rental house to take them to it's more on the hook to really give sex in return for help. It is confused and alarmed by what these men seem to want or intend to do. It evidently has no vagina to accommodate them. When it attempts to escape to the woods, an encounter with a rapist as creepy as they come puts the finish to it, one more haunting case of going out with a whimper instead of a bang, finished off like a tire fire.
Johansson is good in an adventurous role, trading some of her glamour for some credibility, the way David Bowie did in The Man Who Fell to Earth. The score by Mica Levi is excellent—atmospheric, almost like sound effects, reminiscent of the way Dario Argento used the band Goblin but more subtle and low-key. The setting in Scotland is inspired. I was mystified and confused by lots of Under the Skin but that also contributes to the overall effect. What do these aliens want? What is that technology with the meltaway floor? Where did it get the van in the first place and why did it abandon it? The more there are no answers to these questions, the better this movie gets, which I know is kind of a strange recommendation.
Sound's much better than Ghost In The Shell, which I checked out on the recommendation of a song. More Johannson sci-fi fare. Lucy was maybe a little better but not by much.
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