During the evening hours in Scotland, a young, attractive, and all-around mysterious English woman peruses the streets in her van. She is browsing for innocent and handsome young men, whom she will take back to her apartment after much conversation and seduction. While there, the men are lead into a darkened abyss, leaving nothing behind but husks. Over time, the woman begins to develop a conscience, with many observations and assorted future encounters shaping her into something that she wasn't fully aware that she could become.
Throughout all of my years as a film fan, and even more so from doing this blog that you're kind enough to take your time and read, I've never developed an interest in "art" films. While I can wholly respect them and their intent to try and push the boundaries of cinema, very few, if any, click with me on a personal level. Even so, that isn't to say that I don't admire some directors. For one, I think Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love) could arguably be defined as an "art" director of motion pictures, and nearly all of the movies he has directed are just phenomenal. There are also assorted pictures from the past fifteen years, such as Oldboy, Memento, and even Drive which could be classified as variations of "art" films. However, if you had told me that music video director Jonathan Glazer, whose filmography is rather minuscule (go see the criminally underrated Sexy Beast and thank me later), would be a prime candidate for a future art film master, I wouldn't have necessarily called your bluff.
Mind you, this is far from anything that I'd call masterful, or any synonym for the word, but it is a really damn interesting piece of cinema. If your only knowledge about Under The Skin comes from the reports of Ms. Johansson baring all for the very first time, then you're only looking at the icing on the cake and ignoring the body of the cake itself. What Under The Skin the motion picture actually is, in essence, is a peculiar science fiction concept whose pace (slightly) harkens back to a myriad of European-based pictures like Don't Look Now. It ends up encompassing a mixture of thoughts, ideas, and observations of what it ultimately is that makes humanity so unique and diverse, and perhaps that maybe, despite all of our strengths and fallacies, we're nothing significant whatsoever. Or maybe it's just a slow, bizarre nonsensical piece about one woman that can't quite figure out her place in our messed up little world. I could see and hear out either opinion and not argue against either.
One thing I admired about the choices for Skin's (microscopically small) cast of characters was the decision of director Glazer and casting head Kahleen Crawford to largely utilize real people on the streets of Scotland instead of "trained" performers. Yes, that does mean these men were legitimately picked up in a van by Scarlett Johansson and were only informed of their actual roles in the movie afterwards. It's a concept that I have to admire, and it works to fairly good effect. What wasn't entirely believable was our lead actress' British accent, and while I think Scarlett is a tremendously talented woman, this just seemed like she studied how to do one within less than a day. Not necessarily bad, but just a bit on the disappointing side. The minimalistic score provided by musician Mica Levi is used only for the most crucial of moments (save for a surprising inclusion of PRIDE FC standout song "Sandstorm"). Cinematographer Daniel Landin, himself a veteran in the realm of working with music videos (the guy collaborated with legendary experimental group Throbbing Gristle) does an exceptional job as well, especially when you consider what Scotland used to be buried underneath so many years ago.
Though wavering at times towards the pretentious side of things, especially in its latter half when Johansson mostly falls silent and it does move at a snail's pace, Under the Skin will either leave you fascinated or frustrated, and more than likely, it will be a combination of both. Though a revisit is necessary for someone like myself, I still haven't completely made up my mind on the overall final product. At the time of this writing, I'm leaning towards a recommendation solely because you haven't seen anything like this so far in 2014, or perhaps may not see anything like it next year either. I myself will probably seek out the book that it is based on, unless I can find it in audio form. And besides, it's nice to see the wonderful Scarlett Johansson choosing more interesting projects these days.
Then again, I still have to type up a review for Lucy within the next few days. *sigh*
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