Under the Skin
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“You don’t want to wake up, do you?”
Overview
A rather economical adaptation of Michael Faber’s scifi novel, Jonathan Glazer's (The Zone of Interest, Sexy Beast) Under the Skin is like nothing you've ever seen before. Set in the dingy urban outskirts and highlands of Glasgow – and also, seemingly, outer space – Scarlett Johansson plays a nameless alien figure attempting to assimilate into human culture to fulfil her unspecified mission. She cobbles together an identity for herself and with a black mop of hair, permaglossed lips and a smooth London accent, she cruises through town in a beat-up van, trying to work out which men will be missed the least. When she manages to find a hapless enough chap, eager to follow her anywhere, she quietly takes them 'home' to a dazzlingly black and eerily clinical space.
Why See This Film
Under the Skin does just that, gets right on in there with its haunting (and sometimes screeching) score by Mica Levi, Daniel Landin's bleakly beautiful cinematography (that beach scene!), the fact that the men were filmed mostly unaware (!) and Scarlett Johansson's compelling portrayal of a character we can't possibly get to know. It's a beautiful, complex sphinx of a film.
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