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Under the Skin - Movie Review

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5 stars

Here’s an Under the Skin viewing tip: know that Scarlett Johansson plays an alien who inhabits the skin and clothing of a human female, scours the Scottish Highlands luring unsuspecting male hitchhikers into her nondescript panel van before seducing them to a nearby location where she leaves them suspended in some sort of dark, amniotic goo – their muscles to be harvested as a delicacy for an alien planet. The movie won’t necessarily tell you any of this, but I had the good fortune of access to the film’s production notes. You’re welcome.

Jonathan Glazer – loosely adapting Michel Faber’s otherworldly novel – holds his cards close to the vest, unspooling his abstract examination of human identity with a hypnotic fog of metronomic beats and mesmerizing vision. He’s clearly more interested in creating a unique viewer experience than he is in providing a point A to point B plot line with conventional dialogue. But his screenplay – which he co-wrote with Walter Campbell – didn’t actually begin that way.

The initial draft was a more faithful adaptation of the novel, but was eventually scrapped following a breakthrough moment that altered the direction of the entire production. While filming with Johansson in character as the predatory alien, fully costumed in cheap wig, bad lipstick, and gaudy fur coat, Glazer became obsessed with disguising the actress and plopping her into the real world, to intermingle with the unknowing citizens of Glasgow while his cameras rolled. The guerrilla footage captures an honest but horrifying reality as she so effortlessly recruits her human prey from a swath of random, unwitting citizens. Those used in the film later signed release forms after being made aware of the ruse.

We watch the alien character return – with hapless victim in tow – to her sinister abode which soon turns into a dungeon of horrors for the unsuspecting man as he follows her slowly through the room, both disrobing to the trippy beats of Mica Levi’s techno soundtrack, before the man descends into the black, tarry floor. Beneath the goopy surface we see the man is not alone. He’s encased in a blue void along with other victims… and more are to come.

This pattern is repeated as her trips to nightclubs, bars, and beaches rends a seemingly endless supply of poor lost souls who fall victim to whatever it is she is doing. These scenes of entrapment, though repetitious, are marked with an oddly calming serenity, as if we too are being spun into her sticky web of deceit.  Then that calm is suddenly interrupted by a shockingly horrifying revelation.

Something also happens to our alien protagonist, though much slower and a lot less violent. We soon realize we’re watching her slow journey of transformation from an un-individuated alien life form into something in between alien and human as she slowly becomes infected with a sense of self and human identity.

Then Glazer’s vision comes into more distinct clarity as we begin to recognize the multiple levels on which his story is working. Enhanced by his surreptitious point-of-view technique that allows each of us to wonder whether or not we would fall victim to that pretty woman in a van, he clearly has something important to say about we miserable humans looking at ourselves through the objective eyes of others. Then there's some kind of reverse misogynistic ploy that allows we men to look into a fear women know all too well.

Then, on yet another level, there’s the powerful cinematic trance we’re put under by Glazer’s film. A spell so strong, we no longer care what the film is saying, nor does it matter that its obscure plot has stopped making any sense. Like the first time we watched Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. or Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, we realize we’re watching something cinematically significant and we’re honored to be along for the ride. The details are blurry and ring in our ours, but they linger on and on, perhaps only to be put to bed by a second viewing.

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Under the Skin - Movie Review

MPAA Rating: R for graphic nudity, sexual content, some violence and language.
Runtime:
108 mins
Director
: Jonathan Glzer
Writer: Jonathan Glazer, Walter Campbell
Cast:
Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay
Genre
: Drama | Sci-Fi
Tagline: U
nder the Skin
Memorable Movie Quote: "No girlfriend? Really?"
Distributor:
A24
Official Site: http://undertheskinmovie.com/
Release Date:
April 4, 2014 (limited)
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
July 15, 2014
Synopsis: An alien masquerades as an alluring woman, kidnapping hitchhikers and selling them back home for food.

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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]

Under the Skin - Movie Review

Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Available on Blu-ray - July 15, 2014
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles
: English, English SDH, Spanish
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Discs: 25GB Blu-ray Disc; Single disc (1 BD); UV digital copy; Digital copy
Region Encoding: A

Released from Lionsgate Home Entertainment, this blu-ray is quite exquisite.  The 1080p AVC picture was photographed digitally with the Arri Alexa camera system.  The picture is a mixture of intense stylization and normal, natural imagery focused on humans with accurate forest and Scottish landscapes.  The color palette exhibits natural fleshtones and well-balanced and saturated hues with deep, solid blacks and revealing shadow delineation.  The mysterious black liquid room is really black, with a layer of liquid sheen.  Resolution is excellent, with fine detail exhibited throughout.  This is a visually engaging picture with contrast that emphasizes the low end of the light spectrum.  The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1-channel soundtrack is generally quiet with exceptional low-level, nuanced sonics, which are contrasted with a haunting orchestral music score and occasional strong dynamic energy that extends to the surrounds, for an enveloping experience.

Supplements:

Commentary:

  • None

Special Features:

With some pretty thorough interviews – even though they are a bit unpolished – the supplemental material hits the mark for this release.  There are 10 featurettes covering camera, casting, editing, locations, music, poster design, production design, script, sound, and VFX which can be watched separately or as one long documentary.  An UltraViolet digital copy is also provided.

Making-Of Featurettes (43 min)

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