Under the Skin

Title: Under the SkinMPAA Rating: RDirector: Jonathan GlazerStarring: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Krystof HadekRuntime: 1 hr 48 mins

Laura is a woman… kind of. She’s a woman lost in a world she isn’t familiar with. You see, Laura looks like a normal woman, but she is, in fact, an alien. An alien that’s taken up a human form and is feeding throughout Scotland. We join her on her journey and we don’t exactly know what’s going to happen, who she’s going to run into, or how it is she finds and kills her prey.

What We Think

WTF! The film is visually stunning and Johansson gives a nuanced and almost stoic performance. She does more with her reaction then she does with the minimal wording in the screenplay. There’s so much to like here, and at a brisk hour forty-eight, it isn’t something that drags towards the art house boredom that could occur. Glazer is subtle and allows his visuals to carry the narrative instead of overtly using those same visuals as a crutch to make up for storytelling holes. The falling action may throw some people and confuse them, but those with a keen eye for cinema will love this!

Our Grade: A-

Some of the stuff here is art house to the core. And Scarlett is in a totally different light than we may have ever seen her. She’s naked, and I’m not referring to her state of undress. I mean to say here Laura is a vulnerable creature. She’s someone who only hurts other out of necessity, out of an insatiable hunger. Throughout, we are on a ride through Scotland that we’ve never seen before. One of my favorite things as an aside is the absolute jaw-dropping score by Mica Levi. I think the track "Lonely Void" is, for me, the pinnacle of this film's score.