Review of Under the Skin (2014) by Nicholasbert — 25 Jun 2014

I was really disappointed by this film. The trailer promised a lot more than it would eventually deliver. The comparisons with the works of Stanley Kubrick (whom I dislike) and Terrence Malick (whom I like) are ridiculous. I'd rather see this as more similar to David Lynch, though, again, comparison is ridiculous. The amateur look of the shots is not intentional, evidently: it's just this is an amateur film, only made with a lot of money and starring Scarlett Johansson; with all the flaws, the inexperience and the pretentiousness and none of the genuineness, the back-to-the-roots feel, or the love for film history an actual amateur film would feature.

In conclusion, it's not worth it. The visuals are good, but they're used in all the wrong places for all the wrong reasons. In order to be symbolic, there would need to be symbols somewhere. There aren't. There are fetishes which appear to be symbols, but they are just put there to make you think they mean something. It's a trap. Don't fall for it. This gets a 3 because Scarlett Johansson is somewhat good, because at least they made the effort for an original score, and because I gave a 2 to "Gravity" which is still worse than this.