Review of Under the Skin (2014) by Lowbrowcinema — 18 Apr 2014

Once again I write to show my total love and devotion for Scarlett Johansson. She is truly turning into a profound artist in the leagues of an Isabelle Huppert or Juliette Binoche. Actors who are more interested in making art, saying something about the human condition, experimenting with truly amazing filmmakers. Everything they do may not be perfect but it is wildly ambitious, requiring a level of commitment few artists ever achieve.

Case in point--UNDER THE SKIN. Voracious, beautifully shot and directed. Johansson is given very little to do. In fact there really is no "acting" here but she is the center of the film. She is the film. A kind of central void, acting as a mirror to the ugliness of mankind. The message of UNDER THE SKIN seems to be: time for us to go. Man should die and disappear from our banal and nasty existences.

Johansson brings nothing and everything to this film. A film which ultimately disappoints by trying to be too much like an early Nic Roeg film, then suddenly very modern and then, just like Glazer's other two films--SEXY BEAST and BIRTH--too full of explanations to even be like a copy of a 70s film. But he is talented. The film is ambitious and stunningly made. The cinematography by Daniel Landin displays what is now possible in filmmaking and the music from Mica Levi is too perfect to describe. Truly sublime compositions.

But again, it is all about Scarlett. Giving so much and nothing. Proving what "personality" can be. She is a blank projection in UNDER MY SKIN and utterly perfect. An amazing sort of performance by a true artist consistently searching for new heights.