(Spoiler Alert)
Anyone who knows me knows I love movies. Hence this blog, and the over 400 movies in my collection (at last count anyways.) I'm always looking for new stuff I haven't seen, and favorites from the past. Today I'll be looking at a movie in the latter category.
Made in Scotland last year, Under the Skin had a brief limited run before being released on to DVD last week. It actually was in theatres one week before Lucy came out, I mention this because both of them star Scarlett Johansson. Let's begin the review shall we? I'll give a brief plot summary, then point out pros and cons, and give a final score.
Scarlett Johansson stars as an alien of unknown origins. After stealing an outfit from a dead woman that was brought to her by her motorcycle riding fellow alien (it's an art-house film the whole summary is going to sound like this.) She begins traveling around the city, looking for men who are alone. She then seduces them, and brings them back to her (completely black) lair. Once in her lair, she has them follow her until they begin to sink into a mysterious ooze that appears in the floor. Once they sink into the ooze, their skin is peeled off of them, while their body is ground to mush. After luring a few victims, she meets a sexually inexperienced man suffering from facial neurofibromatosis. After luring him to the lair, she suddenly decides to let him leave and he flees into the Scottish highlands, only to be pursued and killed by the motorcycle rider. She then wanders Scotland herself, and starts trying to brace humanity herself. There's more I could write, but I don't want to spoil the rest.
So, now we'll do the pros and cons.
Pros: To start, it's a very pretty movie. Every shot looks carefully planned, even the few scenes that were improvised (mostly scenes of the alien talking to men.) It has a very Tree of Life type feel to them, where it feels like there's more going on then what's on the screen. Scarlett Johansson also gives a really good performance as the alien. From tempting seductress, to lost in world unknown to her, she's gives a wide range of emotions and pulls it off wonderfully.
Cons: It being an art-house film, that basically means very little dialogue going on. While not every film needs a lot of dialogue (nor was it bad in anyway) you're supposed to follow the story by actually watching the film, and that can turn a lot of people off from liking it. And in the story as well, it's never directly stated that the aliens are in fact aliens, I personally learned that from reading up on the film when it first came out. I have no problem with art-house films, but you risk alienating a lot of people from liking it because of that.
Final Score: 8/10
It's not a film everyone will like, but I really enjoyed it. I would call it a film to watch if you want to watch something completely different, and with a running time of 108 minutes, it won't drag on for hours. In fact the film, despite the lack of dialogue, does move at a steady pace. I got it for $15 dollars, but if you want to wait for a price drop, it'll be more worth it to you then.
So there we go, my first DVD review. I might try to do one or two of these between theatre releases, and maybe even throw in some retro movie films as well. We'll just see how it goes.
Until next time, I'll see you folks around.
No comments:
Post a Comment