Under the Skin

If you can tune in to images like a naked man with elephantiasis gingerly padding across a damp, overgrown meadow under an overcast sky, you're in for some breathtaking visual manna at times. Despite the fact that underneath the skin of brooding heavy art there is actually a story about a little mermaid, where the change of the black-clad protagonist is represented by her association with white mist or snow. I notice that the official text of the distributor doesn't mess around this time. (29/03/2020)

Seriously? A painfully slow pace accompanying the tedious and uninteresting scenes endlessly and, most importantly, there is hardly any dialogue, making the film even slower and more boring! Was there a script? Yes there was, Scarlett Johansson drives a car, drives strange men and brings them to her house so they can dive naked into the floor, how inventive. I respect that the film is trying to be different, but it absolutely didn't work for me. 1* for naked Scarlett. Painful experience. (02/07/2014)

For an artistically mature film like this, three stars are probably unfair, but if I rated it higher, I’d be lying to myself. The atmosphere is hypnotic and intoxicating, the soundtrack is fantastic and I would love to make posters of individual frames and hang them on the wall… but the endless ride on a van while looking at nothing gets boring after some time. (02/07/2014)

This movie stays cold, detached and not-so-enjoyable long into its runtime. Only the last third outlines the motifs that give it sense. Nevertheless, it is only slightly emotional and the least viewer-friendly and most minimalistic film in terms of audiovisuals among Jonathan Glazer’s works. This may be on purpose: while the main feature of Glazer’s genius, in addition to original narrative structures, is powerful audiovisuals. Following a crime drama and a romance flick, he surprises us with a minimalistic take on a genre, which is usually held together by rich graphic expression. (26/08/2019)

I think that Scarlett Johansson looks really great here. That’s the only upside of this movie. However, I objectively think that it’s not a one-star or a two-star affair, because it’s art and it needs to be viewed as such. But I wasn’t really able to manage that throughout the movie because the interesting sci-fi theme was jammed into a story flow the likes of: Scarlett’s driving a car. She stops. A passer-by hops in, lured by her curves. The passer-by wants to nail her. She lures him home and the passer-by drowns and gets preserved in some sort of a liquid that Scarlett sends him to space in. The end. That’s what happens once, the second and the third time and in the meantime, Scarlett’s driving her car and she’s just quiet. She’s just driving, and the camera focuses on her face or the road around her. In any case, Kryštof Hádek and his reference to the Czech Republic was a surprise, the kid on the beach added some proper depressiveness, the elephant man was shocking and the ending totally put the cherry on top of this pile of lunacy. This movie reminded me of Valhalla Rising. Only with the difference that this movie managed to shock me, but also piss me off many times. And the music? I’m still sick to my stomach because of it. (01/03/2015)