UNDER THE SKIN (2014) **
I freely admit that I rented Under the Skin just to see Scarlett Johansson naked. Director Jonathan Glazer probably knew that Scarlett’s assets were the main attraction, and he goes out of his way to make the experience about as uncomfortable as it possibly could’ve been. No matter how sexy the idea of Scarlett Johansson playing an alien who seduces and kills men is, Glazer and company takes all the fun out of it, and seemingly take perverse pleasure in doing so.
Scarlett plays an alien in Glasgow who drives around in a van picking up random dudes. Sometimes she takes them to her apartment where they are swallowed up into a black void. After seducing and destroying a couple of guys, she goes on a journey of self-discovery.
If Species and The Brown Bunny had an illegitimate kid, it would look something like Under the Skin. On the surface, it’s about a sexy alien seducing and killing men. However, it’s played out in a similar to The Brown Bunny as lots of time is spent with the main character driving in a van before making a queasy revelation about themselves involving sex.
Like The Brown Bunny, there are a lot of long takes where nothing much happens. The Brown Bunny tested the audience’s patience until the sudden ending explained and justified the deliberate manner of the film. With Under the Skin, the twist near the end is pretty cool, but it doesn’t do much to make up for the rest of the movie’s shortcomings.
Glazer seems to revel in fucking with his audience. There is a lot of deliberately off-putting stuff here that makes much of the film a chore to sit through. The long sequence of Scarlett seducing a (real) deformed man and the ensuing scene where he runs around naked (for what feels like forever) is difficult to watch.
This of course, was Glazer’s intention. He knows we only were here to see ScarJo’s goodies, so he just wants to rub our noses in it the whole time. As far as a movie living up to the filmmaker’s intentions go, Under the Skin hits bull’s-eye. As, you know, a “fun” movie-watching experience; it’s anything but.