Under The Skin
Dir: Jonathan Glazer
2014
*****
Under The Skin represents a few things in my opinion but most importantly it represents a quality that has been missing from Cinema for quite some time. It marks a return of the eerie horror/Uncomfortable thriller (for want of a better description), something I thought we'd seen the last of after the passing of Kubrick back in the late 90's. It's 'Bodysnatchers', it's 'The Man Who Fell To Earth', it's 'Don't Look Now', it's Kubrick, Roeg and Tarkovsky, it's a bit Wells, Lovecraft and John W. Campbell and....so much more. Enough comparisons though, this is Jonathan Glazer, a very capable and talented director who has made some of the best films (many of them music videos) in the last 20 years. This film is Glazerian. Or should that be Glazeresque? You choose, the man is a genre. This is independent film making at its finest. Every frame is beautiful, the performances are perfect, Scarlett Johansson was a great choice of lead and it was nice to see Adam Pearson proving himself as more than just a Channel 4 freakshow stooge, he is one of the best parts of the film. The music is a huge part of this film and should get just as high a billing as the actors, Mica Levi has produced a truly awe-inspiring soundtrack that will be remembered with the greats. Under The Skin will prove misunderstood on release but will gain following in the years after, I honestly expect to be finding merchandise in all movie memorabilia shops alongside your Pulp Fiction, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rocky posters very soon. This is a future classic, cult favorite and probably my favorite film of the last 10 years. I'm not sure I could be any more impressed, this is why I love Cinema!