Under the Skin (2014)

Film: Under the Skin (2014)
Stars: Scarlett Johansson
Director: Jonathan Glazer
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

I frequently find myself stating that I'd rather watch a failed but unexpected movie than a fine but boring one.  This is partially because I see a LOT of movies, and after a while it takes a bit of work for you to actually get excited about a film.  There are only so many random love stories or biopics about great men or superhero films that you can come out with before the entire genre is in desperate need of an upheaval.  This is why I get so damn excited when something like Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin comes along.  It may not be what you'd consider particularly coherent, and occasionally it's hard to follow, but it's a film that you don't know the direction it's immediately headed, and has something beautiful and unexpected about it.  It's the sort of film you desperately want to recommend, but you have to know the person well before you give that go-ahead.  It's also the sort of film that's hard to describe, but we'll give it a shot.

(Spoilers Ahead) Trying to boil down the actual film into a plot description is a largely pointless affair, as the plot isn't really what you're here for, but suffice it to say, the film is about a beautiful woman (Johansson) who seemingly, at the beginning of the film, steals the identity of another woman.  She cycles through the streets of Glasgow asking men for directions, and occasionally giving them rides.  Being that she's Scarlett Johansson, when she offers to take them home with her, they gladly accept, but are in for a rude surprise when she, well, murders them.  The film follows this pattern, not afraid to be slow and deliberate while always being captivating, until the final moments when it's revealed that she's an alien.

This is the basic plot, but the film itself dares to be something real and unique.  Glazer, trying very much to find a middle ground between Kubrick and Malick, hits a sweet spot and somehow is able to find both men in his movie.  Frequently we find Glazer's camera just sort of meandering, letting us take in the entire scene and not just what is immediately happening onscreen in a split-second frame.  Kubrick did this (and Bergman mastered it), but you see different corners of the movie in a way that you wouldn't normally be able to do so.  You see, for example, the terrificly shot sequence where a swimmer tries to save a drowning couple while their toddler cries on the beach.  Most directors would have shot this scene in close-ups, giving us exactly what he intended for us to see, but not Glazer.  Instead, he gives us multiple different happenings on the screen-a drowning couple, a heroic swimmer, and a crying baby, and dares us to pick which one should be the focus of our attention.  It's moments like this in the film that truly captivate.

The film lives and dies on whether or not you find Scarlett Johansson alluring and intoxicating despite the danger.  It says something that most of the men she picks up were not in fact actors, but instead simply guys who were willing to get into a beautiful woman's car (seriously-can you believe that-how much was the insurance to be able to do that with a movie star like Scarlett?!?).  Her woman is intensely alluring.  Even after we essentially see some of these men die, we still don't know whether or not to believe she's the good guy or the bad guy-that's truly compelling acting, and something that I think should be noted when directors hire Scarlett, who has largely been on fire in the past few years creatively.

The film is not shy about sex and nudity, it should be noted.  It's been a while since I've seen a film that makes sex interesting, but Glazer's movie does that.  The film, interestingly enough for a movie that has Scarlett in various states of undress, is just as preoccupied with obsessing over the naked male form.  There are scenes where hunky but very real-looking men (the kinds you see walking on the street...because that's who they are-that fact completely blew my mind) walk into a black abyss with a full-on erection, totally at the mercy of their hormones and willingly going to their deaths.  The film is obsessed with arousal and foreplay-there's something forbidden, frightening, but decidedly erotic about the pickup scenes, particularly the ones after the initial plunge, as we know where things are headed and we know when the deviations in the alien's plan start to appear.

The movie never really has to go anywhere.  We know, thanks to the motorcyclist that follows her (probably another alien) that whether or not she continues with her journey (she is doused in flames in the final scene by a rapist) that the aliens will continue on whatever their quest will be.  It's a fascinating look at appearance, seduction, and sex, and I have to say I'm more and more intrigued by what Jonathan Glazer, who has only made three films in his career, will be doing next.

Those are my thoughts on this taut and well-felt thriller.  How about yours?  Did you enjoy this abandonment of form, or do you prefer something more conventional?  Where does Scarlett, who is starting to turn into Nicole Kidman without the Oscar in hand, go next with her career?  And what actor do you want to be Glazer's next muse?  Share your thoughts in the comments!