Under The Skin

Holy balls.

I'm stumped for words. What the f***?? I mean I loved it, I was there for it, I was invested from the first second, I don't really know what any of it meant...but I'm okay with that. So, I'm gonna attempt and attempt is the key word here to describe exactly what I just witnessed. Alright so the movie stars Scarlett Johansson (Huzzah!) as this woman who for unknown reasons prowls the streets looking for men to lure, and essentially basically kill. It kinda sorta shifts and evolves for lack of a better term as the movie progresses but I'm not saying a damn thing more. Now first up, this is so not a movie for everyone. Not by a long shot. It is weird, it is bordering on an experimental student film with loooong stretches without dialogue, fairly long takes, interesting but slightly off camera angles, gorgeous with a capital G scenery, and visuals that simply are unforgettable. This is a movie all about the visuals and the experience, dialogue is used so sparingly and you really are thrown into the deep end and you just gotta roll with it. Now for me that works, I was endlessly fascinated and throwing out ideas to exactly what in the flip flapping hell was going on. And I don't wanna hear a word about, oh Scarlett Johansson is fully nude in this movie no wonder you praise the gorgeousness of the film, you should be ashamed of yourself you f***ing pervert. I have said this before and I will damn well say it again every time, I genuinely do appreciate actors getting nekkid because that is no easy thing to do, you have to be utterly comfortable in your skin, you have to be so brave to shoot nude scenes for anything, they have my respect for that both men and women. I was too busy shitting my weight in bricks regardless, I never ever thought I would be terrified of Scarlett Johansson in my entire life but sweet Jesus. She can do anything. Really, she can do any part and I will be there to see it. Young, stuck, intellectual Charlotte from Lost In Translation. Capable, asskicking, assassin/spy Black Widow in your Marvel's. Goddamn terrifying, unearthly, mysterious woman in Under The Skin. Wow. It's been awhile since a movie has flat out given me the heebie-jeebies, freaked me out, horrified me, and yet I wanted to see it all the way to the end and was completely and utterly invested. The overall cinematography is stunning, and needless to say the location shooting in Scotland is divine, it just looks so damn good. A24 is a mental studio capable of producing any film imaginable, a studio that is truly genreless and specializes in weird, offbeat, interesting, and slightly avant garde cinema almost built exclusively for film critics and people who love arty movies. And apparently it's based on a book, and you can bet your bollocks I am reading that soon. So what's the rating? Haven't a clue. I loved it, I was going a wee bit off the wall watching it, but I loved it so. I'm flabbergasted. Definite 4 star movie, I don't know if I can give it a 10/10, it's just such an anomaly. I'll give it a 9.5/10, and leave it at that. But boooooy howdy, you are going to be in for a trip if you watch this, and we'll be back tomorrow with a (hopefully) less odd film from A24 involving a certain decade.