Under the Skin

We saw Under the Skin, Jonathan Glazer's new film, last night. It is a slow burn but very inventive and disturbing. It will really stay with you, especially the incredibly cold-hearted scene involving a family on a beach and the last five minutes of the film, when you finally get a hint of what is going on/under the skin of Scarlett Johansson's character.

I'm not much of a Johansson fan, but what I've heard called her 'detached cool' works well in this film. The sequences when she is trying to charm Glaswegian men into her car are a bit like You've Been Framed. The fake English accent she puts on and TV presenter charm are as alien as if she had grey skin and an ET neck. It all works against the background of Sauciehall Street and gangs of pre-teen neds perfectly.

 The other big draws to this film are Adam Pearson (a fellow Croydoner) a disfigured man who is preyed on by Johannson but ends up inadvertently triggering a switch in her journey. Also the eerie soundtrack by Mica Levi.

This film is a brutal Kubrick, Lynch, Morvern Callar type mixture. Watch it!