For my next installment of the Foreign Film Series, I am tackling the film Under the Skin. This is a British film directed by Jonathan Glazer (director of Sexy Beast and Birth), and it's loosely based on a novel by Michel Faber. It was released in early 2014 though it had premiered in late 2013 at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival.
So what is the film like? Well...there's a story to tell.
This film is as "art house" as it gets, or at least it sure felt that way. If you're the kind of person who enjoys seeing a good, coherent, well developed story (like me!) you are not going to like this film. If you enjoy watching long stretches of video with no audio and basically no story, then you'll love this film.
Now, don't get me wrong. The movie is interesting. It's aesthetic and experimental storytelling are fascinating to watch, but...I can't say I enjoyed watching this. I enjoy watching linear, non-linear and parallel stories, but this is none of them. How you may ask? The answer is: there is not real "plot." Things happen yes, but nothing is clear and it is a bit hard to understand why anything really happens.
Ok, ok. You can argue that, "what's the fun in explaining everything and showing us everything" and you would be right. I will be the first to say that no story should be completely explicit. There are elements that can just be implied and things that carry heavy symbolization. Except I didn't get that feeling with Under the Skin. Perhaps I don't fully understand "art house" films. When I think of art house I think: Drive, Melancholia, A Scanner Darkly, and a lot of Gus Van Sant's films. So when I saw Under the Skin I was thoroughly confused.
Nothing and no one in the entire film me care about what was happening. The storyline was near mundane and frankly somewhat boring. But, like I said, maybe that's just me. So here's what the story is about, and maybe someone can enlighten me on it.
So what is the film like? Well...there's a story to tell.
This film is as "art house" as it gets, or at least it sure felt that way. If you're the kind of person who enjoys seeing a good, coherent, well developed story (like me!) you are not going to like this film. If you enjoy watching long stretches of video with no audio and basically no story, then you'll love this film.
Now, don't get me wrong. The movie is interesting. It's aesthetic and experimental storytelling are fascinating to watch, but...I can't say I enjoyed watching this. I enjoy watching linear, non-linear and parallel stories, but this is none of them. How you may ask? The answer is: there is not real "plot." Things happen yes, but nothing is clear and it is a bit hard to understand why anything really happens.
Ok, ok. You can argue that, "what's the fun in explaining everything and showing us everything" and you would be right. I will be the first to say that no story should be completely explicit. There are elements that can just be implied and things that carry heavy symbolization. Except I didn't get that feeling with Under the Skin. Perhaps I don't fully understand "art house" films. When I think of art house I think: Drive, Melancholia, A Scanner Darkly, and a lot of Gus Van Sant's films. So when I saw Under the Skin I was thoroughly confused.
Nothing and no one in the entire film me care about what was happening. The storyline was near mundane and frankly somewhat boring. But, like I said, maybe that's just me. So here's what the story is about, and maybe someone can enlighten me on it.
We get an eerie entrance into the story. It actually reminded me a lot of the beginning in 2001 A Space Odyssey. All we see is light, a sort of recreation of birth I suppose, and then an eye. Then we hear a voice, I'm assuming this is Scarlett Johansson's voice. And she's saying gibberish, like a baby would do when they're small. So we've just witnessed her birth or perhaps her arrival.
Meanwhile, motorcycle guy (which will henceforth be his name) drives down a winding road in the dark of night and picks up a girl from the side of the road and puts her in a van. We get introduced to Johansson's character (henceforth name "the woman") as she undresses the girl motorcycle guy picked up.
Meanwhile, motorcycle guy (which will henceforth be his name) drives down a winding road in the dark of night and picks up a girl from the side of the road and puts her in a van. We get introduced to Johansson's character (henceforth name "the woman") as she undresses the girl motorcycle guy picked up.
For the next hour we see the woman pick up one man after another. She drives a van, wandering through Scotland, looking for men. There is no pattern or visible reason for why she picks up one particular man over another. Basically all that happens in the van is the woman and these men talk. Mostly about mundane, life to life things, "Do you have a girlfriend? Where do you work?" etc. etc. Afterwards, the woman lures them into her home and they disappear. There's no explanation as to why. All we see is that they strip naked, sink into a pool of black goo, and then disintegrate. Basically, she's an outer space black widow.
What is weird is that the men, even as they sink into the goo, they do so willingly. They don't struggle, don't scream, they just...sink. After their bodies shrivel up, we see a conveyor belt full of liquid (the bodies?) which then disappear into a tunnel full of light. The woman and the motorcycle guy's meal perhaps. And the story goes on. More driving, more men, more driving. Until the woman meets a man with neurofibromatosis. This is where an interesting turn takes place. As usual she talks to him, takes him home, and he sinks into the goo. Moments later though, she lets him out of the house and she runs away.
If I understood anything about the story, it might be this part. The woman has gained some semblance of humanity. Unfortunately for the man she let go, motorcycle guy gets him. The woman keeps running and gets lost in a town, where a good Samaritan gives her shelter in his house. She seems to be struggling with herself and what she's supposed to do now, since she has no purpose or goal anymore. When she tries to have sex with the man, she can't (alien anatomy problems I guess).
So again she runs. This time finding shelter in a cabin in the woods. There she gets attacked and almost raped by a logger. As he attacks her, her skins comes off. Yeah, you read that right. Tears right off!
If I understood anything about the story, it might be this part. The woman has gained some semblance of humanity. Unfortunately for the man she let go, motorcycle guy gets him. The woman keeps running and gets lost in a town, where a good Samaritan gives her shelter in his house. She seems to be struggling with herself and what she's supposed to do now, since she has no purpose or goal anymore. When she tries to have sex with the man, she can't (alien anatomy problems I guess).
So again she runs. This time finding shelter in a cabin in the woods. There she gets attacked and almost raped by a logger. As he attacks her, her skins comes off. Yeah, you read that right. Tears right off!
A black mannequin is what she looks like underneath. Well it's better than the usual green Martians. Then this happens:
Yep. The logger burns her. This is the sad demise of the poor alien woman......
WHAT? This is the end of the film! I spend 95 minutes watching this and it ends like this?!
Alright, calm down Lulubell. As you can see, I did not enjoy watching this movie. I did not get any of the elements I usually look for when I watch a movie. 1. Plot 2. Character Arcs 3. Awesome Music.
This movie had none. The plot was nonexistent. A series of events put together is not a plot or story. I felt like I had walked into a photography exhibit and just looked at pictures which I knew nothing about. I didn't know any of the story behind those images. As for the characters, I knew next to nothing about them. The only motivation I glimpsed from their comings and going was maybe to feed, but really I'm not sure. And don't get me started on the character arc. So onto the music. The music was creepy ALL the time. There was something ominous about it, which would have been great in another movie but not this one. Especially because the same tone was used over and over and over.
Ugh! I don't know what else to say, except that I just felt cheated out of 95 minutes of my life. I was expecting so much more. I was expecting beautifully shot scenes with a compelling story as to how humanity is seen through the eyes of an alien. Because that's what I got from the trailer. That is what I was expecting. I was not expecting an alien with existential problems. Or maybe it was an alien on the verge of going emo. I DON'T KNOW! And that really bugs me. I usually like movies that leave me thinking long after I've watched them. I enjoy having lots of questions after I watch them, but this one...I don't know what to ask and honestly I don't care enough to. I guess these kind of films are just not me.
WHAT? This is the end of the film! I spend 95 minutes watching this and it ends like this?!
Alright, calm down Lulubell. As you can see, I did not enjoy watching this movie. I did not get any of the elements I usually look for when I watch a movie. 1. Plot 2. Character Arcs 3. Awesome Music.
This movie had none. The plot was nonexistent. A series of events put together is not a plot or story. I felt like I had walked into a photography exhibit and just looked at pictures which I knew nothing about. I didn't know any of the story behind those images. As for the characters, I knew next to nothing about them. The only motivation I glimpsed from their comings and going was maybe to feed, but really I'm not sure. And don't get me started on the character arc. So onto the music. The music was creepy ALL the time. There was something ominous about it, which would have been great in another movie but not this one. Especially because the same tone was used over and over and over.
Ugh! I don't know what else to say, except that I just felt cheated out of 95 minutes of my life. I was expecting so much more. I was expecting beautifully shot scenes with a compelling story as to how humanity is seen through the eyes of an alien. Because that's what I got from the trailer. That is what I was expecting. I was not expecting an alien with existential problems. Or maybe it was an alien on the verge of going emo. I DON'T KNOW! And that really bugs me. I usually like movies that leave me thinking long after I've watched them. I enjoy having lots of questions after I watch them, but this one...I don't know what to ask and honestly I don't care enough to. I guess these kind of films are just not me.