Under the Skin (2014)

Written and Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Written by William Campbell
Based on the novel by Michel Faber
Starring:
Scarlet Johansson (The Island)

Some films are watched with a cloud hanging over them, a polarized nimbi of either unsatisfied confusion or awe struck wonder. In this circumstance it's tough to make a judgment for yourself without your opinion forming around a preexisting sentiment. A word that's already been used, a thought that has already been expressed. The goal in this type of situation is to jump on that previous strand of thought, infuse and surround it with whatever new emotions or observations that you can make and let your opinion precipitate in its own little bubble. (Then again, you may have never heard of this film.)

Under the Skin is undoubtedly a gorgeously filmed the movie. The sounds alone takes you on a unique ride. One moment you're surrounded by silence, the next, a pulsing or thumping takes over, building and building until there is a whole new environment encasing you. This movie does that multiple times. The scenes that take place in a void have a thrilling inhuman beat to them and are easily one of the more gripping sensory events of the year. 

It might just be me noticing Blu-ray quality but it was such a clear movie. The detail in the brightness and the contrast are serenely present. The use of absorbing black nothingness was reminicent of the aliens in Attack the Block, (not to mention some of those nearly incomprehensible accents).

Especially noticeable in how this movie is filmed is the stillness. The camera is patient. The shots lingers as the pieces in them move about like security camera footage but in high definition.

Now comes the polarizing nature of the film. The plot is confounding to say the least. Not the what, that is easy enough to see, but the why. The why is never given. It is left to us. The explicit sexual nature of the story grows tiresome and proves to be a bit shallow without anything to govern the necessity of it. Over all we are left with another day-in-the-life film akin to Only Lovers Left Alive or to cross genres, Inside Lleyn Davis. Also, much like those two films, the lead performer (in this case Scarlet Johansson, who is far more dominating than the other films' leads) does a phenomenal job.

Bottom Line: The cinematography is top notch, the strangeness is engrossing, but the thematic content is bland.

8 out of 10. 

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Written an Directed by Jim Jarmusch
Starring:
Tom Hiddleston (Thor: The Dark World)
Tilda Swinton (Constantine)
Anton Yelchin (Fright Night)
Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland)
John Hurt (Spaceballs)
Jeffery Wright (Casino Royale)

I had a fever and the only prescription was a butt load of rotating overhead shots. This movie cured that fever. Now I'm ODing on rotating overhead shots and I love it! The record spinning, the blood highs, the camera fading between characters. Gorgeous, slow, rhythmic revolutions, giving off that feeling of immortality? More please.

This movie was supposed to ooze gothic hairstyles and pale-skinned royalty and it certainly delivered on those promises. The hair is flowing all around like Oprah was the costume designer and she handed out glorious long locks to each cast member. Hiddleston gets flowing long locks, and Swinton gets creepy looking long locks, Yelchin gets Veddery
long locks, Wasikowska gets...the same creepy looking long locks as Swinton, John Hurt gets lustrous long locks EVERYBODY GETS LONG LOCKS!  The we have the two leads as pale as they come (aside from Paul Bettany, could they not get him?)

Now that we've established that the hair and casting was as tasty as a sweet blood Popsicle, we can get to the story.

It was abundantly clear that Jarmusch wanted no part of making a horror or action film. He was focused on telling the tale of two, lets call them vampires since the film doesn't, that are indeterminately old and immeasurably in love. On those counts, Jarmusch succeeds. We get a tale that is very much just a few days (and numerous tangled sleeping positions) in the lives of these creatures of the night.

Not having to sit through two characters fall in love was kind of refreshing. Instead, we have the other things that keep annoying us. People getting in between them. Specifically Ava (Wasikowska). She was unbearable. We want to see Adam and Eve be together and chill. (Heck, just let me watch Adam compose music for two hours.) But we don't get that, we have this pseudo story thrust in there involving other characters that are relatively uninteresting.

While the effort to tell a story concerned more with something small while set within a strange world approach is commendable, it wasn't done to perfection like in, say John Wick, where each strange element is allowed to breathe a bit before coming back to focus on the central character.

With Only Lovers Left Alive, the kind of interesting world that is put forth and a character as compelling as Adam that is brought about, why not just explore his psyche and his process while he interacts with the slightly unknown world around him and the apprently present immortal community. The film fails to give enough light to the strangeness that it tells us is out there while alluding too much to it. Its all a bloody tease in the end. All these musicians and scientists are mentioned and all this fancy talk about space and music leads to nothing and after some wasted plot points we are left with some pathetic version of these two very promising characters.

The film breaks the promises it sets up. A standard which was set up by Hot Fuzz. Albeit a comedy but one that showed that when you set something up, be it a joke or a name or a concept, there better be resolution. We get nothing out of all that Tesla Tech, which the characters flat out abandon, we hardly scratch Adam's ability to be a musical and scientific muse, and that wooden bullet is virtually meaning less.

The conclusion is strange but expected. There is nothing wrong with ending a film that gives but a glimpse into two extraordinarily long lives mid-action. And while the decisions leading to it leave you wondering how these two could have lived this long if their apparently final and possibly fatal trip to Tangier is induced by nothing, and carried out in so ill-prepared a manner, you still have to allow these characters to make that mistake.

These story hiccups are, however, only minor when set next to how entrancing the performances were and how cool Hiddleston is. Swinton and Wasikowska are take em or leave em but there is nothing without Hiddleston. Yelchin and Hurt are great as well, bringing their more capable talents to simpler roles than they are used to. Its always nice to see actors who can be leads to supporting work (cough Jude Law and Matt Damon cough)

Back to Hiddleston for a quick wrap up. He is this movie. Everything feeds off of him including that hypnotic music his character composes.

8 out of 10