Jonathan Glazer’s new bizarro sci-fi film, Under the Skin, is nearly impenetrable. That, of course, being the right word to sum up this film for a number of reasons. While a fair share of tickets may be sold to those who have desperately awaited Scarlett Johansson to show some skin on the screen, they will, for the most part, leave confused and disappointed, and possibly more afraid of women then they already were in the first place.
Johansson plays a nameless alien inhabiting the human female form, as a matter of fact none of the characters have any names. Travelling through Scotland and trailed by a mysterious man on a motorcycle, she picks up desperate and unsuspecting men and lures them to their unwitting demise. These men aren’t actors. Through an odd form of cinéma vérité Glazer captures the man off the street and their reaction to being picked up off the side of the road by Scarlett Johansson. Johansson also unwittingly proves that Americans shouldn’t do British accents unless they’re playing an alien.
There is nothing to guide the audience – no narration, no everyman character (even though the film is full of everymen). Nobody mentions a world engine or anything like that. It’s only through Glazer’s odd lens and editing that film takes shape. Through the perspective of the alien we’re given a long glimpse at human customs that when viewed from the outside are odd and confusing. Moments where a conventional film would cut Glazer lets the shot linger, and much like the lingering shots, the premise lingers for what seems like is past the point of relevance only to make a decided twist.
In many instances the film feels reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Man Who Fell to Earth, with a similarly ambient soundtrack that blares and pulsates, as well as disorientate. All the elements coalesce into an uncomfortable and enigmatic experience that is wholly intoxicating. The film, at least on first viewing, is about isolation, sex, and standards of beauty. There’s much more beneath the surface here and it will take more than one viewing to truly unwrap all of the themes here. To get more specific would being doing a disservice to those who have yet to view this fascinating film. Most importantly, the film forces the viewer to figure out what they saw, to make up their own damn mind. Most will find that repellant. I was enraptured.