Under the Skin (2014) dir. Jonathan Glazer

trainspotting is also set in scotland

I have heard there are a few movies set in that land

it's a neat device, setting movies in scotland - people are scottish when they do it

Interview with sound designer Johnnie Burn http://www.film4.com/special-features/interviews/under-the-skin-sound-design

funny (or not), have lost all memory of a baby scene

maybe i've blocked it out cuz theyre all kind of repellent

I'm about halfway through it

and you stopped to post, always impressive

Had to. It was late, massive thunderstorms, one of my kids woke up. Then I went to sleep. Sometimes life intervenes. Hell, since having kids it's a wonder I get to see an entire movie at home from start to finish.

what about if kids

it reminds me of Boorman's Zardoz.

ha! this is kind of true.

although zardoz is kind of over-explanatory while this is defiantly elliptical

It's like Species meets Vagabond!

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 1 July 2014 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A+

this was like a fable for budding sociopaths...communicating with hoomans thru the facade of an act/skin, doing it too good and then starting to believe in your own act/skin and thus becoming a vulnerable prey.

After a striking opening and duly admiring the sound design and precision of some of the shots, I came away pretty bored by this. She drives in a van picking up guys and sucking their souls? Okay! Reminded me of 1982's Cat People.

That's a bad thing?

a slower Cat People?

Everything's better ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omrp4QR_Rpo

This movie has really stayed with me. It's gotten under my...

Anyway I really liked it so I bought it.

I liked this. Did a nice job in a low-key way of showing everything from an alien/alienated perspective. All of her POV shots from inside the van, where she's seeing people do things that don't register with her (chatting, going to a football game), and then the great scene on the beach where she watches people die and abandons the baby -- not out of hostility, just indifference. And the encounter with the logger on the trail, where he's asking her the same questions she always asked and she realizes how really alone she is.

I know some people thought the movie was pretentious, but I don't think there's a whole lot of pretense. Nothing seemed too self-important to me, just carefully thought through and well made. (Maybe it's just the Scottish connection, but tonally it reminded me a bit of Morvern Callar.)

baby scene was hilarious

Still thinking about it, watched the director's previous two films the subsequent nights after seeing it (had already seen Sexy Beast, a friend I was with the whole time hadn't though) and immediately read the book. That's quite an effect.

baby scene was hilarious
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, August 3, 2014 4:23 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fuckin' A, once you have a baby watch it again - literally the exact scientific opposite of hilarious

I had a weird moment this week where I was talking to this guy who was explaining that Scarlett Johannson had replaced Samantha Morton in the main role of this movie, but then I realized he was actually talking about 'Her,' and *then* it dawned on me that there is another movie from the late 90s called "Under the Skin" starring Samantha Morton and then I suddenly drowned, be-bonered, in some black liquid

I was cringing like crazy at the entire family death scene

xpost Which is perfect, given the Morvern Callar echoes.

yeah that scene is almost unbearably cruel.

probably a big reach but I felt there were some echoes between that scene and the climax--the infant's "mute" lack of speech, helplessness, etc. some common lack of personhood.

that other film called Under The Skin is also excellent.

Maybe I missed it, but is there any clear moment when you can tell she develops sympathy for humans? Certainly with the man with elephantitis, but why, exactly? Did she feel akin? Is it all just morbid curiosity on her part? Is there some clear moment that shifts her from killing machine to wannabe human?

there was that bit where she said "no, *I'm* the monster!" and ran out of the room

I don't know about <clear> moment, but she seems to register that the disfigured guy has a different energy than the other guys she's picked up - namely that he's not leering at her and making things incredibly tense with barely disguised aggressive vibes. She seems designed/built/whatever to be hot and to lure dudes using her sexuality, and when he doesn't respond to that the way the other guys do, she gets thrown - which starts things snowballing.

There's no explicit reason given why, but it seemed to me that throughout the film she develops a longing to be human. She definitely seemed to find a kinship with the neurofibromatosis guy's outsider status - human, but not quite accepted, on the fringes etc. There's that scene where she examines her human form in the mirror, fascinated. At that point she wants to be human, I think, but her failed attempts at fitting in - eg the cake - prove that she will never belong.

There's something to that (both of those). It's like she had no trouble preying on these men because they all reacted to her lures the same way; in this regard, women and children don't even factor. But when she encounters the neurofibromatosis guy, who reacts in a totally unexpected manner, she can't quite seal the deal. Rather than some dude she lured to his death, he's a reluctant target she actively has to pursue and draw in. And yeah, she likely sensed he was different. Almost like, I dunno, how a meat eater might react after seeing a pig befriend a kitten or something. So she knows there's something more to being human, or whatever these creatures are, and the backend of the movie is her trying to figure it out. Food, sex, etc. When the guy in the woods turns on her, it's like her punishment for letting her guard down, for thinking these stupid, weird creatures as more than meat and potentially even threats.

A lot of similarity to bits in vampire movies where the guilty vampire tries some alternative to blood and barfs.

The logger preyed on her in a similar way she preyed on her victims - initially feigning friendliness and concern, asking if she was alone etc

It's a pretty bleak moral, if you want to think of it in that way. Empathy = weakness that will end with you being incinerated in the woods.

I saw this movie and thought it was really good -- didn't get pretentious vibes but I watch a lot of bad movies so a "good" movie seems extra good to me.
Certainly with the man with elephantitis, but why, exactly? Did she feel akin?
I thought the neurofibromatosis guy part was all about bodies -- the only thing people were reacting to was his face, but his body was just like any other body (whereas her body was not). Maybe this was just because he was walking around naked in the black goo. Maybe she was kinda envious? I dunno. I really liked her costuming/look even if it was a little ott stylish.

xpost You can look at it that way. Or you can look at it as humans=complicated. If she's used to herding sheep, she's in for a shock when she meets a wolf. Esp. since all her killing was easy-peasy luring. The dude aliens seemed a lot more physical and monomaniacal.

it seemed to me that throughout the film she develops a longing to be human

I think there was a necessary built-in contradiction that ultimately she couldn't resolve -- to be effective as bait, she had to convincingly mirror or mimic empathy, all of those friendly flirty conversations where she's playing off of the men's reactions. However artificial her responses were, they still forced her into some kind of understanding of emotion and the search for connection. So I think she was already emotionally primed before she met the disfigured man, and then his loneliness actually affected her in a way the other men hadn't.

This was excellent, wish I'd seen it in the theater for the amazing landscapes and the creepy all-white/all-black spaces and the two dudes dissolving in the goo. The score is fantastic too, didn't realize it was Micachu from Micachu & the Shapes. The movie was more effectively disturbing than most horror movies I see (yeah yeah mainly because of the family dying on the beach and especially the baby alone on the beach).

this would be a good double bill with leviathan, very similar music/sounds. though leviathan is more psychedelic and trippy.

You guys were way more traumatized by the baby scene than I was! Great scene, though, for sure.

Maybe I missed it, but is there any clear moment when you can tell she develops sympathy for humans? Certainly with the man with elephantitis, but why, exactly? Did she feel akin? Is it all just morbid curiosity on her part? Is there some clear moment that shifts her from killing machine to wannabe human?

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, August 5, 2014 3:54 PM (2 weeks ago)

her character arc got a lot clearer on subsequent viewings. moments like the bloody rose, and the scene where she falls and others stop to help her up, they seemed like weird random occurrences on first watch but they're data points she uses to develop a sense of human compassion.

really happy that ilxors are digging this, I know a couple ppl who had ambivalent inititial reactions but later found it stayed with them. the making of extras on the blu ray are v good, interesting interview with mica re: the soundtrack.

the soundtrack is awesome to listen to on public transport. Definitely adds that extra frisson to your morning bus ride

her character arc got a lot clearer on subsequent viewings. moments like the bloody rose, and the scene where she falls and others stop to help her up, they seemed like weird random occurrences on first watch but they're data points she uses to develop a sense of human compassion.

I thought the bloody rose was a false alarm for her that her human skin was deteriorating. (Given the first and last scenes in the movie, this clearly can happen.) Then when she saw that it was just the blood from someone who'd gotten cut, she relaxed -- but the point was taken. The same is possible, I suppose, for the falling down being a clue of her losing her equilibrium. But I like your interpretations of those scenes, too.

the score for this is so great, i can't imagine the movie without it.

the sound design is a big part of it too. At times they're kind of one and the same

those scenes could be both actually - her own frailty contrasted with human kindness

All of the comparisons to The Man Who Fell to Earth are apt. Both films are technically impressive and fun to think/read about, but honestly kind of tedious in practice. Will give this one the slight edge over Roeg's because the scene with the neurofibromatosis guy was honestly poignant.

Wau @ this film

the motorcyclist's role sort of befuddled me (why would he want the family's belongings from the beach but leave the baby?)

so no one disliked it eh