Under the Skin (2014) dir. Jonathan Glazer

it's from the book as well, of course.

gotcha, jord. conversation seemed back-and-forth between book and movie.

although i said she was excellent upthread when i saw this (and i want to see it again, but at home next time, i think it might be better suited to a tv than big screen), one of the things i find odd about scarlett j is that she often looks like she thinks what shes doing is a little funny. theres always a kind of smirk. even on the recent avengers poster, she looks like shes laughing at the knowing ridiculousness of it all. im not sure if that means she needs meatier, more intelligent roles, or if shes just a bit ironic and smug. but that look is always there, even in films like hes just not that into you.

I haven't seen this yet but the soundtrack is some great music in its own right.

I never noticed her doing a face like that in this film or anything else.

Daniel Clowes said she hated comics but she's been in 5 comic adaptations.

Up until recently I never really "got" why she was attractive to people. I think I get it now.

I guess the test will be whether I'm still thinking about this a few days from now (maybe true of any movie, especially one like this). At the moment, I don't know. I was very much with it for a while, found it started to meander somewhere past the halfway mark, in the end somewhat baffled as to what you might take away from it. The scene with the one pick-up (I'll avoid choosing a word to describe him, because I'll undoubtedly choose the wrong one) was moving. I think a lot of the film's spookiness/unease comes from the score, which I'm positive is cribbed from Rosemary's Baby. Some striking driving-around cinematography. I don't know that I've ever seen a narrative, somewhat mainstream film with fewer words. Most of which I couldn't understand, the blame for which I'll divide equally between me, the theatre, and the film.

i thought that between the swaying trees and zipping through traffic at night, among other things, it had clear debts to tarkovsky

i didn't like it while i was watching it but it's grown on me in retrospect

The scene with the one pick-up (I'll avoid choosing a word to describe him, because I'll undoubtedly choose the wrong one) was moving.

yeah, very powerful, i thought. also, though still strained & minimal, one of the best sustained conversations in a largely dialogue-free film.

I guess the test will be whether I'm still thinking about this a few days from now (maybe true of any movie, especially one like this). At the moment, I don't know. I was very much with it for a while, found it started to meander somewhere past the halfway mark, in the end somewhat baffled as to what you might take away from it. The scene with the one pick-up (I'll avoid choosing a word to describe him, because I'll undoubtedly choose the wrong one) was moving. I think a lot of the film's spookiness/unease comes from the score, which I'm positive is cribbed from Rosemary's Baby. Some striking driving-around cinematography. I don't know that I've ever seen a narrative, somewhat mainstream film with fewer words. Most of which I couldn't understand, the blame for which I'll divide equally between me, the theatre, and the film.

― clemenza, Sunday, June 15, 2014 11:36 PM (Yesterday)

the unintelligible scotspeak was a neat alienation device, amped up the sense of removal, location as stunt casting

I love this movie cuz besides being aesthetically clobbering, there was a lot to think about afterwards. plus I'm a fan of stuff like taxi driver and gardner's grendel, monster movies where you're trapped with the monster for the duration. sympathy for lady predator.

I'd call it deceptively meandering, the laissez-faire approach gives it that open ended feel, but there isn't a sequence in the latter half that doesn't contribute to the themes of desire and appearance, hidden motivations, gender dynamics, and our constant fucked attempts to connect w/ each other. it puts you so close to johannssen's character it's as though her wandering uncertainty infects the viewer, but this is a highly controlled piece of work.

i _want_ to watch this, but have read a bit about it and thus some stuff about the baby scene, and suspect that, having a baby myself, this will fuck me up too much

it was really harsh

the unintelligible scotspeak was a neat alienation device

eh fuck you

what was that, conrad? couldn't quite make it out

seriously who the fuck does this a hard dom is good to find cunt think he is

this was really really good.

I liked this movie saw it recently on a big screen

Did anyone go to the screening with live soundtrack at the Royal Festival Hall? If so, how was it?

I loved the verite style high street/shopping centre scenes, the drowning scene and the horrific segment where you see the fate of the wet-suit guy. This is the most memorable new movie I have seen since A Touch Of Sin. For some reason i can't explain, it reminds me of Boorman's Zardoz.

its like this movie is still going on

What I like about this movie is that if you look past all the art house stuff, it's great schlock. I'm cool with great schlock as long as some effort is put into it and I think it delivers. I'm also well aware that I'm in the Roger Ebert phase of my life and willing to praise any indie sci-fi that does its own thing without the baggage of jokey irony or "in the style of..." nonsense. Double-billing this with Upstream Color in my Popular Alienation film series seems like a no-brainer.

I wonder how many times Glazer had to pitch this as The Hunger meets Trainspotting.

It's like Species meets Vagabond!

It's like Basic Instinct but the killer is a naive child

I liked this quite a bit

I'm about halfway through it and it is somthing. Stanley Kubrick's "Lifeforce!"

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.