The films of Jonathan Glazer are always special, whether they are good or bad.
Not long ago I was captivated by his "The zone of interest" (2023). Amazing that in 2023 it is still possible to make an innovative film about the Second World War.
I was much less enthusiastic about "Under the skin". This film is about an alien (Scarlett Johansson) that is on earth to hunt lonely men. After a while she begins to identify with her victims and wants to become human herself.
The scenes in which Johansson captures her prey are mesmerizing, but for the rest there are better movies about the theme of a non human that desires to become a human. Some examples are:
"Blade runner" (1982, Ridley Scott) with respect to robots.
"Der himmel uber Berlin"(1987, Wim Wenders) with respect to angels.
"ET, the extra terrestrial" (1982, Steven Spielberg) with respect to another alien.
The main defect of "Under the skin" is that it never becomes quite clear (at least not to me) what the purpose of the hunt is and which trigger sets the desire of the alien to become human in motion.
"Under the skin" was one of those films with a big gap between critic reviews (high) and user reviews (much lower). Often this is an indicator that the film is difficult to access and somewhat elite. In the case of "Under the skin" this indicator is right.
Not long ago I was captivated by his "The zone of interest" (2023). Amazing that in 2023 it is still possible to make an innovative film about the Second World War.
I was much less enthusiastic about "Under the skin". This film is about an alien (Scarlett Johansson) that is on earth to hunt lonely men. After a while she begins to identify with her victims and wants to become human herself.
The scenes in which Johansson captures her prey are mesmerizing, but for the rest there are better movies about the theme of a non human that desires to become a human. Some examples are:
"Blade runner" (1982, Ridley Scott) with respect to robots.
"Der himmel uber Berlin"(1987, Wim Wenders) with respect to angels.
"ET, the extra terrestrial" (1982, Steven Spielberg) with respect to another alien.
The main defect of "Under the skin" is that it never becomes quite clear (at least not to me) what the purpose of the hunt is and which trigger sets the desire of the alien to become human in motion.
"Under the skin" was one of those films with a big gap between critic reviews (high) and user reviews (much lower). Often this is an indicator that the film is difficult to access and somewhat elite. In the case of "Under the skin" this indicator is right.