Under the Skin (2013)

Under the Skin is a trip from another dimension. If you think you're prepared to see it, you truly aren't. Nothing you've seen before will quite prepare you for this surrealist masterpiece.

In it's most simplistic explanation, Scarlett Johansson is an alien in a female's body who abducts Scottish men and sticks them in a pit of black goo. The common image of the sexual predator is reversed, and Jonathan Glazer makes sure that it is frightening. This film isn't a joy to watch by any stretch. It's a general malaise, met with dread and at times pure terror. Think of the world's most peculiar abstract directors such as Herzog and Lynch. Could they have created a film this emotionally vapid? Johansson in this role is soulless and ice-cold. A drastic departure from what you'd expect from her, and that's what makes this film so fascinating. The way she pulls in her victims is a chilling image that won't leave your head.

But the most remarkable moment in Under the Skin is her encounter with the deformed man. We understand that he's sadly never had a physical encounter with a woman in his life until this moment. Johansson used this to her predatory advantage, and nearly lures him into the pit. But suddenly, out of nowhere, she stops herself. She stares into a mirror. Her character, though alien by nature, is immediately struck with the feelings of humanity. Grief, guilt and compassion. She lets him free, buck naked into the fields of Scotland. The most profound feeling we have at this moment is relief. Though this poor deformed man is set loose into the wilderness, we know that he is safer there than he was in the goo pit. We know that our earthly world, somehow, is a safer haven for the unfortunate than the dark hellish universe that Johansson inhabits.

If you can illicit all of these feelings in a film such as this, then my friends, you've succeeded as a filmmaker. Any film can freak you out and make you uncomfortable, but few films can pull at your heartstrings from the other end. See Under the Skin for the experience, and for the appreciation of film as a true art form.