Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2014)

Message

#1 Post by **Jeff** » Fri Aug 30, 2013 11:32 pm

Really looking forward to this. Scott Foundas didn't love it, but lots of other smart folks did, and it looks like Glazer's got something really special that will be really divisive yet again.

Walter Chaw tweeted that it was "astonishingly good," but also said that about 30 people walked out. It's sounds like it's not Oscar-baity stuff at all. The comparisons to Roeg and Holy Motors (hopefully not just for the graphic depictions of hard-ons) certainly have me intrigued. Mark Cousins tweeted, "I think it's years since I've seen a film as good as Under the Skin directed by Jonathan Glazer. A masterpiece."

HitFix gives it an A-, The Playlist a B+, Film Blather an A-, and Film.com an 8.3/10.

ianungstad · #2 Post by **ianungstad** » Sat Aug 31, 2013 12:00 am

There has been several comparisons between Under the Skin and Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth which has me excited. Not only for content but in the elliptical; sparse editing.

Really looking forward to this. Hopefully it lands with a distributor that plans for more than a VOD release; even if the film is going to be a hard sell.

bainbridgezu · #3 Post by **bainbridgezu** » Mon Sep 02, 2013 5:12 pm

First teaser

feihong · #4 Post by **feihong** » Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:39 pm

Looks really exciting.

Cronenfly · #5 Post by **Cronenfly** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 2:52 am

Still look to be tickets available to all three TIFF screenings. I'm lukewarm on Glazer's first two outings, but love me some Roeg/Man Who Fell to Earth, so it seems worth a try.

bdlover · #6 Post by **bdlover** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 6:58 am

From that amazing trailer it looks more Cammell than Roeg! If the rest of the film is that good, I think it could win. Count me fascinated...

#7 Post by **Finch** » Tue Sep 03, 2013 5:44 pm

I loved the teaser and will definitely see the film in theaters. Here's a rave from Xan Brooks at the Guardian.

rohming · #8 Post by **rohming** » Wed Sep 04, 2013 12:35 am

Um, this just shot into my must-see list.

#9 Post by **Jeff** » Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:04 am

More five-star raves from Time Out and The Telegraph.

Guy Lodge tweeted:

UNDER THE SKIN is the riskiest, most sensual, most purely image-fuelled film in Venice comp. So naturally a few idiots boo. Ever thus. Sigh.

Justin Chang tweeted:

Jonathan Glazer's UNDER THE SKIN a bewitching, eerily erotic tour de force of sensory filmmaking. Best I've seen in #Venezia70 competition.

thirtyframesasecond · Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:33 pm

For balance, the Independent gave it 1/5. I'm about to start the novel.

LQ · #11 Post by LQ » Wed Sep 04, 2013 4:33 pm

Clicking in this thread for the first time I discovered that I've read the book this film is based on - albeit it was about a decade ago, but I enjoyed the (very) odd, compelling story and the creepily sensual prose. The narrative turns really took me by surprise, and it's interesting to note in the reviews that the film starts off by showing Johansson’s character

Spoiler

to be an alien

because if I remember correctly, the novel cloaked even that for a later reveal. I'd recommend holding off on reviews if possible; the mysteries of the novel were all the more alluring because I had no clue even as to which genre the book fell into, when I started it!

I loved the teaser. Glazer seems to have captured the moodiness, the dull grey feeling of alienation and the hypnotic horror of the book, but the accumulated images suggest he's made this a loose adaptation, all things which make me very excited for the film.

MichaelB · #12 Post by **MichaelB** » Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:00 pm

thirtyframesasecond wrote:For balance, the Independent gave it 1/5.

Not their regular reviewer, I notice, unless Kaleem Aftab recently took over from Anthony Quinn.

antnield · #13 Post by **antnield** » Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:11 pm

MichaelB wrote:
thirtyframesasecond wrote:For balance, the Independent gave it 1/5.
Not their regular reviewer, I notice, unless Kaleem Aftab recently took over from Anthony Quinn.

Ryan Gilbey tweeted just over a week ago: "The Independent has disgraced itself further by sacking Anthony Quinn, one of the UK's smartest, wittiest film critics, after 15 years."

MichaelB · #14 Post by **MichaelB** » Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:33 pm

antnield wrote:
MichaelB wrote:
thirtyframesasecond wrote:For balance, the Independent gave it 1/5.
Not their regular reviewer, I notice, unless Kaleem Aftab recently took over from Anthony Quinn.
Ryan Gilbey tweeted just over a week ago: "The Independent has disgraced itself further by sacking Anthony Quinn, one of the UK's smartest, wittiest film critics, after 15 years."

That would explain that! And its Sunday sister got rid of Jonathan Romney, which is even more scandalous.

Although I immediately assumed that it would be Anthony Quinn, who could often be relied on to be the contrarian outlier among the UK's national newspaper critics.

Charles · #15 Post by **Charles** » Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:45 pm

Okay, I need to re-read the novel --soon-- to cement my own images of this incredible work before seeing much more.

#16 Post by **Finch** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 9:03 am

A rave from Walter Chaw

The loosest of adaptations, cherry-picking from Michel Faber's strong novel of the same name, Under the Skin is home to a trio (at least) of indelible images and a style and presentation that function as shunts into a thicket of thorny existential questions; it's the best film I've seen this year and among the best films I've ever seen. Stripped to the bone, as capable of viciousness as it is tenderness, it achieves what seems impossible by creating a sense of the mysterium tremens in the body of a human-looking alien. When it works, it's a stunner worthy of mention in the same breath as Blade Runner, but more significant than its immediate impact is its lingering afterimage. I liked it initially. In the six days since I saw it, scarcely an hour's gone by that I haven't thought about it. Under the Skin, not to be flip, burrows exactly there, and nests.

rohming · #17 Post by **rohming** » Mon Sep 09, 2013 5:18 pm

Chaw's pretty much my main dude as far as contemporary movie reviews go, so between his review and calling it one of the best movies he's ever seen and that amazing teaser and Glazer and, what the hell, Micachu did the score...I'm 100% sold that I need to see this yesterday.

#18 Post by **Finch** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 8:08 am

Walter Chaw interviews Jonathan Glazer

sammy h · #19 Post by **sammy h** » Wed Oct 23, 2013 8:56 am

I saw it this morning and was really blown away by it. Hearing of walkouts during screenings is disappointing, but speaks more, I suspect, of some people's desire for overtly relatable protagonists and less to do with offensive content (of which there really isn't any). But one of the things the movie explores is the unknowingness of people, of life. In some ways, it reminded me of Morvern Callar, another Glasgow set film concerned with a protagonist you can never fully "know". I suspect many complaints of Glazer's film will look familiar to anyone who read what was written about that film. Without a doubt, Under the Skin has some of the most incredible images and sequences of any recent movie. And anyone who walked out early definitely missed one of the best endings of the year.
The cast, the score, the photography, everyone involved did an amazing job. It is one of those movies where everything just feels right. I can't wait to see this again on the biggest screen possible. It's not an easy movie, in that it rarely leads you by the hand emotionally, and that will leave some people feeling unmoored from the plot, but it is incredibly rewarding as both a sensory experience and for all the ideas it leaves you with.

thirtyframesasecond · Thu Oct 31, 2013 12:04 pm

Having read the novel, which is terrific, I'm intrigued as to how they've filmed it. Shame we have to wait until April in the UK for it.

#21 Post by **Jeff** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 5:29 am

Neil Kellerhouse, you've done it again, you magnificent bastard.

Dylan · #22 Post by **Dylan** » Tue Feb 11, 2014 5:05 pm

That is a wonderful poster. Here's the first official trailer. I can't wait to see this.

flyonthewall2983 · Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:39 pm

This reminds me a little of Lifeforce (which I haven't seen but have read about and get the gist of), but actually interesting.

ianungstad · #24 Post by **ianungstad** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 12:02 am

A24 consistently comes up with great posters for their films. It's a shame they haven't hooked up with Criterion.

feihong · #25 Post by **feihong** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 12:26 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:This reminds me a little of Lifeforce (which I haven't seen but have read about and get the gist of), but actually interesting.

Lifeforce is actually pretty cool, in a very 80s kind of way. It was far more absorbing than I expected it to be--and I came at it with pretty much the same feeling you do.

Under the Skin is the first movie I'm looking forward to seeing in a theater in a long time, although the "heir to Kubrick" line gives me pause--I would rather see Glazer be himself, and I feel that we certainly don't need another Kubrick. Hopefully that line is just something the marketing department fixed upon as a promotional gimmick, and not some kind of intended goal Glazer verbalized to the people doing the advertising.

Site Menu