Review: Under The Skin (2014)

The fact that Jonathan Glazer hasn’t made a film since 2004’s Birth makes sense considering the massive undertaking adapting Michel Faber’s opaque novel Under the Skin proved to be. Years in the making, the film – starring a truly captivating Scarlett Johansson in the lead role – tracks an alien feigned in human skin as she prowl’s city streets in search of vulnerable men. What unfolds, as the alien assimilates bit-by-bit to her new surroundings, is a unique and unforgettable piece of cinema that won’t be to everyone’s taste. Yet those willing to work with Glazer’s deliberately sparse approach, rather than in opposition to it, will find a stirring and quite often delicate inspection of loneliness and sexuality that’s constantly heightened not only by the primitive visual style, but also by Mica Levi’s unnerving score and Scarlett Johansson’s unwavering, captivating and haunting lead performance.