Under the Skin (2013)

UK/US/Switzerland 108m, Colour
Director: Jonathan Glazer; Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams

Under the skin is an unusual highly stylized, and disconcerting science-fiction film about an alien disguised as a woman who preys on single men across Scotland. Raising more questions than answers, this is a film that relies heavily on the long slow revealing shots of the naked body of Scarlett Johansson. Seen from the perspective of the alien “woman”, whose lack of emotion might be described as a reflection of her species, or misconstrued as human sadness, Under the Skin keeps us guessing what her motivations might be, and why we continue watching a film which, perhaps cleverly, leaves us in a similar dispassionate state by the credit roll (Klaus Ming April 2015).