Jonathan Glazer's 'Under The Skin' with Scarlett Johansson is the real best Sci-Fi movie of 2014

Under the Skin, director Jonathan Glazer’s first film in a decade, is a disorienting and disturbing experience, but ultimately one of the most enjoyable of 2014. It is a twisted, science fiction masterpiece giving Scarlett Johansson a rare opportunity to show off her talents.

Johansson plays a nameless character, who suddenly arrives in England. We have no idea where she comes from, but as the film’s brief prologue makes clear, she isn’t from around here. A motorcyclist, who we can assume is also an alien, finds a dead woman’s body, which Johansson uses to help her walk among humans.

The only vehicle around is a large van, which she drives around the U.K., eventually finding her way up to Scotland. She picks up men who are stunned by her beauty and takes them home. There, she baits them by taking off her clothes and leading them into a mysterious black void, where they die but leave their skins behind. This is essentially how the first act of the film continues, but after trapping a deformed man and ultimately letting him go, she starts changing her routine.

Under the Skin is a quiet movie, with hardly any dialogue during its 109 minutes, but it is easily more intriguing than Christopher Nolan’s bloated Interstellar. The two have nothing in common plot-wise, but the two show how much faith different filmmakers have in the audience. Glazer is so trusting that we can understand what’s going on that he offers little in the way of help. There’s no exposition or banal speeches. That’s in stark contrast to Nolan, who likes to explain so much that he only creates more unnecessary plot holes.

Indeed, Under the Skin is more Kubrick-esque than Nolan could ever dream of becoming. It is open to endless interpretations and each viewing is bound to result in a different conclusion. The film challenges us to see how an alien being would see us, especially a female alien who takes on a beautiful woman’s form. Men are instantly attracted to her, even though they know nothing about her. Even the one man she meets on a bus and starts to feel a connection to has to have sex with her.

It would also be easy to say that Under the Skin doesn’t really have a character the audience should feel empathy towards, but that misses Glazer’s point. Johansson, who gives a stunning performance that progressively goes from robotic to more human as the film progresses, plays an alien that, I think, we are actually supposed to like. She’s looking to survive and it is that reliance on men that puts her in danger.

Under the Skin, based on Michael Faber’s novel, won’t win any awards this season, but it should not fall into the abyss of forgotten films. The questions it poses about humanity and our unwillingness to look - if you’ll pardon the expression - far under the skin to understand others.

You can catch the film streaming on Amazon Prime and it is available on DVD and Blu-ray.

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