Under the Skin (2014) dir. Jonathan Glazer

I didn't think Of Kubrick once watching this myself

maybe there's arguably some thematic things in common but it doesn't look or feel like a kubrick movie at all. and while i dont think it's better than really any of kubrick's movies that's hardly a knock against it.

only way to fix it's lack of Kubrick is to get it remade by spielberg, with a 45-minute coda about her quest to become a real girl

now AI would definitely be an interesting comparison!

i dont exactly get the kubrick thing myself - thats just critics needing to slam something canon-y/cinephile-ish in there, or simply unable to watch a new film without seeing it as referring to something in the past. there are better things to slam this movie about, like its jarring editing for instance. or how there arent more club scenes. or the fact that it lacks anything resembling humour. it is a bit too aware of and in love with its entire arty-sci-fi-ness. the reviewer did get that part right, though i think thats why it seems to be rated so highly, simply for what it doesnt do (ie its not interstellar, yay!) than what it does, which iirc is basically deconstructionist, minimalist, and ambivalence, all great concepts, but for me, it just made it seem kind of disconnected. plus, i had watched the man who fell to earth already and didnt really need a low budget 21st century remake of it. am thinking i should just file it under critic-bait/indie british films we are meant to SUPPORT/films you are meant to like as the lead star who is usually in big hollywood productions is slumming it.

the man who fell to earth is a mess and a slog, especially compared to the economy and intensity of under the skin

theres economy.... and then there's borderline brutal jumps in flow. then again maybe that could be a virtue. bold and brutal editing - a suitably blunt style of editing for the times. like jumping from one internet browser tab to the next. or going through a youtube playlist. yes, actually, fuck flow and smooth transitions and continuity and all the rest of it - more exciting to just shuttle around (im not being facetious here).

editing style is well suited to the material imo, and it allows for mystery to seep in through the gaps

im going to watch it again with this new aesthetic appreciation i have developed and report back after the weekend. also going to have a few drinks just in case i get pissed off at it again. or i might just put the scenes that look like a car advert on repeat.

am now wondering what harmony korine (also someone with a good grasp of nu-jar editing mannerisms) might have done with the script

"humorless" is a fair charge i guess, but i think any overtly funny moments would've broken the spell and seemed out of place.

i like man who fell to earth ok but under the skin does a way better job of depicting what an actual non-human perspective might be like imo.

some of the jump cuts in this movie actually made me literally jump. i don't know if any movie's ever done that to me before.

it's a film about the experience of alienation and dislocation, the struggle to make sense of environment and experience. abstraction, fragmentation and coldness work as elements of the narrative, not mere style for style's sake.

what he said

id say enter the void had a trippier take on non human perspectives, despite still being from the POV of an actual human. glazer should have done that peep show/lady in the water-POV type thing maybe, so we never even see the alien. that might have been interesting and more challenging (after all, a lot of people would probably never have checked this out if it wasnt for scarjo/scarjo being naked). do have an allergic reaction to po-faced analysis of this movie however which i am trying to work through.

this isn't available on Blu-Ray at the video store, and it seems like a Blu-Ray (as opposed to DVD) kind of movie. how should I see this?

this reminded me of Morvern Callar more than anything else (which is a film I love)

It reminded me of Morvern Callar too!

morvern callar has one fantastic shot (of a spaced-out drug-addled partygoer) that sticks really strongly in my mind

it's kind of a grainy film, I think dvd would be alright (several xposts)

"humorless" is a fair charge i guess, but i think any overtly funny moments would've broken the spell and seemed out of place.

Should have been a bloopers reel over the end credits with ScarJo's funniest Glasgow pickup moments.

only way to fix it's lack of Kubrick is to get it remade by spielberg, with a 45-minute coda about her quest to become a real girl

this ignorant shit never gets old, does it

uh SJ using the lamp is very funny

it's a fucking joke, morbs. relax.

waiting for the pron remake, personally.

Alba otm

She picked up a total ned, that is comedy.

But I think this film would have done fine without humour. Don't see why it would need it.

I don't think anyone is actually advocating for the injection of humor into the film, Robert

i said it seemed like a blu-ray film b/c it's so DARK (literally--lots of black) and blacks come across better in HD

uh SJ using the lamp is very funny

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Friday, January 23, 2015 6:25 AM (3 hours ago)

otm, one of the year's few genuine laugh-out-loud moments for me (re supposed humorlessness)

the kid screaming on the beach as motorcycle alien returns got a groany laugh in the theatre when I saw it

Tough crowd.

this isn't available on Blu-Ray at the video store, and it seems like a Blu-Ray (as opposed to DVD) kind of movie. how should I see this?

with clenched teeth

whoa

this was great

um, i uh

being a visible self is hard eh. also she felt like less predator, more...end-point

legit horror movie. the bit with the men trapped underwater was possibly the most startling thing i've seen in years if not ever

glazer doesn't so much have a style as have every style almost effortlessly at his disposal

the score was quite astonishing

scar-jo spoon-jar confusion got a laugh, just like that

uh

this felt complex, progressive, daring and genuinely menacing. also felt like the film glazer's been wanting to make the whole time

those reviews c&pd upthread are deeply and almost frighteningly stupid

"legit horror movie. the bit with the men trapped underwater was possibly the most startling thing i've seen in years if not ever"

If I would have watched this as a kid, I would have been terrified.

Anyone else keep half expecting Limmy to turn up in this?

or russ abbott

sorry - russ abbot

or Rab C Nesbitt

etc etc

alex salmond

mel gibson

would have been a totally different film if glen michael had taken the lead role as glazer originally intended

Sean Connery

Andy Murray

would have been a totally different film if glen michael had taken the lead role as glazer originally intended

― bizarro gazzara, Tuesday, September 1, 2015 9:50 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so it became a film about the abject feminine by accident? /reductive

no it was a joke

They've painted blue feet on the right side of the escalator. Everything is wrong today

totty the robot haring around the countryside on a motorbike