Scarlett Johansson is outstanding in Jonathan Glazer’s visually dazzling and unsettling adaptation of Michel Faber’s novel.
The most uncomfortable-looking alien visitor to Earth since David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth, Scarlett Johansson’s Female wanders the streets of Glasgow, picking up any men who show interest in her. Leading them back to a deserted house, they confront a disturbing fate, one that we only begin to understand as Sexy Beast and Birth director Glazer’s film journeys into increasingly strange territory. With its combination of precision and otherworldliness, Under the Skin has been acclaimed for its Kubrickian qualities. It is also bold in its more unsettling qualities, particularly a disturbing beach sequence. Johansson, who appears in almost every scene, was already a star in this pre-Marvel drama and impresses with her commitment to the most unstarry of roles.
