intense
Captivating, hypnotic and deeply disturbing in “Under The Skin”
By Jenny Alvarez
Photos By Alfonso De Elias
From visionary director Jonathan Glazer comes a stunning career transformation, a masterpiece of existential science fiction that journeys to the heart of what it means to be human, extraterrestrial — or something in between. A voluptuous woman of unknown origin (Scarlett Johansson) combs the highways in search of isolated or forsaken men, luring this succession of lost souls into an otherworldly lair. They are seduced, stripped of their humanity, and never heard from again. Based on the novel by Michel Faber (The Crimson Petal and the White), Under The Skin is a bizarre movie with a character who examines the human beings with her borrowed skin, until she is abducted into humanity with devastating results. Definitely is very provocative, intense, and intriguing hypnotically without any special effects. Scarlett Johansson performs a pattern full of female sexuality or empowerment which lures to a completely dark location, tempts her victims to strip naked with the promise of sex, and then the man sinks into a dark abyss. At the end of the story as a reviewer, this is a character full of obstacles and painful journey because this woman set her eyes on our chaotic planet or culture, crowd noise and as humanity is shown as creatures in a wild habitat. Eventually her tragic end doesn’t have a clear goal or a mission in a borrowed skin with a gorgeous but false surface. Definitely is a great movie with transformation and transfiguration.
A complex storyline will get your attention in “Enemy”
By Alfonso De Elias
Photo: Courtesy
Enemy, adapted from Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago’s 2004 novel “The Double”, is about the power of the subconscious. In the end, only one man can survive. Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal) is a glum, disheveled history professor, who seems disinterested even in his beautiful girlfriend, Mary (Laurent). Watching a movie on the recommendation of a colleague, Adam spots his double, a bit-part actor named Anthony Clair, and decides to track him down. The identical men meet and their lives become bizarrely and irrevocably intertwined. Enemy is a mysterious and strangely atmospheric thriller but full of dominance and dark mood. Chaotic is the main element of manipulation in some parts of the film Even though the story is indecipherable, it remains enjoyable especially when 2 lead personalities are twins because they cover that in the story with one of guy’s mothers open to some sort of interpretation where you’re not supposed to know specifically what it is, but it leaves itself open to analysis. At 90 minutes you will enjoy a very odd, though. It is very much like a combination of David Lynch and Hitchcock. It is a cinematic nightmare and descent into a man’s psyche full of good scenes and camera movements.
