Under the Skin

** 1st paragraph-**What i think the movie is 2nd paragraph- Its themes and how it explores them 3rd paragraph- The acting especially the facial expressions and eyes 4th paragraph- The sound track This one took A LOT of thinking. I'm only 14, dude, I ain't some genius, so understanding what this was even about took basically an hour. So, I'm going to try to summarize what this movie is about in case you didn't understand it (btw, this is ANOTHER one of those philosophical reviews, I can't help it): basically, Laura and that random bike rider are both aliens. In the first scene, we see what seems like an abstract representation of their arrival on Earth. After that, we see Laura trying to learn how to speak. I think the bike rider was already there, so as she arrives, the rider gives her the body of a dead lady for her to wear as her skin and also wear her clothes. I think they came to Earth with the intention of maybe being on a mission to kidnap men and send them or their flesh or whatever that was through space in the form of a fleshy red substance. The whole movie is very abstract and artistic. The abduction scenes felt like maybe an abstract representation of Prostitution: Laura takes the men into an abandoned building and lures them to their death with sex. 'Cause I mean, it's Scarlett Johansson, I would so have folded, and it would be so worth it. While Laura does her mission, though, she starts to see how caring humans can be for one another. But she doesn't seem like she gets it because she does what she does at the beach. She clearly doesn't understand these acts of affection until one is done for her when the guy in the van gives her flowers. We see her clearly confused, feeling a mix of emotions. Then the scene cuts to the bike rider spinning around Laura. I think they were having a silent talk; maybe that's how they communicate, and the rider was disciplining her. This makes her that when she finds her next victim, she feels pity for him and lets him go. This made the rider and maybe, I don't know, his alien rider crew go around to find her, while Laura goes to experience what really means to be human. But then she discovers she can't become like us in that scene where she points the lamp at her vag she realizes she isnt a human when she goes to the woods and experiences the harsh part of being human when a guy tries to rape her she clearly jever felt like this before she was scared and terrified felt like she loos all sense of her humanity so she takes off her human skin and looks at the eyes of her humanity one last time. didn't really like this movie a lot, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought about what it meant. The more I realized what the meaning it has (I had to watch a video essay about it after I wrote that paragraph above it, I ain't Einstein, dude). This film, the story of it, is being told in a cryptic manner for a specific reason. It is made for you to focus your attention on the human experience. We see through the world through Laura's alien eyes. We see the kindness, the violence, and the beauty of living on Earth. The plot is not very important in this; it's more about a perspective. It reminded me of Blade Runner 2049. Both movies try to approach what it means to be human, and both might end up confusing and messy. But that's what makes them perfect because being human is confusing and messy. You can't truly represent such a complex thing beyond human understanding. I think the girl in the beginning had the same mission as Laura, and she too ended up feeling and caring about humans. So Laura was sent to take her place in the mission and ends up falling into the same cycle. She starts to feel kindness in a scene that seems so unimportant but means so much: when she falls down on the street and people are concerned for her and help her up, the man giving her roses. All these things affected her. She starts to want to be a part of them. When she lets the deformed guy escape, she tries to eat cake (fails), listen to music (fails), and have sex (fails) because she simply isn't human, no matter how hard she tries, no matter how Advanced someting is: Nothing could ever truly imitate what it means to be a human. When she is nearly raped by the logger, we see the superficial view of beauty. The guy was so turned on by what she looks like and wanted immediately to take advantage of her. But when he sees her for who she really is and her true hidden beauty she had hidden under the skin, he immediately decides to kill her. I think that was one of the most meaningful endings for me. It's a study in the way we perceive beauty. I think we all see it as a physical thing but ignore what a person really is. The movie is so full of hidden messages, and I'm just really trying to decipher them all. Another theme I think it explores is people like Laura that want so badly to be who they want but are so scared to break from the norm and challenge authority. The movie is actually so perfect, man. I think I love it. Every time a second passes, it has so much told into it, so discreetly, so full of little details. The director truly paid so much attention to everything. It's amazing. A really cool detail I liked is how the director wanted us to see the world through Laura's eyes and only her eyes. So, you might notice in the beginning it kind of sounds like they're speaking gibberish almost, but as time passes, we actually comprehend more and more. We are put into her shoes and we spend the journey of when she is confused and learning how the world works slowly. This movie was so carried by Scarlett Johansson in a career-best, award-winning performance, in my opinion. Good acting nowadays is often seen as yelling, being hysterical, and crying, but the most challenging one to do is when you don't speak, and we have to see all your thoughts in your face.Scarlet nailed this shit so fucking hard, reminded me of Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer. We see her thoughts, her confusion, pity, horror, evilness, and so much more growing inside her, all through her eyes and her face. How we see her slowly starting to understand who she really is, and then the realization that she isn't who she thinks she is, that's devastating. This movie IS devastating and melancholic on a different level. It shatters her soul. She is so good at just expressing what she feels in her face, but most importantly, the eyes. Eyes are so important in this. We see empathy rising in them. They are a way of seeing Laura's journey through the film. Every single thing plays a significant role in the movie, and my fucking god, that motherfucking atmosphere is actually so good. The beauty of this movie, god, I feel like I'm orgasming. Man, I want this movie implemented into my mind forever and the way it can terrify you just with its sound DID WE HEAR THAT SCORE??? Its a work for art and Mica Levi's delivers such a unsettling main score in this its musical language functons as a standalone storytelling device. Ok so i searched the soundtrack and watched ANOTHER essay about this movie but its sound design especially in going to analize the 3 main songs and how they fit into the movie CREATION- Laura wasn't created with more than one purpose. She isn't a being and isn't designed to be one. She was created as a machine, sort of unaware of her own nature, a tool with a unique purpose. Once again, eyes are important. The mission begins analyzing her "preys," seeing and choosing one like an animal in the wild. "CREATION" is the opening score of the movie. It is intense, sounds actually kind of like a Friday the 13th chase scene. The sound has a pressure claustrophobic feeling put into it. The score is used when the aliens are the main focus of the scene, making us feel pressured by them. But in another scene, the score appears when Laura is being taught by Rider. The score appears to represent the pressure she is now feeling of doing something she is created for or she thinks she was made to do something most humans feel. LIPSTICK TO THE VOID- Probably the main theme or not, but definitely the most memorable out of all these ones, that's for sure. It is unpredictable and unsettling, rightfully so. Its notes express distinction and dread. It represents the consistency of Laura's seduction and the inevitability of the men's fate. And despite we see Scarlett motherfucking Johansson nude, showing a lot of skin, the scenes aren't for sexual arousal or sexual in any way, but are meant to be eerie and disturbing, the type of stuff that crawls UNDER THE SKIN. It is also played the first time Laura actually sees empathy on the beach when the guy tries to save the woman and dog, but we see her kind of failing because she can't process it. So she reacts violently for no reason and is just so detached from humanity she ignores the baby. But her actions are interesting and weird because she never experiences anything like that before. The song plays to disturb people, and when Laura feels into the depths of humanity. LOVE- The title gives it basically away is when she starts to not experience the emotions but actually feel it when people help her and are kind to her when this happens for the first time she xomplecetly starts reexamting what she observed this whole time by again also focusing on her eye the music feels warm and hopeful as she atarts to feel this at humans.