Under The Skin is one of the creepiest, saddest, yet most honest and beautiful studies of human nature.

Under the Skin: Review

10/10

It gets in your brain first. A sonic wall of deeply-layered, cosmic winds and pulsating, shriveled strings binaurally wither away all outside awareness. Celestial figures, polished in light and dark, entrance the mind. This is some other dimension or universe, where something alien begins to seamlessly creep into form as we know it to be. A nameless being takes on the shape of a woman's body, of which, we do not know the origin.

This body is played by Scarlett Johansson, a brilliant, charismatic actress, who has taken on some very diverse and popular roles as of late. From romantic comedy box office hit, "Don Jon," to the Oscar-winning computer romance, "Her," to the superhero blockbuster "Captain America: Winter Soldier," and now the experimental sci-fi art house film, "Under the Skin," she is winning fans of every genre. It doesn't stop there. She's set to appear in Jon Favreau's new comedy, "Chef," and the upcoming action/superhero movies, "Lucy," "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" and "Black Widow." She is also turning heads because she appears nude for the first time in "Under the Skin," but perverts be warned, there is nothing desirable about her here.

This alien has no emotion or empathy of any kind. It simply has an objective: to lure men back to its apartment using their weakness of lust, to trap them and eventually harvest them. Why? For what purpose? I suppose that's open for interpretation, but ultimately, it doesn't matter. What matters is what we experience through her night-to-night attempts of trying to pick up these men. There are so many different types of people we have the pleasure of observing, while the unbiased alien drives through the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It's a peaceful meditation, but it isn't a joy ride. The alien eventually spots it's perfect prey and plays the part of a beautiful, innocent woman looking for directions. Then comes the moment of truth- "Are you going the same way? I can give you a ride." Some say no, but of course, some say yes. There's the man who wants to party all the time, the man who is so lonely and depressed, and the man who just wants to get laid.

Each succeeding harvest ritual becomes more haunting and revealing than the last, while concurrently, each victim is more and more undeserving of his eradication than the one before him. Composer Mica Levi's music plays a big part in these sequences. A spiritless, two-step sway of tribal drums and a slow-burning, three-note melody of cacophonous, crepitating strings creep up on you, while low-pitched cymbal rolls and electrified buzzes and hums sustain the eerie tension in the background. It clearly takes influence from the disturbing, chaotically insane string and percussion segments of Kubrick's The Shining, and the staticky, industrial clouds of noise that reverberate around the dreamscape of Lynch's Eraserhead. This isn't just music, it's atmosphere and narration in substitution for the otherwise lifeless and often wordless alien being.

The alien is like a psychopath, except, it is perhaps completely unaware of itself or its actions. This is truly sad. Who can we blame then? The most distressing moment is when she picks up a man with a deformed face. Just like each other man before him, she flirts and compliments him on his good looks. Not just as a male, but as a human being, I felt so violated and offended in this scene. Here is someone who is so lonely and hurt, and the nicest, most gorgeous woman invites him into her home. To him, it's a dream come true. Only, she, of course, is faking it, and the heartfelt sorrow we feel for this man is crushed into nothing. It's like a comet hitting the earth and decimating everything and everyone we love. Naturally, the universe does not care about us. But this careless thing is disguised as a human. It's insulting and perverse.

Similar to master surrealist, David Lynch, director, Jonathan Glazer, effectively pushes his dreamlike landscapes into our field of reality. This makes certain scenarios more relatable, thus more horrifying. This is partly due to the fact that a portion of the dialogue between Scarlett Johannson and her victims was completely improvised. In fact, some of them didn't even know they were being filmed. I guess it's hard to recognize her with black hair at nighttime. Even more amazing, is first-time actor Adam Pearson. He plays the disfigured man, as mentioned above, but prosthetics aren't actually used here. Pearson has a real condition called neurofibromatosis. It comes in many forms, but for him, it causes non-cancerous tumors to grow on his face. It is a liberating moment in the history of film. Pearson teaches audiences to be more comfortable and sympathetic, rather than afraid or unkind, and helps others with similar conditions to be more confident with how they look. It's what's under the skin that counts.

Eventually, by some miracle, an anomalous error occurs within the alien's programmed thinking. It starts to wonder, it starts to feel, it can see itself. How did she become self-aware? And how does life really become self-aware anyways? No matter. The point is, she observes for the first time many of life's greatest pleasures: food, music, TV, walking through nature, but most importantly, being loved and making love. Is any of this really making her more human? Her mental state isn't really implied, but we begin to sympathize with her now. The being that was once a lifeless antihero has now become something endearingly innocent.

Many may complain about the movie's ending seeming unavailing, but it's meant to leave you hanging in a quandary of reflective despair. The movie is a meditation told through a seamless blend of dismal visuals and freakishly haunting music that parallels it's story arc. No matter what happens in the end, the most important thing is the journey, and Under the Skin's journey is one of huge complexity that's worth every bit of examination and interpretation it is bound to receive in the many years to come. It is without a doubt one of the most unique studies of human nature to ever hit the big screen.

I highly recommend seeing this movie in theaters. If you are unable to, watch it in the dark with headphones when it comes out on Blu-ray.

Mica Levi's "Love" is dementedly beautiful.

Top of the Lake is one of 2013's best shows.

Top of the Lake: Season 1

9/10

Rape and sexual assault are the two most unreported crimes in our society. According to RAINN (Rape Abuse and Incest National Network), 44% of all sexual assault and rape victims are below the age of 18. The saddest part is that only 6% of all rapists will spend a day in jail.

12-year-old Tui Mitcham quietly rides her pink bike out the driveway a ways down to the nearby lake. The day is grim, there is a fog in the distance, her face is blank, void of emotion. Welcome to Queenstown, New Zealand. Tui slowly glides deeper and deeper into the lake's ice cold water until she is shoulder deep. "The water will kill you!" says a concerned teacher, racing off the school bus that passes by. A suicide attempt? No. She just wants to feel numb.

Tui is four and a half months pregnant. How on earth could this have happened? An expert in child protection, Detective Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss) is called in to take the case, and when it comes to children, Robin is our favorite kind of female detective. Driven by pure empathy and her own traumatic childhood experiences, she will stop at nothing to preserve a child's innocence. She is driving a dangerous course though, as Queenstown is the very birthplace of her hellish scars. When Tui goes missing, Robin is not only forced to rediscover her past, but to uncover the small town's long-buried and extremely unpleasant secrets.

There isn't a whole lot of evidence to uncover here, but rather an extreme depth in several characterizations. And that is the show's ingeniously sensitizing way of unfolding the mystery. There are several people we naturally stereotype when we are first introduced, but through each episode, we are constantly realizing there is something more to consider in order to solve the crime. Tui's father, Matt Mitcham (Peter Mullan), is old, mean and sexist. He lashes out several times at a group of women who have moved to a piece of land where his mother was buried, called Paradise. He abusively worships his mother's grave and takes his anger out on any female he encounters. He must have committed the crime. His henchmen-like sons are quite suspicious as well. And then of course there is the local but alienated town pedophile. In today's society, pedophiles are considered the scum of the earth, but after Robin engages in an emotionally riveting confrontation, we can't help but empathize with this troubled man. He only wants to "love child, not hurt him."

There is really only one place that we feel is safe in Queenstown, and that is the women's recovery camp in Paradise. The women here are broken and troubled, most of them from relationships with men. Naturally, these weakened women have gone to Paradise to follow a spiritual leader, GJ (Holly Hunter), whom they look to for all the answers. Ironically, GJ gives off a more pessimistic and arrogant vibe than we would expect from such a figure. She gives advice and claims prophecies through a sort of depressive, existential belief. Yet all this is meant to be enlightening. And it is. Give up, let go, who cares, stop thinking, just be, just do. Though perhaps it is the uncompromising surety of herself that makes her so admirable. Her confidence is inspiring.

Top of the Lake puts under the microscope an excellent commentary of the modern-day nuclear family and the disturbing sexual encounters involved. The husband, the wife, the mother, the father, and the children are all at war. It is up to us to break free from the never-ending cycle of abusive family relationships. Our family is what we make it.

Elisabeth Moss won the 2014 Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for her portrayal of Detective Robin Griffin, and the show was also nominated for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. It was nominated for several Emmys and justly snagged one of them for Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie. In my opinion, Top of the Lake is one of TV's best productions of 2013.

Top of the Lake is available to stream on Netflix Instant.

"You know there's a Maori legend about this lake that says there's a demon's heart at the bottom of it. It beats, it makes the lake rise and fall every five minutes...It was this warrior that rescued a maiden from a giant demon called Tipua. And he set fire the demon's body while it slept and burnt everything but it's heart. And the fat melting from the body formed a trough. And the snow from the mountains ran down to fill it to form this lake." -Johnno Mitcham (Thomas M. Wright)

Arrow proves to be one of the best comic book to TV adaptations to date.

Arrow: Season 1

7.5/10

"You have failed this city," exclaims Starling City's vigilante, The Hood a.k.a. Oliver Queen, as he aims his bow and arrow at his victim's heart. These are the last words his victim will hear. Oliver Queen is a murderer but only in the interest to save those who are innocent. Perhaps he isn't as cool as Batman, who can serve justice without taking a life, but Arrow accomplishes a better sense of realism in the fact that sometimes, people must die for the greater good.

For five years Oliver Queen fought everyday for survival on a remote island in the Pacific after the boat he was on shipwrecked, killing his father, Robert Queen and his girlfriend's sister, Sara Lance. He returns home with a mission to right the wrongs committed by his father and to make amends for the immature and selfish playboy he once was. Halfway into the pilot episode, Oliver jumps right into his Robin Hood-like getup and starts cleaning up the streets, which is unorthodox in a superhero story because it skips over the vital information of how he came to be. Though it's tolerable for now because the action scenes are very well choreographed and keep us wanting more.

Arrow suffers from a very slow start. There are many characters to get to know in the beginning, and their interactions involve many discussions of the changes and tragedies that took place while Oliver was gone. It's hard to care about such things when we are just starting to get to know these people. The first few villains are uninteresting as well. They are merely rich folk whom have gained from other people's losses, and besides that, they are barely characterized. Like always, The Hood warns them to change their ways, and if they don't, they receive an arrow in the chest.

Arrow picks up steam after a few episodes once we start getting flashbacks of Oliver's struggles on the island. They are cleverly paralleled with the events taking place in present time and provide more than one plot to get excited about. In addition, questions of morality and law are debated throughout the show as police detective Quentin Lance will stop at nothing to arrest the murderous vigilante. Everyone agrees The Hood needs to be brought to justice, except for a select few, whom eventually realize The Hood's identity to be Oliver and decide to join his fight to make a difference. This is when things start to really get exciting. Finally Oliver has people to converse with about his plans to save the city. His sidekicks not only aid him on his missions but provide him with wisdom and the show's much-needed comic relief.

Oliver Queen is portrayed by actor Stephen Amell. He is a decent actor but plays the part particularly well because he is good looking and extremely muscular. He performs many of his own stunts, which are often better than movie quality and end up being one of the high points of the show. He takes out hordes of enemies that wield guns and knives with nothing but arrows and mixed martial arts. Believe it or not, a bow and arrow proves to be an excellent choice of weapon for it's stealth, accuracy and it's creative ability to carry explosives, fire, nets, voice recorders and many other gadgets.

The characters of Arrow are based on the characters of the DC Comics series Green Arrow. It's a great start so far for DC Comics in their attempt to turn their stories into live-action television. Be on the lookout for possible upcoming DC Comics-based shows such as Gotham, The Flash, Constantine, Hourman and Amazon.

Arrow Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix Instant.

"Guns are weapons of emotion and unpredictability."- Oliver Queen