Thursday, October 02, 2014

The Skin I Live In

The Skin I Live In (2011) ****



My wife and I have a sort of running joke in which I suggest we rent a movie, an Almodovar one, and she mocks me for sounding like some pretentious Euro-snob. There just doesn't seem to be a way to say his name without hitting all sorts of weird stresses on those four syllables. I think the "mo" is the one that really nails it.

Anyway, this is one I'd been meaning to see but didn't actually realize was a horror movie until I was browsing the library shelves yesterday. Usually his movies are more campy drama/comedies with lots of beautiful colors, and a fair amount of naked bodies. And he almost always takes the story in a direction I wasn't expecting.

Man does that happen here too. I think I'm going to play it coy and not give too much away because one of the pleasures of this movie is trying to piece together what exactly is going on. The gist is that Banderas plays a psychotic surgeon who is trying to perfect artificial human skin. Why he's doing that, and on whom he is practicing, is where all the horror and fun happens in this fucking weird creepy movie.

7 comments:

Crystal Math said...

OMG I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!!!

DKC said...

I can totally hear Katina saying that. Cool! This sounds like fun.
I also love that you look for movies at the library. I don't think our library's selection is that good but maybe I should check it out.

Catfreeek said...

Loved this film, excellent choice!

AC said...

Sounds great. How gory/disturbing is it?

Landshark said...

Not really gory. Disturbing, yes, in the way that medical horror flicks can be.

It's a stretch to even call it horror. Psychological thriller/drama is closer.

Per wiki: Almodóvar has described the film as "a horror story without screams or frights".

Ha!

AC said...

perfect! my biddy tastes do allow for disturbing. and i love a good movie that just happens to be horror-ish. onto the queue!

Mr. AC said...

JPX - I just noticed there's side boob in the picture that goes with this post. Why have you not commented?

Malevolent

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