Last Updated on August 23, 2024 by
Skincare is a 2024 Thriller Movie Directed by Austin Peters. The film stars Elizabeth Banks, Lewis Pullman, and Luis Gerardo Méndez, with a runtime of 1h 37m, and will be released on August 16, 2024.
Staring at the screen, moments before Skincare starts, we see the message that the Skincare is based on the true story. This kind of semi-cheeky disclaimer remains prevalent to this day — The Great says it is an ‘often true story,’ while Baby Reindeer assures that ‘all the facts are real’ but ‘have been altered slightly. ’ (Still, it got into legal trouble with this disclaimer). People always loved based real stories, especially in the field of horror, where movies like The Conjuring, originally really based on real events, Blair Witch Project which groundbreaking in terms of its marketing strategy was based on the history of found footage. In most cases there are some distortions to fit the film for its motion, rhythm, and to improve visibility. These are not documentaries of course; you cannot just film people and their monologues in order to explain the context and the motivation behind. It can be helpful to read about the actual events taking place after watching the movie, but this is not a necessity. On the same note, Skincare is not as accessible since it borrows from a true-crime story to sequence events in a way that is almost indecipherable unless you’re well-versed in the content borrowed from.
Skincare opens with a flash forward of a woman, Hope Goldman played by Elizabeth Banks, touching up on her lipstick. Her mascara is running, and we can hear the sound of police car siren alarming in the background to tell that she has been through some tough time. Her concern, however, during all this commotion is to ensure that she is the prettiest woman on the street.
We comprehend the reason why when we get back to the beginning of the story, two weeks earlier in 2013 in Los Angeles, which tells that Hope is a Hollywood esthetician with her own line of skincare products. Hope is preparing for a show where she is going to have makeup for the segment where she will be appear on a famous daytime interview show discussing her new products. It looks like things are working smoothly, but hey, we cannot have a glimpse of happiness last forever, right at least not yet anyway, not that we got a sneak peek of what she’s becoming two weeks later.
It’s quick and things begin to go up down from there. It begins when Hope one day finds a new neon sign illuminated in front of her: She then approaches the owner to introduce herself and to her surprise the owner’s name is Angel (Luis Gerardo Méndez) who is also an esthetician turned actor. They two are right away at passive-aggressive battle, and things only steps up after Hope’s email is compromised with an absurd and lewd message being sent out to her clients.
The e-mail changes her into some type of outcast, and this makes most of her clients run to Angel and the news program to focus on him instead. Things only get worse from there, with the complexity of Hope’s situation transforming from public embarrassment to physical threat. Hope becomes fixated on proving that Angel is the one who is trying to sabotage her existence, even enlisting her friend and secret admirer Jordan played by Lewis Pullman and her mechanic Armen played by Erik Palladino to confront him and stop him for good — no questions asked.
The major drawback of Skincare is the complete absence of characterization – or at least, the kind that can be deemed engrossing or at least constant. We are told that Hope is a survivor who has invested all her efforts into her business but never gets to know what she has survived or what she has had to let go in order to achieve her goals. The script tries to give her experiences that make her feel like she is close to losing everything – her inability to pay for rents as an example – but it feels so generic, so clichéd that there is no sense of risk anywhere.
The script has not judgment if it wants to turn Hope into the delusional manipulative GirlBoss or the helpless, air-headed damsel in distress, flipping between the two extremes. Some of the most worst decisions for characters include a slimy type of a newscaster named Brett (Nathan Fillion) who tries to persuade Hope to give him a blowjob so that her segment can return to broadcasting. It is vile, clichéd, and shameful at the same time yet appears to be gearing for an engaging twist when Hope suddenly drops the bomb, she has been taping them.
What could have been a punishment for this scumbag turns out to be an advantage for Hope as the girl smartly outplays him and threatens to ruin him when she gets to the top, but instead, she is too eager to be rid of him and lets him go to swear she recorded him by accident and then to erase the recording. I would tell you that this is out of character but I have no point of reference as to what kind of character Hope is supposed to be. Underneath her meticulously made-up face that they sought to portray as fake, vain and even dishonest, this movie seems to be utterly clueless regarding who she really is.
It appears that we can’t figure out who Hope is, not because her character is some grey and multidimensional antiheroine, but because she doesn’t even seem like a living, breathing person at any point of the show – she’s always detached from reality entirely. This is a particularly damning problem to have because the entire film is seen from her point of view and relies heavily on the audiences embracing her point of view. Sometimes, there is an idea that it wants to tell the story through the eyes of the unreliable protagonist who could be paranoid or has some inside knowledge, but it never becomes evident enough to create the effect.
The rest of the cast is just equally as terrible as him. Far as I see, Pullman can do as much as he is capable of and outperforms the rest; nevertheless, his motives and background unknown, do not seem plausible. In this script, simple actions or ideas are spelled out, such as the difficulties Hope has with paying rent; however, any of the more complicated twists are never explained. We could easily guess Jordan is involved with someone shady from the first episode, but it doesn’t amount to a sensible plot. The following are some of the character analysis: Angel who is responsible for provoking the whole events of the movie gets very little air time. Worse is the portrayal of Michaela Jaé Rodriguez as Marie, who was dreadfully typecast; an underrepresentation, underutilized in a stereotypical POC best friend role which was something I expected never to see in the early 2000s. But especially she deserves so much more than this situation, which does not suit her at all and which does not allow her to develop fully.
Skincare 2024 Parents Guide Age Rating
Skincare is rated R by the Motion Picture Rating (MPA) for sexual content, graphic nudity, language throughout, some violence and brief drug use.
Violence & Gore: Some of the scenes of attack involve the case where the main character, Hope, feels physically threatened by her competitor in the strip dancing business, Angel. There is not much of violent encounter depicted though there are hints of physical combat in the movie most especially when Hope mobilizes people to confront Angel. They become more hostile to each other throughout most of the movie, culminating in an explosion of temper. Hope starts to unravel slowly, becoming paranoid and hell bent on proving that Angel is trying to ruin her. This results in scenes of clear psychological discomfort and emotional blackmail, which will make some viewers squeam.
Sexual Content & Nudity: There is a huge scene where Hope, our charming protagonist, is sexually harassed by a slimy newscaster named Brett. He tries to force himself on her sexually for airtime to be given to him/singer to perform. It is an undeniably uncomfortable scene and shows Brett as the creep that he is very clearly, which may be disturbing for some two audience. The movie has a number of vulgar and obscene elements, the email sent to the clients among them. What the content of these messages isn’t described as being, but their sexual nature is strongly suggested, is graphic in the extreme.
Profanity: There is also used strong language during all the film using the F-word and other obscene expressions. As the film portrays the characters as being stressed and under immense pressure most of the dialogue contains outbursts and abusive language.
Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: Different scenes portray character taking alcohol especially when taking meals or when they are partying. Although the abuse of drugs is not topical in the novel, the challenges which the characters are confronted with might indicate that they use substances to numb the pain, though this is not depicted.
