Skincare

Skincare, the new film from director Austin Peters, starring Elizabeth Banks as an LA aesthetician named Hope Goldman, is inspired by real events (the case of a woman named Dawn DaLuise) but is not itself very believable or real. The latter is forgivable, and the former quite telling. As with many films this year, there are not just a lack of characters to root for but there is a lack of compelling or otherwise interesting characters. Gone are the days of interesting shits, like Michael Corleone, or even Rocky Balboa. You will see no growth, as you did with those two-particularly Rocky-from the characters in this film. Instead, the director, hailing from music videos and commercials, seems intent on forgetting the lessons of those forms and focusing only on the superficial.

This is a film that wants to be a neo noir, in the style of prime DePalma, but which fails in that remit. It features characters and situations which are not only devoid of joy but interest and which lack any style or wit, unless scene after scene of parking lots and boulevard curbs, or closeups of the labels off jars of Hope’s (Banks) product line, pass for style. Indeed, when the film reaches its climax, those product closeups play a visually important yet ultimately hollow part.

Courtesy IFC FILMS

Far and away one of the dumbest films of the year, despite having a lot of onscreen talent involved in the proceedings. There are gaps in logic and storytelling flaws which would not be accepted in industrial training films. The final minutes of the film totally lost this viewer, with one of the least believable actions any character has taken in a film this year. No, they would not have survived and no, that would not have been followed by any conversation with the people who showed up at the door. That you can see what is coming, in terms of “twists and turns” makes this moment all the more miserable, because it comes from…what, an attempt to “be cool” perhaps? It most assuredly is not.

Sadly, John Billingsley and Nathan Fillion are utterly wasted in nothing roles, as a landlord and scummy news host, respectively, and in which Michaela Jae Rodriguez is given another thankless role to obscure her talents. The script is largely at fault, aided by a director clearly in over his head. Perhaps, as evidenced by Cocaine Bear, Banks herself ought to have taken over the director’s chair, because at least then there might have been some fun and fewer pacing issues and gaps in logic. Having a few nicely shot moments does not excuse an otherwise dull and lackluster look.

This is a film Lifetime might have passed on, or shelved, back in 1992. Yes, it is that annoying. It has all the makings of a very special film but every moment in which it could have elevated itself, it runs in the opposite direction or falls flat on its face. Often both. There are no twists or turns you will not see coming a mile away. What it mistakes for “ooo” is more akin to requiring several antacid pills. Oh, and what is this all about? Why bury the lead, you might ask yourself?

This is a film about two rival aestheticians that ends tragically or wants you to believe it does. It is stupid, largely because it thinks it is clever, brave, ambitious and artistic, when it in face it is insipid-endless scenes of people yelling at one another, childish behavior that makes you wonder how these characters got this far, and people apparently blind or possessed of amnesia at the sight of someone they met only a day or two earlier-and so far from brave, ambitious or artistic-fatuous, for sure-and disappointing for those who appreciate the talents of the cast. OF course, you may have a different reaction, but this one is best treated as a hard pass. A shame, really, because it could have been special.

SKINCARE is now playing in theaters