Alex Schaad’s Skin Deep is a film with a body-swapping premise that’s notable for its restraint. Though as fresh and conceptually far-reaching as a David Cronenberg film, it traffics in body ambivalence more than body horror, striking an eerie, wistful tone.
The story hinges on the interplay of various couples. The central of these, Leyla (Mala Emde) and Tristan (Jonas Dassler), travel by ferry to a remote and idyllic island where seasonal body-switching rituals take place. There they join Leyla’s friend Stella (Edgar Selge) in the initially jarring form of her elderly father, who recently died while inhabiting Stella’s aneurism-prone body. Leyla’s been suffering from chronic depression, so she and Tristan have decided to give the ritual a try, in the hope that a temporary shift in embodied perspective might help. They’re paired by lottery with another couple: Fabienne (Maryam Zaree) will swap with Leyla,...
The story hinges on the interplay of various couples. The central of these, Leyla (Mala Emde) and Tristan (Jonas Dassler), travel by ferry to a remote and idyllic island where seasonal body-switching rituals take place. There they join Leyla’s friend Stella (Edgar Selge) in the initially jarring form of her elderly father, who recently died while inhabiting Stella’s aneurism-prone body. Leyla’s been suffering from chronic depression, so she and Tristan have decided to give the ritual a try, in the hope that a temporary shift in embodied perspective might help. They’re paired by lottery with another couple: Fabienne (Maryam Zaree) will swap with Leyla,...
- 1/28/2024
- by William Repass
- Slant Magazine
What makes a person? Mind or body? Take that line of inquiry even further and ask what it is you love about your significant other. Is it how they look or who they are? The combination of answers to these questions are infinite because we as people are too. Maybe looks or humor or generosity got you through the door, but those can’t stop you from leaving alone. At some point you must dig deeper to discover it’s the indefinable essence beneath their skin and psyche that truly draws you close. And if that’s necessary to be able to spend the rest of your life with this person who was a total stranger mere seconds before you met them, shouldn’t it also be true to love yourself?
The lucky of us who never have to ask often never think to ask, either. It’s why someone...
The lucky of us who never have to ask often never think to ask, either. It’s why someone...
- 9/5/2022
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Chicago – The art of deadpan humor looks deceptively simple to the untrained eye. It’s fairly easy to say ridiculous things while maintaining a straight face. What separates the amateurs from the professionals is a mastery of timing as well as a keen understanding of a character’s interior life. The best deadpan laughs are the ones that allow an inside peek into the human psyche.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
Tomasz Thomson’s 2010 crime thriller, “Snowman’s Land,” evokes forgotten memories of weak Coen Brothers vehicles like “Intolerable Cruelty” and “The Ladykillers.” There’s plenty of remarkable craft on display but little to stoke an audience’s involvement. The film is so deadpan at times that it barely has a pulse, though cinematographer Ralf M. Mendle provides the viewer with so much hauntingly desolate and gorgeously frostbitten imagery that it nearly redeems the naggingly empty experience.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of...
Rating: 2.5/5.0
Tomasz Thomson’s 2010 crime thriller, “Snowman’s Land,” evokes forgotten memories of weak Coen Brothers vehicles like “Intolerable Cruelty” and “The Ladykillers.” There’s plenty of remarkable craft on display but little to stoke an audience’s involvement. The film is so deadpan at times that it barely has a pulse, though cinematographer Ralf M. Mendle provides the viewer with so much hauntingly desolate and gorgeously frostbitten imagery that it nearly redeems the naggingly empty experience.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of...
- 9/27/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Ziska Riemann's new punk-rock teenage angst movie, called Lollipop Monster, is about two German girls, Ari and Oona, that rebel against their unhappy home lives and "hunt" through the "jungle" of the city.
Throughout the film, the girls listen to their favorite rock band, and its leader, the voodoo-ish "Baron," while the music acts as a backdrop to their imaginary hunting trips through the jungle.
I love this kind of post-trainspotting, rebel-girl, Ghost World kind of music-driven film, especially when (as in this one) there appears to be a violent and bloody ending. The director, Riemann, has a background in animation, so I'd expect some of that in the film, as well as lots of music - she makes her own and directs her own music videos. Check out the stunning photos which show the awesome colors and characters by which the girls are surrounded.
This film will be out in Germany August 25th,...
Throughout the film, the girls listen to their favorite rock band, and its leader, the voodoo-ish "Baron," while the music acts as a backdrop to their imaginary hunting trips through the jungle.
I love this kind of post-trainspotting, rebel-girl, Ghost World kind of music-driven film, especially when (as in this one) there appears to be a violent and bloody ending. The director, Riemann, has a background in animation, so I'd expect some of that in the film, as well as lots of music - she makes her own and directs her own music videos. Check out the stunning photos which show the awesome colors and characters by which the girls are surrounded.
This film will be out in Germany August 25th,...
- 6/30/2011
- by Superheidi
- Planet Fury
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