Been on a movie-watching tear of late, and watched these admittedly “weird” films back-to-back. However, found them to be two of the most gorgeously shot, well-written and -acted films I’ve seen all year.
Enemy (dir. Denis Villeneuve; starring Jake Gyllenhaal)
To discuss the plot of this film is mostly pointless, and I do think this is the sort that’s best experienced with no prior knowledge. But believe me: the yellow haziness the film’s shot in, the mystery and intrigue of it all, the strong duel performances by Gyllenhaal…it’s a stunner. And the ending, which I’ve some apparently have called “the scariest of any film ever,” is phenomenal.
Under the Skin (dir. Jonathan Glazer; starring Scarlett Johansson)
Directed by the man who gave the world one of my favorite films of all time, Sexy Beast, this film’s a real mystery, but you can’t look away from it. You need to know where it’s going, need to keep watching. And, I dare say it wouldn’t hurt to have a bit more knowledge of the plot before you go in. Do you absolutely need it? No, not really. On its own it’s a gorgeous film, well acted with a soundtrack that’ll knock you back, and, by the ending, it reveals itself to be far more than it seems at first. Again, don’t want to give it away, but I do think, perhaps, a few too many liberties were taken with the source material (novel of the same name, written by Michel Faber), and a bit too much was withheld from the viewer. But that’s a small point, nit-picky at best, and this should be on your radar.