REVIEW: Skincare (2024)
By Stephen Pytak
Skincare is an okey-dokey psychological thriller with a really good central performance by Elizabeth Banks.
The plot isn’t bad. It’s about an aesthetician with a boutique in Beverly Hills. A bombshell blonde who's middle aged but fighting to preserve her looks, her name is Hope Goldman. And she's looking to take her brand to the next level.
But fate doesn't make it all that easy for her.
First, a rival beautician opens a clinic right across the street.
Then an Internet hacker with perverse tastes attempts to shatter her reputation infiltrating her email account and sending out pornographic messages to her clientele.
Then someone slashes the tires on her cute little sports car.
All of this starts to take a toll on poor Hope. And when the tears start to roll, so does her mascara.
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| Elizabeth Banks in Skincare (2024). Copyright IFC Films 2024. |
I was fascinated watching this play out. But I soon realized the only star on the screen was actress Elizabeth Banks.
The director, Austin Peters, isn't bad. He did an okay job. But I thought someone who was a bit more inspired by Hitchcock or DePalma or Cronenberg (either David or Brandon) could have made the whole thing a bit more interesting.
With a title like Skincare, I was hoping for something more stylish or monstrous or gritty.
It would have been neat to see someone like Nicolas Winding Refn - the director of The Neon Demon (2016) - in the director's chair. I can only imagine what he would have brought to it.
The supporting cast is fine. The only person I recognized was Nathan Fillion, who appeared with Banks in James Gunn's Slither (2006).
At the start of the show, there's a message to the viewer stating this is a fictionalized account of a real life scenario.
According to online sources, Banks took inspiration for the story from someone she knew, an aesthetician she shared with Johnny Depp, facialist Dawn DaLuise. In 2014, DaLuise was acquitted of involvement in a murder-for-hire plot against a rival aesthetician.
That's kind of interesting, I guess. But it's not what you're going to think about while you're watching the film. Then again, when I watch Psycho (1960) or Silence of the Lambs (1990), I don't necessarily think about "The Butcher of Plainfield."
When I caught an "Early Access" screening of Skincare (2024) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on Aug. 12, 2024, I was only hoping to see an interesting psychological thriller with a few unique twists.
I got that for the most part. But all I'll remember about it in the morning is what Banks brought to it. And, honestly, she's really good here. Actually, the entire production rests on her performance.
Hope is a middle-aged hottie who looks like a model. She's single. And her whole world revolves around her career and her makeup regimen. She does her best to keep up appearances, using magical moisturizers from Italy to protect her looks from the inevitable sands of time. More than anything else, she cares about how she presents herself. And she always has samples of her products at hand.
"Reputation is everything in this business," she says.
So when a boogeyman starts turning her world upside down, her brand becomes tarnished. She loses popularity, then her clients. Then she starts losing money...and her marbles.
The process is kind of hard to watch at times, very mean-spirited. It's necessary to the plot. And, unfortunately, this kind of thing does happen in the real world.
And Banks communicates that really well, showing us how this character becomes more unhinged after every attack on her character, showing us how her ego becomes as fragile as an egg shell.
And as Hope's sanity starts to dissolve, she decides to deal with this phantom saboteur on her own. With a pack of cigarettes, a sample case and pink-colored can of mace in hand, she sets out to find out who's been ruining her life.
Her journey is most engaging when she finds herself in tense situations. And it's kind of amusing at times because she makes poor decisions. The audience may feel some real frustration with Hope at one point. I know I did. I won't spoil it. But the path she ends up taking in the third act leads us to an intriguing climax.
It reminded me of the ending of Sunset Boulevard (1950) actually.
I love the film's theatrical one sheet. I enjoyed the score by Fatima Al Qadiri. And I liked a few of the pop songs on the soundtrack, including "Night Swim" by Frankie Rose and "Genesis" by Grimes. Actually another song by Grimes, "Oblivion," was used in the trailer.
Banks is an actress with more than 90 film credits. She's is also a director. Last year, she directed Cocaine Bear. I'll always remember her as "Betty Brant" from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies. And I'm sure some folks will remember her as "Effie Trinket" from The Hunger Games series.
RATING (On a scale of 1 to 5): 2.5
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