Knives and Skin

Indeed this movie "felt" like "Donnie Darko meets Twin Peaks for me. It's a very unique film and if you dig deep you'll see it's composed of consistent metaphors. If you want to see something unlike anything you've seen, this film definitely fits the bill.

Band girl Carolyn Harper is out with football jock Andy Kitzmiller late at night. They have a fight. Andy abandons her at the water's edge. She goes missing. Everybody in town is affected.

Writer/director Jennifer Reeder is drawing a lot from Twin Peaks in both content and stylistically. I don't know much about her other than she is apparently a David Lynch fan. This movie is full of Lynchian touches. The dead girl trope is common enough, but it is all the little things that are pointing to Lynch. This isn't quite Twin Peaks which is centered on the cop investigating the case. This indie is more centered on the kids. I thought the Harper mother would advance the investigation. I did not expect her going this way, but sexual perversity is also Lynchian. This is not copying, but it is fandom filmmaking.

Now I reckon, since I will be not really in the extreme here (loving/hating), I am losing a lot of people already. But for those willing to read on, let me get into what my thoughts are on the movie, the overall feeling/mood it delivers and what that should mean.

Now I've only seen Twin Peaks Season 1 (the very first one) and I will review that show when I get around to watch the rest. Why is that important. Without knowing where that show goes and not saying this is a carbon copy, this indeed can be put in the same universe as that show. People act weird, there are many different elements of different genres mixed in. You might think that makes this convoluted or genius. It will depend on your own views and maybe even state of mind while watching this.

Suspension of disbelief, cliches and a lot of weird dialog not to mention supernatural stuff happening (or maybe not?), it is tough to put a finger on it and pin point where this is supposed to be on a certain scala. Again, it is your taste that will decide which direction you will lean on concerning your view on this. One thing is for sure: it is very well made.

Oh. My. God.

This person isn't "influenced" by David Lynch, they actually just wrote fan fiction about Twin Peaks except in the 2010s with a more diverse cast. I can see this person literally taking the outline from the original 1990s Twin Peaks series and just...re-writing it. Poorly.

This isn't "original" or "stunning" it's absolute cringe. I wanted to like it, to meet it halfway, to give it a chance. The only reason I'm giving it three stars is because, well, I guess they tried.

But I'm not over-inflating the score or even sitting all the way through this embarrassing attempt by some sheltered nepo baby or college student whose parents gave them too much money. The only way this got made is something like that.

A young girl named Carolyn goes missing after a date with a jock and the rest of the town slowly begins to unravel due to it. Knives and Skin has a dash of Twin Peaks, some Riverdale, and a little bit of Short Cuts and puts them in a blender to create one of the strangest, but most unique films that I've seen in years.

Knives and Skin doesn't always work, but when it does, it's quite an experience. The pacing is slow and deliberate and it's more character study than plot driven whodunit. This lack of any tangible plot and its constant tonal shifts do hurt the film. At times, it seems like it wants to be a dark comedy and, other times, it wants to be a straight drama, but there are so many odd characters and strange sequences that throw you for a loop and make you question everything you're seeing.

At nearly 2 hours, it's a bit long, but by the end when everything comes together, you won't even remember the run time, but you'll remember how it made you feel. People expecting a creepy murder mystery or slasher film will be incredibly disappointed, but those who can judge a film on its own merits might really enjoy this and they'll certainly have to enjoy the performance of Marika Engelhardt as the missing girl's mother who has a slow descent into madness throughout the film. It's a brave, committed performance that deserves awards attention.