Knives and Skin

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It had so many underlying themes/issues wrapped around the mystery of a missing teen. The story touches on family dynamics, coming of age, and the choices characters make. For me it was a combination Twin Peaks/American Beauty/Donnie Darko, but also refreshingly new at the same time. The Lynchian inspiration is obvious in many scenes. The use of the 1980s soundtrack was perfection, transporting you back to an earlier time, but while remaining very present. It may not be for everyone, but I think it's definitely worth a watch.

Alternative title would be: The only ones who smoked better stuff than the writer of this movie are the ones who voted for it to win any awards.

We held out hope that there was going to be some redeemable quality to this flick, but there is none.

This movie reminds me of a visit to the modern art display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art a long time ago. I spent a couple hours looking and laughing and thinking "I could have made these exhibits in just a few minutes!" The same could be said of this movie- "I could have written it in about ten minutes." Kids could have put together this random mess in a short amount of time (although they would have probably skipped most of the sexual content- and that wouldn't have changed the movie at all- for better or worse.

Horrible watch, will not watch again, and am actively telling you to avoid.

This is like 10 short stories all unnecessarily set at the same time during a tragedy that barely has a storyline other than some poor girl's mom slowing losing her mind in grief.

Imagine all the "witty" dialogue of Juno, a Kevin Smith movie, and the worst version of an American Degrassi combined, then remove most of the substance, and place it during a missing girl episode of CVU.

To make it worse, they do high school choir versions of pop songs, and after watching this empty she'll of a movie, I had to wait in the credits just to make sure they didn't resolve something.

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.

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.