The Woman Who Fell To Earth. 'Under The Skin'.

I finally caught up with 'Under The Skin' recently and I still don't know what to make of it. It's an odd film because it's everything that it's not.

It's an intimate indie film, set in Glasgow and the surrounding highlands, largely shot on hidden cameras - but it has the budget to match its ambitions, a gloss finish, Scarlett Johansson and state of the art SFX.

It's about a super sexy serial killing alien....without any genre trappings whatsoever. Imagine a Ken Loach version of 'Species'. Imagine David Cronenberg doing 'Local Hero'.

It is deliberately ambiguous, defiantly arty and admirably ambitious....but it also feels slight, self important and empty.

It's flamboyant and naturalistic; visually stunning in a way that does and doesn't call attention to itself. Fascinating but simultaneously repetitive and static.

It has moments of greatness; the beach scene would have made a stunning short film in itself. There are also plenty of mundane moments that just make you wonder if the filmmaker's had a proper grasp on the material.

It's a sensual experience rather than a narrative one, which is fine in itself.... but the trouble is that it's disturbing, erotic and freaky...without ever really getting...well....under the skin.

In short it's too arty for mainstream audiences and probably not challenging enough for the art house crowd. There's plenty of room for debate, reflection and interpretation but for me it felt like a sandwich when I wanted a full meal. What does it mean to be human? Can we ever really know another person? Identity. Sexual politics. Objectification. The filling is all there but there's no bread to hold it all together. I guess it's all about seeing ourselves through alien eyes. In which case I will probably stick with 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' as the main course when I want an 'exotic alien takes on humanoid form and trippy shit happens' movie.

Definitely worth seeing and whilst maybe not as compelling or as challenging as you might want it to be it's a striking piece of work.

A mixed bag of contradictions then - just like humanity itself.