Get the latest gossip
‘Skincare’ Review: Elizabeth Banks Stars in Fictionalized True Story That Only Goes Skin Deep
An aesthetician desperately clings to her crumbling sanity and business empire after a rival moves in next door in this moody thriller that’s not nearly as juicy as its salacious, real-life inspiration.
As Hope finds herself on the receiving end of threatening text messages and in-person sexual harassment, she enlists the help of flirty, tanned and toned 20-something Jordan ( Lewis Pullman), with whom she recently reunited when a client (Wendie Malick) brought him into her studio. Peters displays an assured sense of vision, weaving in character details along with an unsettling atmospheric unease, lightly borrowing from masters like Kubrick (a stalking by an intimidating bald man echoes “Eyes Wide Shut”) and De Palma (during an interrupted break-in at Hope’s house). Had this material risen to the talented actress’s capabilities, it might’ve allowed her to explore deeper facets of the hallucinatory toxicity into which Hope was sliding, à la “Repulsion” or “Black Swan.” With razor-sharp specificity and a ripped physique, Pullman (perhaps channeling a bit of his father Bill’s scene-stealing brilliance as a himbo in “Ruthless People”) nails the sort of cocky dimwit that circles the drain in this town.
Or read this on Variety