“Skin Care” – Gulf Breeze News

Elizabeth Banks’ latest film is weird, suspenseful, R-rated, and a whole lot of Indy-style fun

“Skincare” is the latest film from the wonderful actress/director Elizabeth Banks. Like most creative people working in the film industry, Banks works A LOT, in multiple roles, on multiple projects, often all at the same time. Over the past few years, Elizabeth Banks has 1) been a voice actress in Illumination’s hilarious, pretty good animated project “Migration,” 2) starred in Apple TV Plus’ semi-historical corporate conspiracy tale “The Beanie Bubble,” and 3) directed the sweeping madness that was the somewhat disappointingly violent exploitation flick “Cocaine Bear.”

Over the years, I have fallen in love with Banks’ sassy, ​​mean, sharp, sad, but always strangely funny, sensitive, likable characters. If you were a fan of any of the four Hunger Games movies, you may remember her as “Effie Trinkett,” the D.C. fashion coach who led her “tributes” (children from her assigned District) to near certain death. Effie did everything she could to make sure her children always looked their best when they entered the psychotic circus of the pageant. No one I have ever seen in my life looked so completely fake—with ridiculously heavy makeup and the ugliest, most garish, garish outfits, on the other side of Tammy Faye Baker—as “Effie Trinkett” Banks. I fought my disgust for the character until I finally gave in and felt a deep affection for her.

Skin care

Elizabeth Banks was also near-brilliant in the Pitch Perfect films, playing an irritatingly oblivious, slightly mean TV commentator in a capella contests, and directed a second film, Pitch Perfect 2, which fully demonstrated her competence in the author’s chair, in addition to her almost indisputably solid comedic acting skills. She is a working artist in Hollywood and has earned a reputation as an intelligent, reliably good person to work with. Critics and fellow creators alike appreciate her ability to deliver consistently high-quality products.

I say all of this in reference to “Skincare,” which is a smaller project than Banks usually does. “Skincare” is one of those “independent” films that has limited release nationwide. When I saw this film opening in a few theaters in our area a few weeks ago, I watched it as quickly as I could because I knew it probably wouldn’t be on the screens of our local multiplexes for more than a week or so. The main attraction for me was (of course) Banks, who plays the lead character.

In Skincare, Banks plays a vain, self-absorbed business owner in Los Angeles. Her character, Hope, runs a beauty salon—offering facials, makeovers, and a variety of skincare treatments—in the most luxurious, ornate Hollywood living space the character can afford. Hope struggles to pay the rent on her space, barely making ends meet. But then things get even more difficult when a shiny new beauty salon opens across the street from her shop. Hope starts losing her clients to the new, posh kid, which puts her on the edge of losing her mind. But even AFTER THAT, things get worse. Someone posts fake ads that are passed off as written by Hope, urging strangers to aggressively attack her in her own business.

The same hacker also hacks into her email account and sends her completely inappropriate, drunken, sexual tales of escapades under her name. Hope suspects that her new business rival across the street is sabotaging her, making her look completely unstable. It’s all crazy, broad, if slightly disturbing, funny. Unfortunately, it’s also a bit all over the place. It’s satire, it’s suspense, it’s weird. But if that sounds like fun entertainment to you, I suspect you might like it as much as I did.

Next week, however, I can’t wait to get back to a more mainstream moviegoing experience, as I’ll be reviewing “Blink Twice.” “Skincare” may still be playing in a theater somewhere.