Film

Under the Skin

Name: Under the Skin
Genre: Drama
Released: 1997
Cast: Samantha Morton, Claire Rushbrook, Rita Tushingham, Christine Tremarco, Stuart Townsend

Other titles called Under the Skin: the 2014 film.

Family drama
Very dark

A raw, intimate portrait of grief and self-destruction. After their mother dies, two sisters respond in opposite ways—Rose withdraws into her marriage and pregnancy, while Iris spirals into reckless sexuality and dissolution. Shot with unflinching clarity, it's a film about how families fracture under loss, and how shame can become a language when words fail. Demanding but profoundly moving.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to raw, close-to-the-bone family dramas where a fractured sister's self-destruction is observed without judgement and the performances carry the film.

Skip it if you need a story that moves briskly, because its sexual frankness and grief stay heavy and rarely offer much lightness to ease the mood.

What it asks of you: Under ninety minutes, but it moves at a watchful, dragging pace, staying close to Iris through long, uncomfortable silences and never telling you how to feel.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Dancer in the Dark2000

Björk gives a performance of devastating vulnerability as a factory worker whose life collapses under accumulated pressure. Like Under the Skin, it refuses to look away from female suffering or offer easy comfort. The emotional toll is the entire point.

But It's punishingly bleak and builds toward a tragedy you can see coming. The musical numbers, while powerful, might feel jarring if you're not prepared for them.

Fish Tank2009

Andrea Arnold directs a young woman whose dreams of escape collide with the reality of her circumstances. Visceral, handheld, and unsparing about class and vulnerability. The same unflinching eye turned toward a different kind of desperation.

But Deliberately paced and often static. If you need plot momentum or clear narrative resolution, the slow-burn approach may frustrate.

Secrets & Lies1996

Mike Leigh's ensemble about family dysfunction and buried truths. Like Under the Skin, it finds profound comedy and tragedy in the gaps between what families say and what they feel. The performances are lived-in and utterly real.

But At 142 minutes, it demands patience. Some scenes feel deliberately uncomfortable, and the emotional catharsis comes late.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Under the Skin

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Fountain2006

Both use the rupture of death and the body's vulnerability as their central engine. Both refuse to explain grief—they insist on experiencing it.

Darren Aronofsky's three-timeline meditation on love, loss, and mortality—presented as myth, Renaissance romance, and science fiction simultaneously. It's wildly ambitious and visually overwhelming, but underneath is the same core: how do we survive when the people we love disappear?

But The non-linear structure and symbolic density demand active engagement. Many find it pretentious or emotionally manipulative. It's not subtle.

The Killing2011

A Danish crime drama where the murder investigation becomes secondary to exploring how trauma radiates through families and institutions. It shares Under the Skin's belief that the most interesting things happen in silence, grief, and what people don't say.

But The first season is genuinely slow. If you need plot momentum in every episode, the structural patience required may feel punishing.

Kes1970

Ken Loach's masterpiece about a working-class boy and the one bright thing in his suffocating life. Like Under the Skin, it's tender toward characters society has written off, and it finds dignity in small moments. Authenticity every frame.

But The setting and class politics feel very specifically British and dated. The ending is deliberately bleak, which some find unnecessarily harsh.

Wake in Fright1971

A man's descent into dissolution in the Australian outback—slow, inexorable, and hypnotic. It has Under the Skin's refusal to explain or excuse, and its conviction that sometimes people just come apart. Visually stunning in its bleakness.

But The pacing is glacial and the protagonist becomes increasingly repellent. If you need likeable characters, this will exhaust you.

Dogville2003

Lars von Trier stages a Bresson novel on an empty sound stage, with minimal sets and total emotional exposure. Like Under the Skin, it believes cinema should hurt. The performances are extraordinary precisely because there's nowhere to hide.

But The artifice is confrontational. Some find the stripped-down staging cold rather than intimate, and the ending divides people sharply.

Edge of Seventeen1999

Nineteen takes place over one explosive day in a teenage girl's life. Raw, chaotic, and uncompromising about adolescent sexuality and self-harm. The naturalism and lack of judgment matches Under the Skin's unflinching approach.

But The subject matter is extremely difficult. Some scenes feel gratuitous, and the narrative structure is deliberately fragmented.

The Conformist1971

Both use the body as a confession—sexuality as a way of speaking when language fails. Both understand that damage inside can be gorgeous from the outside.

Bernardo Bertolucci's visually intoxicating film about a man's sexual repression and political complicity. Shot in luminous, baroque colour, it explores how shame and desire twist into each other. The surface is beautiful; the interior is rotting.

But Extremely stylized and based on Italian fascism's historical moment. The pacing is meditative, not propulsive, and the ending is morally unresolved.