Under the Skin

Director: Jonathan Glazer (2013)
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay
Find it: IMDB

Say what you will about the Avengers, but they're a savvy bunch. Deftly mixing up their big blockbuster movies with relatively smaller indie pictures, the Marvel superheroes of today can be found avoiding typecasting in the likes of The Judge, Foxcatcher, Snowpiercer and - in the case of this Black Widow 'centric piece - Under the Skin.

In this classy version of Species, a mysterious alien takes the form of a beautiful human female, steals a van and sets about seducing and murdering men in the back of it. In an interesting twist, the alien's point of invasion is Glasgow, Scotland, and the form it takes is Scarlett Johansson, from off've The Avengers. If that's not distracting enough, Johansson speaks in a disturbingly good English accent, talking about things like Asda, Tesco, The Post Office and things you'd never normally hear Black Widow chatter about.

It's the sort of film which is so arty it doesn't need a story; instead, we follow The Female as she seeks out and seduces men along the streets of Glasgow, tempting them into the back of her van where, well, something happens, and they end up literally losing their skin. Keeping it from getting repetitive is the gonzo style of filmmaking (most of the characters being played by non-actors - fair play to them, gamely getting their kit off opposite Scarlett fucking Johansson on camera) and the haunting, hypnotic score which accompanies it all. It's pretentious, but manages it in a way that it works, like a Lars von Trier movie or Alan Moore comic.

It'll probably never get under one's skin, but this movie gave me a curious itch that I doubt no other will ever scratch in quite the same way. Although, you know, that could have just been hearing Black Widow talk about Tesco and Asda like they're places she'd ever actually visit. In that respect, it's no wonder Scarlett Johansson gives the perfect performance.

The Purge: Anarchy

Director: James DeMonaco (2014)
Starring: Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Kiele Sanchez
Find it: IMDB

"Oh goody! A sequel to The Purge!" said no-one who had ever seen The Purge. Yet here it is - the inevitable sequel to a bad film with good ideas but a flawed execution; a great cast and strong ideas are wasted on a dull story, uninspired visuals and a lack of wit and invention. There's not much more of the latter on display in Anarchy, but almost everything else is vastly improved by moving the fight outdoors.

It's Purge Night, and we follow three groups of people as they attempt to survive; a lovely young couple and their broken car, a mother and daughter forced outside after their home is destroyed, and a mysterious gunman seeking revenge for the death of his son. This final individual makes all the difference - injecting a shot of competency into a franchise which could have just had its poor protagonists running around like victims waiting to die at the hands of nasty gangbangers. Frank Grillo's 'Sergeant' effectively drops The Punisher into the world of The Purge, making it the best sequel to War Zone never made.

If The Purge was a slick redo of The Strangers and other such grimy home invasion movies, then Anarchy is more inspired by The Warriors and its ilk. The bad guys might look like reject goons from a Joel Schumacher Batman movie, but they're vastly preferable to the smug shit of the previous film. Michael Kenneth Williams shows up briefly, but I suspect they may be saving most of him for the inevitable sequel. Now that The Purge has one half-good film under its belt, it might just have a shot at that franchise it so desperately wants to be.

Still, for all the action and genuine awesomeness, it's entirely obvious that The Purge still doesn't have anything of note to say. It has a killer conceit, but the whole thing feels about as political as the latest Hunger Games (if not less). Now that the series is back on track, it would be nice if they could maybe work on the mechanics of it all some more. Keep the explosions and the gangs though; don't get me wrong.

Anarchy is a good second step after a faltering start. Where it goes from here is anyone's guess, but we shouldn't count this franchise out just yet. Still, I did spend most of the film trying to work out ways I could make a hypothetical Purge work for me without getting killed in the process, so it's not as though it held my attention for, like, the whole time.