Director: Jonathan Glazer
Talent: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Krystof Hádek, Michael Moreland
Release Date: 14th March 2014
A well crafted film makes Jonathan Glazer a good director. The fact that he can show us our own world barely altered and make it a strange, horrifying place makes him a magician.
Johansson plays an alien whose mission is to seduce men around Glasgow. With her victims unsuspecting to the last, the fate she has for them is the true stuff of nightmares. The atmosphere is nothing short of hypnotic and beautifully distressing on two fronts. On one side is the human fear of watching this hunter prowl our streets, on the other is the distress we feel as we see the world through the eyes of an alien. Portraying a character who knows how to act human but not what it is to be human is no mean feat, but Johansson plays it minimal and with incredible composure. The ending may leave a little to be desired, but the ride is so good you’ll barely notice it slip by. Easily Glazer’s best film and a genuine proclamation of the power of cinema. -EM
