Movie Review - Skin (2019)

There have been a few films with this title. Those few have dealt with racism and race relations. One in particular is a short film that won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film at the 91st Academy Awards. It was directed and co-written by Guy Nattiv, an up-and-coming filmmaker from Israel. The short was about a white supremacist who commits a hate crime against a black man. Vengeance is then exacted upon that white supremacist using the tool of tattoos. Now, Nattiv has made this feature with the same title and normally when a filmmaker makes a feature of the same name of his short, it's a remake and expansion of that short where it tells a longer version of the same story. Sean Ellis was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 78th Academy Awards for Cashback (2004). After the ceremony, Ellis premiered a feature-length version of Cashback (2006). That's not the case with Nattiv's film. There are definite similarities and echoing themes, but the specific character is different and the overall scenario or narrative is also different.

Here, yes, it's also about a white supremacist, a veritable Neo-Nazi, named Bryon Widner, played by Jamie Bell (Rocketman and Billy Elliot). Bryon is part of a small organization, known as Vinland Social Club or VSC. It's a white supremacist group that particularly identifies with the Nordic area and the culture that came from Vikings. The two people who run VSC are a married couple that are considered like a father and mother to Bryon and the other boys in the group. However, they aren't biologically related. Bryon was a homeless kid who VSC found on the street and recruited. Bryon lives with them in Ohio in the year 2009. He marches with them in white pride parades at night with torches. They, however, can get very violent and often will commit hate crimes, beating up or even killing people of color, black people or Muslims. The distinguishing thing about Bryon is the large amount of tattoos that cover his body and his face. Most of which signify his white supremacist views.

One day, VSC organizes a Nordic festival. They get people to perform acts like music. One of those acts are a group of sisters who sing and play instruments. Their mother is Julie Price, played by Danielle Macdonald (Unbelievable and Patti Cake$). She's a single mom who has been tangentially involved with the white supremacist community, but she now wants to distance herself and her daughters from that racism. Yet, she meets Bryon at the Nordic festival and a romance begins. She falls for him, but she doesn't want him connected with the VSC. The question becomes if he can break away from the VSC, particularly after they could implicate him in serious crimes.

Mike Colter (Luke Cage and The Good Wife) co-stars as Daryle Lamont Jenkins, a black activist who specifically works to counter the protests of white supremacist or white nationalist groups. He also works to reform members from those groups. Like the leaders of VSC, Daryle probably recognizes that a lot of the members are homeless boys who had nowhere else to go and who were recruited into the group, not because they're evil or born racist but because they had nowhere else to go. Daryle simply tries to show them that there is somewhere else they can go. Unfortunately, the film doesn't give us a lot of Daryle to show us his life or his process to achieve his work.

The film really focuses on Bryon's disillusionment with this particular group. The married couple who runs VSC does so in a way that might not be emblematic of how a lot of white supremacists or white nationalists might run things. This story is based on a true story, so it's not to say it isn't realistic, but even if this group wasn't a white supremacist group, the way that the married couple operates is very cult like and disturbing outside of their racist views.

Bill Camp (Joker and The Kitchen) plays Fred Krager aka Hammer, one-half of the married couple that runs VSC. He runs the group like a military unit. He seems to own a business, a tattoo shop. It's where Bryon is put to work. He probably has other things that count as income. Yet, he also organizes hate crimes like acts of arson that targets black people or Muslims. He's also certainly not above murder. Obviously, the rise of white nationalist terrorism in the wake of the Trump administration has garnered a lot of headlines, but that rise of white nationalist terrorism has been existent since the September 11 attacks.

It's easy for someone to distance themselves from someone like Fred who is a brutal arsonist and murderer. Bryon in fact distanced himself without much intervention or conversation with Daryle. However, it's more difficult for someone to distance themselves from someone who isn't violent but who advocates for policies or expressions that still demonize Muslims or the Islamic faith, especially in the wake of the 9/11 attacks because those advocates make the case for national security. It's also difficult for those who would demonize Latino people for perceived economic grievances that then get adopted by a major political party and reinforced by major politicians from said party. This film, however, never provides us with those kinds of seemingly rational and non-violent advocates. The lines drawn here are therefore easy to see and argue against.

This film is framed around a device, which hearkens back to the short film of the same name. However, it's different. In the short film, a white supremacist has tattoos placed all over his body as a punishment. Here, the white supremacist has his tattoos removed. There is perhaps something to explore about how this racism is based on the color of one's skin. Yet, it says nothing that Bryon would practically cover that skin with tattoos that are mostly black ink. No one points out the irony of skinheads running a tattoo parlor and mostly covering his white skin with that darker color.

The performances are great, particularly from Macdonald. I was more impressed with her than I was Bell. Bell is a good actor but he is English. Having to overcome his English accent to portray this American Midwestern man is an effort that can be somewhat felt, as compared to Jonathan Tucker who starred in the short film and fit into the role more effortlessly. Oscar-nominee Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air and The Conjuring) is phenomenal as Shareen, the wife to Fred. As unique as a story as this is, I did have flashbacks to American History X (1998), which I think touches upon some of the themes and ideas here and executes them better.

Rated R for violent crime, pervasive language, sexuality and brief drug use.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 58 mins.

Available on DVD and VOD, including Amazon Prime.