PLOT: A heavily inked skinhead (Jamie Bell) undergoes two years’ worth of painful tattoo removal laser surgeries to leave his violent past behind and start a new life.
REVIEW: Guy Nattiv’s SKIN isn’t the first skinhead redemption movie ever made, but it has an authenticity to it that others don’t have, likely because it’s based on a true story. Skinhead Bryon Widner did indeed undergo dozens of surgeries to remove his tattoos after an anonymous donor offered to foot the hefty bill to rehabilitate him (a documentary called ERASING HATE was made about his experience). After all, one’s job prospects beyond working in a Nazi Tattoo parlor are kinda limited when your face is covered in coded skinhead tats.
Jamie Bell plays Widner, and it’s an excellent performance – one that’s garnering some solid awards buzz. Indeed, he disappears thoroughly into the part and it’s one of the best showcases he’s had since his classic BILLY ELLIOT back when he was a wee lad in 2000. He walks a fine line here, keeping Widner a relatively abhorrent creature until late in the game. It’s very hard to generate sympathy for a character when, in the first scene, he’s shown carving a swastika into the face of a black teen, but Nattiv doesn’t seem to be interested in taking the easy way out. It reminds me quite a bit of the similarly themed BURDEN, which I caught at Sundance eighteen months ago, but still hasn’t gotten a release. In that one, they were careful not to make Garrett Hedlund’s character too beyond redemption, but the result was a movie that felt a little too much like an after-school special. SKIN is more in line with AMERICAN HISTORY X, in that our sympathy is only gradually won over, and even then it’s done in a low-key, non-manipulative way that suggests all the tattoo removal in the world won’t make a difference if what’s inside is uglier than what’s outside.
Nattiv won an Oscar for his short film, also titled SKIN, although this isn’t related to that except in a broadly thematic way. What Nattiv does well is he depicts how lost youth is recruited for such an organization through the eyes of a homeless teen Widner and his father figure, Bill Camp’s terrifying Krager, pick up on the streets, with the kid shyly admitting later that all he wanted was a warm meal. Camp’s charismatic as the slick leader, who’s too into his sham political career to ever tattoo his face like Widner or directly participate in any crimes, allowing his boys to take the fall for him. In one of the most against-type parts she’s ever played, we get Vera Farmiga as his wife, who uses her warmth to lull these men into loyalty, being the mother figure they all want (encouraging everyone to call her “Ma”).
Former Luke Cage, Mike Colter, also has a strong role as a black activist who prides himself in converting skinheads and Nazis, but he doesn’t play the role as too idealized, giving the character a certain edge and propensity for violent confrontation (when pushed) that makes him a little more real and raw than we’d usually get in these films. Meanwhile, the score by Dan Romer gives the film a certain understated elegance, that’s an effective contrast to the ugliness we see on the screen.
SKIN is a really good under-the-radar indie choice for anyone looking for something off the beaten path in these dog days of summer. It’s out theatrically via A24, but can also be rented on VOD for anyone willing to give it a shot. It’s a rough flick with some real staying power and a top-shelf part for Jamie Bell. It comes highly recommended.