Skincare

NOW IN THEATERS! Yes, there will be moisturizing in the star-powered thriller Skincare, directed by Austin Peters. The screenplay by Peters, with Sam Freilich and Deering Regan, was based on true events and is set in Los Angeles in 2013. Successful salon owner Hope Goldman (Elizabeth Banks) is releasing her cosmetic line of skincare products, which she made in Italy. She has taped a segment on a popular morning talk show hosted by Brett Wright (Nathan Fillion) to drum up publicity for her big launch. Her office manager, Marine (MJ Rodriguez), who has been with her since the beginning, has everything ready for the big time.

“…she is falling apart, is a walking hot mess, and is overwhelmed by degenerate sexual desires…”

However, a new salon run by the hot flavor of the moment, Angel Vergera (Luis Gerardo Méndez), opens right across from her, disrupting everything. When she complains to the plaza landlord, Jeff (John Billingsley), he reminds Hope that she is behind on her rent. She promises the rent soon, as her big segment will air on TV. However, the rival salon across the way from her starts pulling her clients. Then Hope wakes up one morning to find that an e-mail has been sent to all of her friends and clients, stating that she is falling apart, is a walking hot mess, and is overwhelmed by degenerate sexual desires. Then a man with a tattooed face shows up at her office to carry out a rape fantasy he saw posted online. Hope’s life coach friend Jordan (Lewis Pullman) fights him off, and they both start looking further into who is trying to sabotage her business.

The reason this elephant lamp lights up when you pull the trunk is because Banks is the lightbulb as well as the plug in the wall. Skincare is the perfect vehicle for Banks’s style, the cinematic equivalent of a Barbie-mobile with 60s Cadillac fins. The audience gets to ride shotgun as she speeds through the flashy, splashy visuals to get to the long tunnels of persecution. All of her reactions are both grounded in reality but also spray painted in wide-canvas extremities. It is a shining razor-sharp reef of hyper-reality, beautiful to gaze upon while it waits to cut you to pieces. Imagine Legally Blonde with a bedazzled straight razor.