Skincare

Executive-produced and starring Elizabeth Banks, Skincare is ripped straight from the headlines. Writers Sam Freilich, Austin Peters, and Deering Regan don’t do a straight telling of the 2014 “The Facialist Killer” case. Instead, they use it as a springboard to explore the cost of dreams, unspoken desires, and trust in a comedic and thrilling way. Can director Austin Peters bring all that to the forefront in his feature-length debut?

Hope (Banks) is an esthetician who has worked for years and years to get her own beauty product line on shelves. Thanks to her loyal clients, including several celebrities and influencers, that dream has come to fruition. Hope records a news segment with anchor Brett (Nathan Fillion), who is also a friend. But she feels threatened when Angel (Luis Gerardo Méndez) opens up a competing business across the street. However, a chance meeting with a friend of a friend, Jordan (Lewis Pullman), does help lift her spirits.

But everything comes crashing down when a mass email is sent to all of Hope’s contacts. The message describes how lonely she feels, suicidal thoughts, and other horrible and personal things. Hope maintains she was hacked, but clients begin canceling, and her news segment is dropped. As if it couldn’t get worse, soon strangers are showing up at her business demanding sex. Not long after that, someone texts Hope images of a dick along with lewd comments. Fearing for her life and the police having little to go off of, Hope engages Jordan to help her figure out who is committing these heinous acts and why.

“…Hope engages Jordan to help her figure out who is committing these heinous acts and why.”

The first and more minor of the two issues with Skincare is the mystery angle. It is not all that hard to figure out who the mastermind behind the hacking and stalking is. Dramatic irony does come into play at a certain point, but even before that, viewers will have correctly named names. The other problem is that the ending is a little anticlimactic. Given the investigation of the stalker and whatnot, who is arrested feels slightly off. After the arrest, fade to black, then a text explaining how the case fully wraps up is an easy way to both acknowledge the real-life account and tie up all the threads the ending proper does not fully address.

With all that said, the film is very engaging. Peters ably balances the humor, tension, and drama without missing a beat. When Hope turns to Brett for help, given her recent woes, things don’t go quite to plan for either of them. This raises the stakes, as the lead now has one less person to turn to while ending on a humorous note about accidentally recording a conversation. When the stranger comes demanding sex, there’s a real sense of danger and menace to the sequence.

Of course, none of this works without the cast of Skincare understanding the assignment. Banks gives, arguably, her best performance to date. She’s likable, annoying, desperate, and even a little crazy. The way she keeps giving out samples and selling her line, even to the detectives investigating the stalking is never not funny. Pullman is likable and a little creepy and shares great chemistry with Banks. Méndez is an excellent foil for Banks, being more level-headed but still determined and a little shady. Erik Palladino excels in his small but pivotal role.

Skincare is a tense but humorous look at the downfall of the American dream. Yes, the ending doesn’t feel complete, but the journey is still worth it. The cast is stellar, especially Banks, who has never been better.