Elizabeth Banks takes charge and delivers in Skincare, a Hollywood-set psychological thriller that its feature-debuting director, Austin Peters, likes to label a “sunshine noir”. Certainly it has elements of the classic darkly lit black and white film noirs set in L.A. in the 40’s, but this one takes place directly in the bright sunlit corners of Southern California where facialists are definitely a thing.
It is a fictional story, very loosely inspired apparently by a real case involving aesthetician Dawn DaLuise who was accused of putting out a hit on a rival facialist in 2014 and did wind up doing some prison time before being acquitted. There is no mention of her or that, but apparently screenwriters Deering Regan & Sam Freilich, and Peters were “inspired” enough to use it as a tipping point. It is a completely fictionalized character Banks plays, but her transformation feels close to real life despite the absurdity of some plot points. It is indeed a strange world we live in.
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However it came about, the story is a bit of a hoot. Banks plays Hope Goldman who operates a shop in the heart of Hollywood where she performs her signature facials to a healthy clientele and is now also launching her own line of beauty products. She even has taped a segment touting them on a local news show anchored by a slick host (Nathan Fillion). Trouble starts, however, when her landlord rents the empty store space across the alley to a rival, Angel Vergara (Mexican star Luis Gerardo Mendez) whom she sees as direct and unwanted competition. Then it really heats up when Hope finds herself the victim of a hack with lewd sexual descriptions and ad copy going out to her entire address book. She starts bleeding clients who instead head over to Angel’s, the competitor who now also turns up with his own segment on the local news show, an act that outrages Hope when she learns they have tabled her spot in favor of him.
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With the help of her creepy friend, Jordan, a sort of Lothario who is weirdly fond of touting his own body, Hope believes Angel could be targeting her business and her in this gross way. But it all isn’t as easy to figure out, questions and suspicions arise, and even shadier characters enter the picture, and we start to surmise that others might be the culprit. Hope, however, is increasingly distraught, whipping up her anger to a point of no return.
Banks, as she proved again recently in another indie A Mistake, which debuted at Tribeca, has real range and swings for the fences with Hope Goldman. Her emerging paranoia and obsession with image collide in the kind of thing Joan Crawford might have done in another era. She’s the reason to see this. Pullman, current Emmy nominee for a very different kind of role in Lessons In Chemistry, shows he is up for just about anything as well, playing all the peculiararities of Jordan to the hilt. Michaela Jae Rodriguez is perfect casting as Hope’s assistant, as is Mendez who plays the newbie on the block. Erik Palladino also turns up as Armen in a significant role as the plot thickens.
Shot in just 18 days, Peters shows promise for this kind of twisted storytelling, and the L.A. locations are used very well. The music however, both score by Fatima Al Qadiri (and especially the needledrops) is overbearing and annoying.
Producers are Jonathan Schwartz and Logan Lerman.
Title: Skincare
Distributor: IFC Films
Release Date: August 16, 2024
Director: Austin Peters
Screenplay: Deering Regan & Sam Freilich & Austin Peters
Cast: Elizabeth Banks, Lewis Pullman, Luis Gerardo Mendez, Michaela Jae Rodriguez, Nathan Fillion, Erik Palladino, Ella Balinska, Mike Ferguson, Wendie Malick.
Running Time: 1 hour and 34 minutes