‘Absolute masterpiece’ voted greatest British movie of twenty first century | Films | Entertainment | EUROtoday
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Scarlett Johansson on the premiere of Under The Skin (Image: Georges De Keerle, Getty Images)
Who can really say which movies stand as the best of all time? Many have risen to the problem, not least the UK’s personal British Film Institute (BFI). Sight and Sound, the BFI’s prestigious journal, has carried out a ballot of the best movies each 10 years because the custom was established in 1952.
The final version from 2022 noticed over 1,600 movie critics, programmers, curators, archivists and teachers submit their private high 10. These ballots are tallied right into a definitive record of 250 best movies of all time. An monumental catalogue to wade by, so we’re shining a highlight on the record’s highest-ranking British movie from the twenty first century — a gripping image starring Scarlett Johansson as a seductive alien driving round Scotland in seek for recent blood.
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The sci-fi horror is the brainchild of English filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, whose subsequent movie, The Zone of Interest, swept up awards on the BAFTAs and Cannes in 2023.
A decade prior, nevertheless, Glazer loosely tailored Under the Skin from Michel Faber’s novel of the identical identify. Johansson portrays an unnamed alien in disguise who preys on unsuspecting lonely males.
Notably, lots of the scenes wherein Johansson’s character roadtrips round Scotland selecting up males had been actual interactions captured on hidden digicam. While the ebook by no means conceals her true motives (particularly, to kill and butcher the boys as meat) in any ambiguity, the movie takes a much more enigmatic method.
Explaining its place on the record, quantity 169, the BFI mentioned: “The icily brilliant Scarlett Johansson stars as an alien predator scouring Scotland’s streets for human prey, in Jonathan Glazer’s astonishing amalgam of fantasy and reality.
“Mixing mind-bending visuals and hallucinatory sound design with an surprising naturalism, Glazer returned to the screens after a nine-year absence in audacious type, utilising guerrilla filmmaking ways to seize Glasgow and its unsuspecting inhabitants with intimate realism.”
Under the Skin is on Amazon Prime Video (Image: Studio Canal/A24)
The film has a positive 83% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes, though its deliberately vague storytelling proved divisive, as the site’s critics consensus readily concedes.
“Its message could show elusive for some, however with absorbing imagery and a mesmerising efficiency from Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin is a haunting viewing expertise.”
At the movie’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the Guardian dubbed it a “real Marmite second”. They observed: “Some noticed it as a masterpiece, others as a bore. The movie’s closing credit performed out to an accompaniment of booing.
Despite flopping on the field workplace, it secured BAFTA nominations for Outstanding British Film and Best Original Music.
Under the Skin was the very best rating up to date British movie (Image: Studio Canal/A24)
A glowing evaluation from the Chicago Sun-Times enthused: “This is what we talk about when we talk about film as art.”
Film lovers proceed to debate whether or not the image really deserves to be celebrated as top-of-the-line. “I just watched Under the Skin and I can’t decide whether it is a masterpiece or a terrible movie,” posed one viewer on Reddit in 2025, greater than a decade after the movie’s launch. “What is your opinion?”
One responded: “It’s one of the best movies of the previous decade.” Another agreed: “Masterpiece absolutely. Couldn’t stop thinking about that movie for weeks. Still think about it sometimes.”
A 3rd summarised it: “It’s one of my favourite films, but one of my friends who I saw it with in theatres despised it.”
Under the Skin is out there to stream on platforms together with Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Sky Store and Google Play.
https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/2199224/best-british-film-movie