‘Masterpiece’ movie voted finest British film of the 2000s now streaming | Films | Entertainment | EUROtoday

Who’s to say what motion pictures are the most effective of all time? Many a publication has risen to the problem, together with the UK’s personal British Film Institute (BFI). Sight and Sound, the BFI’s journal, has carried out a ballot of the best movies each 10 years for the reason that custom started in 1952.

The most up-to-date checklist had over 1,600 movie critics, programmers, curators, archivists and teachers submitting their private high 10. These ballots get tallied up into an inventory of 250 best movies of all time. That is actually lots of motion pictures to sift by way of, so we’re highlighting the British movie from the twenty first century that ranked highest — a gripping movie starring Scarlett Johansson as a seductive alien prowling the streets of Scotland.

The sci-fi horror is the work of English filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, whose subsequent movie, The Zone of Interest, racked up wins on the BAFTAs and Cannes in 2023.

But a decade earlier, Glazer loosely tailored Under the Skin from Michel Faber’s novel of the identical identify wherein Johansson’s character is an extraterrestrial disguised as a human.

The lady, who isn’t named, preys on lonely males who’re none the wiser. As its synopsis hints, “Her charm works like magic on them, but they are unaware of her true identity.”

Many of the scenes the place Johansson’s character drives round selecting up males have been actual interactions captured on hidden digital camera.

While the guide by no means shrouds her true intentions (that’s, to kill and course of the lads as meat) in thriller, the movie is extra ambiguous.

Explaining its spot on the checklist, 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 techniques to seize Glasgow and its unsuspecting inhabitants with intimate realism.”

The film is “contemporary” on Rotten Tomatoes with an 83% approval rating. But the film’s ambiguous storytelling is a bit like Marmite, as the website’s critics consensus acknowledges.

“Its message might show elusive for some, however with absorbing imagery and a mesmerising efficiency from Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin is a haunting viewing expertise.”

Though it bombed at the box office, it nabbed BAFTA nominations for Outstanding British Film and Best Original Music.

The Guardian gave it five out of five stars whilst another perfect review from the Chicago Sun-Times gushed: “This is what we speak about once we speak about movie as artwork.”

Film lovers continue to debate whether the movie merits being hailed a masterpiece.

“I simply watched Under the Skin and I am unable to resolve whether or not it’s a masterpiece or a horrible film,” posited one viewer on Reddit in 2025, over a decade after the film’s release. “What is your opinion?”

One answered: “It’s probably the greatest motion pictures of the earlier decade.” Another echoed: “Masterpiece completely. Couldn’t cease occupied with that film for weeks. Still give it some thought generally.”

A 3rd summed it up: “It’s certainly one of my favorite movies, however certainly one of my associates who I noticed it with in theatres despised it.”

Under the Skin is out there to observe for Amazon Prime subscribers to observe totally free.