A beautician desperately clings to her crumbling sanity and business empire after a competitor moves in next door in a true-crime thriller that's not nearly as juicy as its racy real-life inspiration.
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By Courtney Howard
It’s rare that a ripped-from-the-headlines film adaptation doesn’t capitalize on the wilder, weirder aspects of its real-life counterpart. Yet that’s what happens in the case of director Austin Peters’ “Skincare,” which, to be fair, only purports to be a fictionalized version of the true-crime story of a successful beautician who allegedly hired a hitman to take out her competitors. What’s there borrows from the real-life scandal to lightheartedly explore the female rage, jealousy and paranoia that fester beneath the girl-boss sheen so prevalent in the early 2010s. Through slick aesthetics, bolstered by a sensational soundscape, the filmmakers build a mesmerizing, atmospheric atmosphere. But given some of the omissions, one wonders why the storytellers didn’t go for the kill.
Skin is delicate (it’s the largest organ in the human body) and its job is to keep us healthy and whole. It’s no wonder that the first image we see is an extreme close-up of Hope Goldman’s (Elizabeth Banks) haunted face—specifically, the cracks in the makeup foundation covering her face. It’s a fitting metaphor for the wrinkles in her plan for world domination.
