Skinamarink Review

Skinamarink review.

This is going to be interesting. Skinamarink is an out of nowhere smash hit after its limited theater release. As a result, the movie will open into wider release this weekend and play to a bigger potential audience. There is nothing in the world that I would find more entertaining than seeing what happens to the poor random soul who wanders into Skinamarink blind. Let me explain…

New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.

Skinamarink

Directed by Kyle Edward Ball

Written by Kyle Edward Ball

Starring Lucas Paul, Dali Rose Tetreault, Ross Paul and Jaime Hill

Skinamarink Review

I almost feel like there should be two reviews for Skinamarink.  One to serve as a review for the movie as you watch it, another for the movie after you’ve seen it.  That’s absurd, of course, because all reviews are written after viewing a movie in its entirety.  What makes Skinamarink a special case is how radically different it feels after the fact than it does in the moment.  This isn’t because of a major reveal or twist that changes your understanding of the story.  Skinamarink doesn’t reveal or explain anything.  It’s because, while watching its images and slow-moving momentum…you feel like trying to find purpose in the shadows.  After taking in every image…the feeling begins to change.  You aren’t looking for purpose anymore.  You’re looking for meaning.  The subtle switch is perhaps the greatest success of the lo-fi experimental film that aims to produce a dreamlike quality.

This is generally the part of the review where we recap the plot.  For the sake of format, I’ll just go ahead and copy and paste the official synopsis of the film:

Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished.

Do with that what you will.  What you need to know about watching Skinamarink is that you’re in for over an hour and a half staring at low angle shots of walls and furniture.  Occasionally, the camera adopts the POV of one of the children.  Mostly you’re looking at nothing. 

A large portion of the film is set to public domain cartoons playing on a television in the background.  Whispers, creeks and a few large noises combine with the imagery to form a repetitive loop of what is happening? 

There are scenes where things do happen, mind you.  They’re few and far between but are incredibly effective when they happen.  I won’t spoil anything here despite it being virtually impossible to spoil anything in Skinamarink.  Watching the movie unfold is an exercise in patience and a willingness to look for purpose in something that you don’t understand. 

Sitting with the whole of the movie after it ends, however, gives your brain a different mission.  It elicits the feeling of waking up from a dream and trying to remember the interesting parts among the mundane ones.  Attempting to put together the meaning of things that in the moment seemed to have little to no purpose.  We can’t understand it while we’re in it…but we want to figure it out once we regain our full faculties. 

What was that dream about?  I couldn’t begin to tell you.  It’s a personal dream even though it isn’t ours.  People are destined to walk away from Skinamarink with different interpretations of the film.  It certainly doesn’t want to explain itself to you.  The dream’s job isn’t to give you an answer…it’s to leave you with a feeling and, hopefully, the desire to examine it. 

In this way, Skinamarink is a complete success.  To me.  I must stress that it’s going to be different from viewer to viewer.  While watching the movie my mind wandered to other things several times.  That’s not a mark in a film’s favor.  Usually.  In this case…I think it is.  The way the movie unfolds isn’t nearly as interesting as looking back at the whole of it.  90% of Skinamarink may as well be still images like La Jetée or a century old silent film accompanied by an orchestral score like Nosferatu.  Some will walk out of it hating it…hell some won’t make it through the whole thing.  Others will be bored by it…until returning to it in their mind later.  Still others will be enthralled by it in the moment.  It’s a truly unique experience. 

I ended up in that middle group.  I found watching the movie to be repetitive, lackluster and boring.  And then I was on the drive home.  No longer confronted by long stretches of staring at nothing while listening to pre code era cartoons…I couldn’t stop thinking about the total package of what Skinamarink is.  Dreams can feel interminably long while we are in them…and like a foggy, fleeting memory when they’re over.  Skinamarink works better as a memory.  It doesn’t leave you with a fleeting one.  You remember everything.  What it leaves you with is a nightmare your brain can’t compartmentalize and whisk away from your forethought.  Skinamarink is a nightmare you remember every detail of…and keeps the meaning of it just out of your reach.

Scare Value

So, what do we do with a movie like Skinamarink? An unabashed experimental film that finds an audience is a miracle of cinema. Whatever your opinion of the film…the success has to be celebrated. It also doesn’t care one bit about what you think of it…or even what you think it is. It unfolds like a mystery not meant to have an answer. People will be debating what’s happening in Skinamarink for years to come. Moments will stick with you for years longer than that.

But is it a good movie? I don’t know how to answer that question. While viewing it…I would argue that it is not. After taking in every frame and sound for 99 minutes…I think that it is. It’s not a movie as much as an experience. There are times when you know you have seen something that will be divisive. Skinamarink is the rare experience that truly couldn’t care less. It’s why it succeeds so fully.

4/5

Skinamarink Link

Check for tickets at a theater near you on the official website or on Fandango

Skinamarink Trailer

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