A Masterpiece!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

While with some memorable scenes of punishment, and better than average (these neo-Blair-witch-hand-held days) Photography/scene effort certainly added stars, it has a limited or simplified range of dynamics and realisms between the main characters , and some silly or unexplained plot-devices , in order to bring the drama back to the main characters.Could've easily been a on-stage drama before going to film, and as a person who's comfy on the couch movies-first ... i think it should STAY there.too many unrealistic acceptances of others'-change , and personally, i find those in movies that sometimes quite IRRESPONSIBLE.toughened fashion and beauty industry artists / employees/ers ... could also recognize quite easily the absurdities for the sake of the drama. while that CAN be OK for the purposes of the portrayal of the dynamics of the relationships, it does not work well when one has not understood the plot BEFORE going and seeing it...which is WHEN ... many/most actually decides to go physically see, a drama, instead of only HEARING about it , in your city, going around your country, wherever.MOVIES... by comparison ... are things now view-able and downloadable, and whatnot , in a much more... STANDALONE... way - sometimes one does not, as i had not, before deciding to watch it, based on the synopsis. I'd understood it would be some kind of creepy doctor sci-fi thing.Instead, it was yet another , 'how' , one should change one's feelings about another reinforcement, against always accepting another's abuse, kind of exploitation.now while i DO VALUE and advocate that in some film, using sci-fi ... or a sci-fi theme, for yet another tear-jerking melodrama for those affected deeply by it, is something i cannot respect.Themes and realities of skin (especially relative to reptilian ) are a interesting theme not unfamiliar to me, but things like the 'stimulating' / clearly-only-TEMPORARILY-purposed 'son' in tiger costume, were laughingly pointless, and i do truly pity the poor sucker kids in schools - while other actors on stage, are getting the substantive roles... the poor suckers, possibly the street-kids 'anyway'... etc... get the guy-in-the-tiger-costume-on-ecstasy&tequila .... *sigh*While the overall movie has some values in shock and whatnot ... its simplifications, and who-to-go-tos , are AGAIN belligerently going back to wise-old-mum ... most if not all men in the movie are conspirators or guilty parties directly , and the mixed-bag one gets in the obsessive/inequitable doctor ... are both sickening and disappointingly simplified/from-one's-daddy-unnecessary/obsessive too.what COULD'VE been a better-introduced sci-fi plot, with implications of depth possibly going all the way back to having tails...(which of course makes for more excuses to war costumes :) )... turned out to be some daytime-TV confusing jumble of identity/ambiguities of change , that UNlike the intentions to stimulate breadths of identity & trying to make people thing about others' identity, will make those content with their own do nothing but , maintain what they have already decided upon/accepted - an acceptance, of something non-hetero, can be a mistake just as much as making a mistake in thinking oneself hetero when not - it is not ONLY one-way traffic.It's perhaps well intended, but it's far too simplification-ally done... it gets points for the maintained motivations of the characters actions and there's some good acting, too, but as for the overall script, length (could've been a 2-part movie - 1st part is the sci-fi , 2nd part is its failure/the mess/resolution ), and believability , so that one can apply reasons/dynamic of, to things in one's own life ... i've got to give it the thumbs down.while some in closer-to , Hollywood/Broadway , perspectives , so-to speak, see directly, what inequity in valUE, not values...causes ; in too many a failed state in Sth America , as well as corporate exploitation of the USA's PEOPLE...... many also see the difference between art for art's sake, or in this case, fashion for societal-fashion-sales sake,.. in CONTRAST , with when emotions around it or parallel TO it, which can easily be exploited.While those committed to value in art BEYOND the personal, and of possession , etc ... do not even CARE, if their art, is valuable , and sells, etc.this film is another neo-CannF.F.-personal-belogings-RE-sale CRAMMING of mostly in the background, expensive-living.I'm not missing the point about ethics ... in saying that what happens to a extreme minority of gender identity ... NOT fashion... in PARALLEL , to other things a part of the characters... is NOT something, that MOST can say they relate to.Most cannot - most do NOT live, in-between a castle, and a clinic , where live & death are being taken away ; one for medical, one for defense... ...then 5 minutes later, a wise old woman by the fireside, wears a crucifix , but one is to somehow accept that she has NOT been a part of the out of proportion value, behind the no-doubt ALL PRIVATE PRACTISE ... of the doctor, and one-of-us ... not a unable-to-understand man...etcthe " silver-she-wears " ... is combed over, by the sexisit unity, in other words.private, compared to public ... as a separate theme, as is often present MORE, in true sci-fi... was absent.MUST give it negative-points that bring it down because of that, sorry.

Pedro Almodóvar's movies have a habit of pulling the rug from under your feet and 'The Skin I Live In' might do so to an extent that none of his other movies have succeeded. The twists of the story are so ludicrous and disturbing that it raises questions about what kind of man could've come up with such stuff. Well, actually the movie is based on a book so Almodóvar can't be credited for that.The movie is set in the high class society of Madrid and most of it takes place in a luxurious and secretive mansion, decorated and furnished in style. But who is the prisoner kept behind locked doors, and what does she have to do with the wealthy top-of-the-line plastic surgeon who owns the mansion? There's bloody murder, mistaken identities, several rape scenes and a man dressed up in a stupid tiger costume. For a similar shocking storyline, check out Ethan Hawke's 'Predestination'.

it gives many ways to discover a profound message about contemporary world. about revenge and obsession and power to the life of the other. about relations. and about sacrifices. about beauty. and, maybe, about Almodovar. nothing surprising. only the performance of Antonio Banderas who does not only a great job but who propose a new level of a career who seems be easily defined. a film who gives many suggestions to interpreted it. and many opportunities to understand it as a personal portrait of every day society. cruel, poetic and cold. a parable and one of wake up films. De Sade and Mary Shelley. and the inspired music. an Almodovar who gives more than his common story about women and relations and revenges and shadows of the past. each of theme is present here but only as tool for a kind of image in mirror. because it is just a story about power. and its ways.

I've been meaning to watch this film for some time, but knowing that it might be confronting have put if off. Confronting it was... If you read through the reviews on IMDb you will find a lot of people telling you it's a horror film along the 'silence of the lambs' vein. Although it has that element, I found the film to be a complex look into the unhealthy way in which men relate to women. Whether it be the animalistic 'tiger' predator, the man who puts women up on a pedestal by objectifying the 'perfect woman', the young 'accidental' rapist, the son who treats his mother as a servant or the incestuous father, most women will identity with at least one of the creepy relationships in this film.If you consider yourself a feminist, it will test you. How far would you go to obtain revenge? What would it take to teach a man what we, as women, go through? Who is in charge of teaching that lesson? It opens up so many questions, which to me is the mark of a great film.