Skin Deep (2003) is an ultra low budget ($400K) thriller that also deals with racial dynamics in a mixed marriage. IMDb has it at 2.9, even though the average vote is 6.9. It won 6 festival awards. I think 6.9 is much closer to the proper score than 2.9. Basically, someone dies in a hot tub, and three of the four remaining characters are credible as a murderer. Debra Wilson shows a breast is a sex scene, then bush through a transparent nightie. Kristin Shaw shows breasts. If you intend seeing this film, skip the rest of the review.

Spoilers Ahead

As the film opens, Anthony (Mailon Rivera) is having sex with Debra Wilson. Afterward, she pushes him to leave his wife and marry her. He breaks up with her, gets on his motorcycle, and we see him riding into his driveway. He finds his wife (Kristin Shaw) in the bathtub, and, to our surprise, she is white. He wants sex, she doesn't, and we learn that there has been a lot of that lately. They are preparing for his friends to come over, Michael (Steve White) and his wife Sarah (A. J. Johnson) for lunch. While Anthony is mild mannered and fitting in in a white neighborhood, Michael is militant, and he and Shaw have a running battle. The four end up in a hot tub, and Sarah gives Michael a blow job. Sarah gets miffed and leaves, and Sarah follows her, and tries to seduce her.

Then we learn that Michael lost a lot of money in a bad .com investment, and hasn't told his wife. Anthony jokingly suggest he kill her as the perfect solution. He wouldn't have to tell her, and he would collect the insurance money. Next thing you know, Sarah is dead in the hot tub. Michael is afraid to call the police, especially as the person living in the guest house may have overheard to joking about killing her. So who is in the guest house? Debra Wilson.

When Anthony goes to find out how much Debra knows, she knows everything, and tells him that unless he breaks up with his wife on the spot, she will tell the police that she saw him kill Sarah. Michael goes to reason with Debra and the two end up fighting. He leaves with her apparently dead on the flour. From there, things go rapidly down hill, until a surprise ending.

End Spoilers

Considering the budget, this is a very well made film with a few good laughs in the beginning, and tremendous suspense leading to the great ending. Not only that, it has a lot of insight into certain race relations. The DVD includes not one but two commentaries, one with the director/writer and producer/writer that is pretty much technical and anecdotal, and the other with the two male leads that is all comedy. This would be a decent effort at any budget, but for something made in 14 days for under $400K with only two locations, it is an amazing effort. Editing and music was done is Spain. It did well at every festival it appeared in, but couldn't get distribution. This is a solid C.

Hi, y'all. I'm taking a mini-vacation. I'll still be digging up some other crap every day, and will chip in with some movies as well, but not with my usual volume of verbiage and such!

The Woodsman (2004):

The Woodsman is a controversial film from an unknown director whose script impressed real life couple Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon enough that they agreed to work in it, despite what must have been a minimal payday by their standards.

Kevin Bacon plays a confessed child molester who gets out of prison on supervised parole after twelve years of hard time. The film examines his struggle to life a quiet blue collar life unnoticed, and his greater struggle to deserve that life by keeping himself under control. His parole officer and several of his co-workers believe that a child molester is always a child molester.

This complex script doesn't give the audience the easy out usually afforded by a Hollywood film. In the typical mainstream film Bacon would  be a reformed man who, having paid his dues, is faced with the blind and unwarranted prejudice of a large segment of society. In this film he is a paroled convict who, having paid his dues, is faced with the perfectly justified prejudice of a large segment of society. He is still a child molester in the sense that an alcoholic doesn't stop being an alcoholic. He knows in his heart that he is still a child molester, because he still has sexual feelings for young girls, and we actually see him act on those feelings, falling short of physical contact with the willing victim not because of his will to exercise restraint, but only because he was suddenly touched by something the little girl said.

We see that he is essentially a good man, but his demons are very real.

The key dramatic conflict does not revolve around the prejudice of society, but whether he can conquer himself. The conflict is developed by four circumstances (1) a little girl who Bacon is about ready to molest, until he realizes how much pain she carries from being molested by her own father (2) another child molester who is observed stalking a playground, thus offering Bacon a mirror into himself (3) a new girlfriend (Kyra Sedgwick) who learns about his problem and tries to help Bacon get assimilated into normal life (4) Bacon's talks with his psychologist.

Of course, just about nobody will ever see this subtle, multi-dimensional, nuanced and unresolved drama about child abuse. It's a difficult subject which is not treated superficially, and the story ends with nothing really resolved, as it would in real life. Not exactly a popcorn film.  I suppose it will never reach even 100 theaters. That's reality, but something of a shame, because it is a smart script and manages to coax a brilliant performance from Kevin Bacon. Although we see him act on his sexual urges toward a young girl, and we do not have any hope that he is suddenly "well", we do see him make progress and feel, along with him, that he might have a chance. 

IMDb voters score it 5.1/10. This score makes no sense to me. 81% of the voters have scored it higher than 5.1, only 19% lower. The actual average is 7.7, and the median is 9!! If you think the premise of this film is intriguing, you will probably be impressed.

• Kyra Sedgwick. (1, 2, 3) She hasn't done a lot of nudity, and has only done so in scenes with her husband, Kevin Bacon

• Here is Kyra 13 years ago in Pyrates. Note that in the past thirteen years her breasts have managed to get both larger and firmer! Hmmm ...

Other Crap:

Other Crap archives. May also include newer material than the links above, since it's sorta in real time.

Click here to submit a URL for Other Crap

MOVIE REVIEWS:

Here are the latest movie reviews available at scoopy.com.

• The yellow asterisks indicate that I wrote the review, and am deluded into thinking it includes humor.
• If there is a white asterisk, it means that there isn't any significant humor, but I inexplicably determined there might be something else of interest.
• A blue asterisk indicates the review is written by Tuna (or Junior or Brainscan, or somebody else besides me)
• If there is no asterisk, I wrote it, but am too ashamed to admit it.

Words, pictures, and vids from ICMS

As promised we'll take a closer look today at the director of yesterday's movie "Te Doy Mis Ojos", about which I wrote an entire eulogy. I'm talking about Icíar Bollaín of course. In the Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch co-production "La Balsa de Piedra" (2002; The Stone Raft) she is an actress and shows her deep dark roots. I think "chunky" is the word Brainscan would use to describe her. This becomes even more obvious if you look at caps of her from her other movies, which you can find at here when you do "buscar" for her name.   The film itself, based on a novel by a Mexican Nobel prize winner, never convinces the audience. It is a surrealistic feature about the Iberian Peninsula getting torn loose from the rest of Europe, an event which serves as the base for a road movie in which a bunch of people drive in an old Citroën 2CV after a dog and end up in Icíar's decrepit farm and so forth. While the starting point is interesting, the film struggles to find its pace during its entire 104 minutes length and fails to form a cohesive story that makes any sense. The actors seemed to enjoy themselves though. There's only 2 reviews about this movie in the IMDB and I pretty much agree with the second reviewer.

• Bollain 1 (.wmv zipped, .avi zipped)
• Bollain 2 (.wmv zipped, .avi zipped)

"Finnlandia" (2001)

In 2001's "Finnlandia" French actress Caroline Baehr gets out of her clothes in the open. You can find more of Caroline in the Encyclopedia, the back issues and even more in Charlie's section.

• Baehr 1 (.wmv zipped, .avi zipped)
• Baehr 2 (.wmv zipped, .avi zipped)

"Polizeiruf 110" (1988-1990??)

• Schmutzler (.wmv zipped, .avi zipped)

If you have your own site or blog, sign up today and earn some extra cash in 2005 by promoting the Fun House!

"Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle"
If you're a fan of the Cheech & Chong pot-filled stoner humor genre, you're gonna love this 2004 comedy. The scene where two girls sitting in bathroom stalls play "Battleshits" while the heroes hide between them silently suffering the sounds and smells is one of the funniest you'll see in a movie.

Harold is a twenty-something investment banker, very serious and nerdy. His friend Kumar is a brilliant but lazy pre-med student, and nothing in his life is taken seriously. Their common bond is a love of pot. After smoking one night, they decide to find a White Castle to get some sliders.

Needless to say, the trip doesn't go smoothly, as they confronted by skinheads, cops, a tow truck driver whose wife wants a three-way, the above-mentioned battleshitters, and a lot more crazy events too numerious to mention. Every possible ethnic sterotype is exploited in this movie, and it's damned funny.

I think this one would be funny even if you saw it straight, not that I'm recommending that. One way or the other, see it.

• Malin Akerman
• Assorted topless babes

"Making of the Aida Yespica 2005 Calendar"
Starting with a couple of calendars, or actually the 'making of'. First up we have Aida Yespica, an Italian model not afraid of being naked. She was posing for GQ magazine and the show was on Fashion TV. The final result are available on the Internet here

• Aida Yespica (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

"Pirelli Calendar 2005"
The well-known Pirelli Calendar usually has a 'making of' video to go with it. I don't know whether we saw a heavily edited version but there were a few models not covered. The final pictures can be seen here. The models featured are Isabeli Fontana, Diana Dondoe, Valentina, Liliane Ferrarezi, Michell Buswell, Adriana Lima, Fillipa Hamilton, Marija Vujovic and Erin Wasson.

• Isabeli Fontana
• Diana Dondoe
• Valentina (1, 2)
• Liliane Ferrarezi
• Michell Buswell (1, 2)
• Adriana Lima (1, 2)
• Fillipa Hamilton
• Marija Vujovic
• Erin Wasson

"The Real Cancun"
The Real Cancun is a reality-type movie, following a group of people during spring break in Cancun. I have no idea why it was made, there are at least three similar shows on Pay TV in Australia and they are all just as dull. There are lot of topless unknowns but I've only capped the 'stars'. Twins, Nicole and Roxanne Frilot, enter a wet T-shirt competition and end up topless. Marquita 'Sky' Marshal shows some pokies and does some dirty dancing.

• Nicole and Roxanne Frilot (1, 2)
• Marquita 'Sky' Marshal (1, 2, 3)

"Scrooged"
Scrooged was PG rated so not a lot of nakedness. Some nipple from an unknown dancer plus some cleavage and partial views from Carol Kane and Nancy Allen.

• Carol Kane
• Karen Allen
• Solid Gold Dancer

"North Shore"
North Shore is a surfing movie based in Hawaii. Nia Peeples provides the eye candy and the pokies.

• Nia Peeples (1, 2, 3)

"Sabrina, the Teenage Witch"
Some bikini shots from a couple of episodes of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. First there's Melissa Joan Hart and Beth Broderick in an episode called The Good, the Bad and the Luau. Next, a bit later there's Melissa Joan Hart in an episode called Beach Blanket Bizarre.

• Beth Broderick
• Melissa Joan Hart in "The Good, the Bad and the Lua" (1, 2, 3)
• Melissa Joan Hart in "Beach Blanket Bizarre" (1, 2)

"Milk Money"
Milk Money is a Pretty Woman knock off but this time it's Melanie Griffith is the prostitute who makes good. No nudity but lots of cleavage and an upskirt by Melanie Griffith and pokies by Anne Heche.

• Anne Heche (1, 2)
• Melanie Griffith (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)