Synopsis
A destitute young man, raised by racist skinheads and notorious among white supremacists, turns his back on hatred and violence to transform his life, with the help of a black activist and the woman he loves.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Jamie BellBryon Widner
- Danielle MacdonaldJulie Price
- Vera FarmigaShareen
- Bill CampFred 'Hammer' Krager
- Louisa KrauseApril
- Zoe CollettiDesiree
- Kylie RogersSierra
- Colbi GannettIggy
- Mike ColterDaryle Jenkins
- Mary Stuart MastersonAgent Jackie Marks
Recommendations
- 75
The Film Stage
A just world would place [Bell] in the awards conversation, but ours will probably not give Skin the platform necessary for that to happen. - 75
Movie Nation
It is Bell who makes the movie, belligerent, coiled fury from the tip of his bald head to the toes he bounces on as he stomps into the frame, threatening one and all, righteous in his racist wrath. - 70
Variety
Less dynamic than “American History X,” and less lurid than some treatments of similarly themed stories, “Skin” is a compelling character study whose narrative momentum flags somewhat around the three-quarter point. Still, it never loses interest. - 70
Rolling Stone
There are times when Skin can seem naïve and manipulative, almost in the same breath, which takes the film perhaps too long to get its bearings. But Bell is the binding force that locks us into Widner’s tumultuous journey. - 63
Slant Magazine
After a while, the film’s not-strictly-linear structure and handheld camerawork come to feel like self-conscious signs of “gritty” realism, attempts at masking a certain conventionality. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
Nattiv's bio-drama has its flaws, but the performances across the board are outstanding. ... Nevertheless, there's something a bit queasy-making about the film's full-on plunge into melodrama in the last act. - 60
Screen Daily
Skin is a little pedestrian and obvious in its early stages, skirting with the feeling of a television production. It is the nature of the story and the scale of the mountain that Widner had to climb that finally makes it into something more compelling. - 60
The New York Times
A blistering story of rage and redemption that never fully illuminates the journey from one to the other.
