The movie Rian Johnson calls a “masterpiece”
Despite his oeuvre only containing six feature-length movies, Rian Johnson is one of the most exciting contemporary filmmakers. A modern master of the neo-noir mystery, his two Knives Out instalments are highly inventive additions to the genre that offer something stimulating with established traditions whilst remaining respectful of its extensive history.
As with any auteur worth their salt, Johnson is a lifelong lover of cinema and cites a variety of significant directors and movies as those that have informed his style, including Billy Wilder’s The Apartment and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist. Johnson also shared his fondness for more recent directors, including the Coen brothers, Guillermo del Toro, and Christopher Nolan.
Another more modern title that Johnson has shared his immense love for is Jonathan Glazer’s adaptation of Michael Faber’s novel Under the Skin. Starring Scarlett Johanson as an alien disguised as a woman who preys on men in Scotland, the haunting 2013 movie made such an impact that it was ranked as the best British movie of the 21st century in a 2022 critics poll.
When speaking to Konbini as part of their Video Club in December 2022, Johnson effused so much about Glazer’s film that he labelled it a “masterpiece”. He also compared it to Stanley Kubrick’s crowning achievement, 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is among the highest praise a filmmaker can receive.
Johnson said: “I think this is a masterpiece. It’s in my top ten of all time, and absolutely it’s in my top five of the past 20 years, I think. I could talk about this movie for an hour if you let me, so you’re gonna have to stop me, but when I first saw it and when you first watch it, it feels like a phantasmagoria; it feels overwhelming, but it also feels like a Jackson Pollock painting, it feels like it’s just all coming at you and kind of random and kind of insane and crazy.”
He continued: “And then I watched it, and then I was just completely emotionally affected by it. It was playing at my local theatre in LA, and as I was driving around during the day, I would just find myself back at the theatre, and I went back alone and rewatched it on its run maybe four or five times, I think just alone, and every single time I rewatched it, it became clearer and clearer. I’m going to sound like a crazy person right now, but it doesn’t matter that’s what these places are for.”
The director concluded: “Every single shot in this film, every single moment of it, advances the narrative in a way that is as tight as I was talking about with Billy Wilder. It’s an amazing feat of storytelling that is also an absolutely stunning visual achievement that I think, in terms of modern filmmaking, is the only thing that comes close to what Kubrick was pulling off with 2001.”
Watch Rian Johnson discuss Under the Skin below.
