Skin Deep

Skin Deep made me cry. Admittedly, I almost always cry at movies bout terminal illness so that’s not saying much. Luckily, Skin Deep is a good movie outside of my emotional reaction to it.

Skin Deep is the story of two women who begin the film as strangers. They meet after Leah’s boyfriend fails to pick her up after a hospital appointment. Caitlyn, a queer woman has just been released from the psych ward takes interest and pity on this girl with a shit boyfriend and invites her for a meal. Initially awkward, the two girls become friends. Once friendly, Leah reveals she has melanoma and an estimated three months to live. Eager to give Leah an exciting, bucket list night, Caitlyn takes the sometimes unwilling Leah on a series of “adventures”. These adventures generally boil down to getting intoxicated and being emotionally vulnerable with each other.

Skin Deep doesn’t tread a lot of new ground. Two opposite personalities going on adventure and terminal illness plots are fairly common. So while there is occasionally a lack of new ideas, Skin Deep stands out because it executes these ideas well. Especially given the indie film budget, the film is very good at achieve what it sets out to do.

I watched this common-plotted film because Monica Zanetti wrote it. Zanetti made one of my favourite WLW films from 2020, Ellie and Abbie (and Abbie’s Dead Aunt). She’s got a real knack for both humour and moments of serious emotional honesty. The scene where Leah finally breaks down in a graveyard and cries about how she doesn’t want to die isn’t exactly new screenwriting territory. But it works because like the rest of the film, there’s talent in the writing, directing and acting.

The film’s queerness is mostly limited to Caitlyn. Caitlyn is a disaster lesbian with a codependent relationship with her ex. Admittedly, she and Leah do share a kiss at one point which Leah both initiates and seems to enjoy. It is Caitlyn who pulls back with the comment that romance will make their relationship messy. While I would often mourn the lack of additional queer content, Skin Deep is good enough with its characters that I agree with Caitlyn. These women are already emotionally volatile and on shaky ground. Adding the addition of romance or sex would probably upset the unusual balance they have.

Overall, Skin Deep is a solid little indie flick. What it lacks for in original ideas it makes up with solid execution of said ideas. The film is well-shot, the story is moving and the characters are well-realized. It’s a good film about a sudden and unusual friendship between two women who both challenge and support each other. There’s impressive emotional development and connection given the fact that Skin Deep takes place over one night and the film runs a mere 72 minutes.

Overall rating: 7.3/10

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