With the promise of telling a true story and the ever-reliable talent of Elizabeth Banks, Skincare immediately grabs the attention of thriller fans. Surprisingly, the movie also has much to say about the American Dream and the challenges successful women encounter.
Skincare follows Banks as Hope Goldman, a self-made woman who built her cosmetology reputation over 15 years and is just about to launch her own line of skincare products. Unfortunately for Hope, just two weeks before the event that would cement her success, she falls victim to an online harassment campaign that quickly erodes her career. The timing of these attacks overlaps with a competitor opening a salon right in front of Hope’s, pushing her into a downward spiral of paranoia and despair.
For most of its runtime, Skincare follows Hope as she tries to counter fake messages sent by her account — adult ads posted online with her contact information — and even grotesquely photoshopped nude images. Meanwhile, on the other side of the street, Angel Jordan (Luis Gerardo Méndez) picks up all the clients who jump off Hope’s boat amidst the turbulent waters flooding her life. In short, Hope’s failure increases Angel’s success, which reasonably puts him at the top of the suspect list.
As expected, Skincare is about the mystery of Hope’s harassment and the lengths someone can take to protect their reputation. As a good thriller, Skincare sucks you into its story of lies and deceptions, leaving enough breadcrumbs behind so your mind can race while trying to fit all the pieces of the puzzle. However, the movie’s main goal is to deconstruct the lie of the American Dream and question how much hard work alone can ensure someone’s financial stability.
When we meet Hope, she is a thriving facialist who tends to the skin of Hollywood stars thanks to her groundbreaking product formulas. Still, she struggles to pay rent and make ends meet, as putting her line of products on the market is quite costly. Despite 15 years of sweat, tears, and hard work, Hope still tries to make her dream come true without a safety net. So, when the harassment campaign begins, her whole life crumbles around her.
Skincare‘s point is that effort does not equal success, and the inspiring stories of working people who made it are just lucky exceptions or comfortable lies we repeat to avoid facing the harsh truth of an unfair economic system. It’s not the kind of discussion you’d expect from a cosmetology-themed thriller, but it’s a welcome subject that director and co-writer Austin Peters masterfully weaves into the plot.
If the American Dream is under attack in Skincare, the movie is even more willing to show how women suffer the most when it comes to making a name for themselves. Hope is a somewhat successful businesswoman who should be admired for her achievements. Yet, when it’s time to ask for help and call the calvary, her supposed close friends treat her as a naive girl in need of protection, someone they can exploit in exchange for affection or sexual favors.
It doesn’t matter how far Hope got with her wits and dedication; she continues to be objectified to the point where her body and beauty are the only currency accepted in a patriarchal society. Hope is aware of that and even uses it in her favor. Banks does a phenomenal job playing a complex woman who weaponizes her charm while demanding her due respect.
Skincare reinforces these ideas by showing how all the attacks on Hope’s reputation pass through her sexuality. The mysterious person trying to undermine Hope’s business does so by revealing supposed intimate fantasies, recreating her online persona as a sex worker, and distributing pornography with her face on foreign bodies. Her attacker believes that displaying her as a sexual being is enough to destroy her cosmetology career. The sad part is that they are right.
Regardless of the obvious lies spread about Hope, people no longer want to be associated with her. Skincare, then, wants to expose how women’s value is publicly measured by how easily they can be seen as objects of desire. At the same time, women’s sexuality can only exist passively. If they are explicitly associated with sex in any form, they must be shunned and buried. It’s a social process that makes sex work extremely popular while demonizing sex workers, but that also has baleful consequences for women in general.
What makes Skincare even more unnerving is that Hope’s personal trip to hell is based on a true story. Skincare‘s opening credits underline how the movie is a work of fiction only inspired by actual events. This strategy allows Skincare to preserve the real victim’s rights to control her own narrative. It also conveniently gives Skincare’s crew a lot of room to change things as they see fit to keep the story entertaining.
Even so, there are some obvious parallels between Hope and Dawn DaLuise, a facialist who also saw her reputation attacked with the same perverse tools used in the movie. So, while Skincare is obviously trying to shove its message down the audience’s throats, which might bother some viewers, it remains tethered to reality in a way that the questions it raises can’t be dismissed. It’s a clever way to tie everything together in a satisfying package.
While Skincare is a relevant thriller, the movie is not without flaws. The pacing suffers from revelations that come too early, dispelling the veil of secrecy surrounding Hope’s journey. Maybe because DaLuise’s case is available in the public domain, Skincare’s creative team didn’t feel the need to prolong the riddle. Whatever the reason, Skincare’s final half-hour becomes less interesting as it gets rid of the thriller tension. Watching Hope slowly and inevitably approaching her denouement is still interesting, but the movie never reaches its desired heights once she is the only one who doesn’t know the truth.
In addition, Skincare often puts purpose ahead of the plot. The movie is indeed trying to raise concerns about important matters. Still, at times, it feels like the movie’s ethos gets in its way of telling a more engaging story. Despite its shortcomings, Skincare is still an excellent addition to the IFC Films catalog.