R | 1h 37m | Crime, Thriller, Comedy | Aug. 16, 2024
I like motorcycles and Top Fuel drag racing, so it couldn’t really be said of me that I’m a skincare-products enthusiast. Meaning, I might have a minimal bias about a movie about moisturizers. That said, “Skincare” is not really about skin care.
What Goes On
Hope runs a brick-and-mortar L.A. boutique with her assistant (Michaela Jaé Rodriguez). Suddenly, across the parking lot, another facialist named Angel (Luis Gerardo Méndez) opens a competing boutique.
Hope is incensed. Things get progressively worse when it becomes clear that an impersonator is trying to hack and destroy her career via identity theft and character defamation, sending salacious details about her fictitious, oversexed self, to her entire client list.
She assumes it’s Angel, since he’s, you know, just so annoying and smarmy, and especially because he immediately starts hoovering up her clients.
She then asks her friend Jordan (Lewis Pullman) for help, which just seems to inexplicably add fuel to the fire. He’s also not exactly who he claims to be (a life coach who teaches self-defense).
Also, at this time, her landlord Jeff (John Billingsley) is breathing down her neck about the overdue rent. Much bungled nonsense and mishaps ensue until, finally, the cops show up and someone gets carted off to jail.
Lifted From Headlines, Sort of
The film starts off by letting us know this will be a fictional story inspired by true events. However, “Skincare” would appear to recount the true 2014 story of facialist Dawn DaLuise, who was arrested and charged with solicitation to commit murder for allegedly putting out a hit on rival aesthetician Gabriel Suarez.However, she can’t make this clunker fly, because it doesn’t know whether it wants to be a crime thriller, a drama, or a comedy. By trying to be all three, it ends up being none of the above.
“Skincare” is very Coen Brothers-lite, but with none of their quirky eccentricity. And that’s probably because all the characters are just so L.A.; that is, stereotypically disingenuous, narcissistic, and egotistical. All of which exactly describes Hope herself. So, not particularly likeable. Nothing to invest in here, emotionally. Amazing that it’s getting a theatrical release, really.
