Skin Flicks

Erotic sci-fi mood piece Under The Skin (A24/Lionsgate) could sure use subtitles. That's only when there's dialogue, of which there is a minimum, mainly spoken in thick Scottish brogues. An alien being arrives in Scotland and assumes the visage of Scarlett Johansson. After putting on a dead woman's clothes, she hits the mall for a new wardrobe and some cosmetics.

She then proceeds to drive around town, observing human behavior. What she's really there for is to pick up single men with no families, bring them to her place and lure them into a black pool where they are transformed into a kind of extra-terrestrial sustenance.

She also keeps herself busy witnessing a seaside drowning, trying to eat human food (layer cake is a definite no), and burning up as much fossil fuel as she can. However, an encounter with a disfigured man has an unexpected impact on her. To her dismay, she also finds herself being transformed, becoming, dare it be said, human. When she finally does have sex, homo-sapien style, it doesn't go that well.

Occasionally, visually interesting, the special effects, what little there are of them, are cool enough to make us want to see more. Mostly, it's listless and mannered, an excuse for some to see Johansson in various states of undress. DVD special features include a "making of" featurette.

Subtitled "the Go Doc Project," Getting Go (Wolfe/Speak), Cory Krueckeberg's directorial debut, follows Doc's (Tanner Cohen, a long way from Were The World Mine) journey from small town boy in the city to radicalized homo in the country. Shortly before college graduation in NYC and relocation to Iowa for grad school, obsessive, and somewhat anti-social, Doc takes a chance and reaches out to Go (stripper-turned-actor Matthew Camp), a "dancer of the go-go variety" with a "corn-fed epic ass," on the pretense that he is making, well, a doc about the NYC nightlife scene.

Usually content with his online sex life (including jerking off on his webcam and surfing Internet porn), Doc's "profound" and "serious crush" on Go leads him outside of his comfort zone. After drunk posting an email to Go proposing his project, and getting a reply in the affirmative, Doc meets "New York's finest boy on the box" for some preliminary details. Go agrees to do it for 5% of the profits and the interview and filming process begins.

Basically using his iPhone to film Go in his apartment, where his artwork and tattoo supplies are on display, Doc attempts to finding a story in Go's story, but it's all pretty flimsy. Naturally, there is sexual tension, leading to sex, the beginnings of a relationship, a trip to Fire Island, discussions of queer culture, and the inevitable – Doc catches Go having sex with someone else. In between, there are clever Warhol homages (including his Eating and Kiss) and provocative comments on the state of gay relationships. By the time Go turns the camera on Doc, you know the end is near. Getting Go is at turns sweet, silly and sexy (if a bit overly long), and definitely entertaining. DVD special features include an interview with Krueckeberg, a Matthew Camp slideshow and more.

In French with subtitles, Man At Bath (Canteen Outlaws) stars tattoo-scalped gay porn-star Francois Sagat as Emmanuel, a narcissistic hustler who thinks nothing of raping filmmaker boyfriend Omar (Omar Ben Sellem) before he leaves on a trip to NYC to attend a film fest. As he departs, Omar asks Emmanuel to move out of the apartment. What follows is a series of flashbacks of happier times combined with each man's experiences in their present day situations that are alternately humorous, erotic and emotional. Watch for gay writer Dennis Cooper as the guys' off-balance neighbor Robin. DVD contains no bonus material.