Back to trending
Skin

Skin

Drama · 2009

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

Movie details

Skin

2009 Drama 1h 47m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.4 / 10

Community rating

Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Skin?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Starving in Suburbia

Starving in Suburbia

Drama · 2014

When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?

Hala

Hala

Drama · 2019

Seventeen-year-old Pakistani American teenager Hala struggles to balance desire with her family, cultural, and religious obligations. As she comes into her own, she grapples with a secret that threatens to unravel her family.

Rosie

Rosie

Drama · 2019

A mother strives to shield her young family from their new reality when their landlord sells the property and renders them homeless.

TalhotBlond

TalhotBlond

Drama · 2012

Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

Adopt a Highway

Adopt a Highway

Drama · 2019

Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.

Tigertail

Tigertail

Drama · 2020

A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

Drama · 2013

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

What Maisie Knew

What Maisie Knew

Drama · 2013

In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.

Fatima

Fatima

Drama · 2020

In 1917, outside the parish of Fátima, Portugal, a 10-year-old girl and her two younger cousins witness multiple visitations of the Virgin Mary, who tells them that only prayer and suffering will bring an end to World War I. As secularist government officials and Church leaders try to force the children to recant their story, word of the sighting spreads across the country, inspiring religious pilgrims to flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle..

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

Drama · 1972

Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Anthony Fabian

Written by

Anthony Fabian · Jessie Keyt · Helen Crawley · Helena Kriel

Sophie Okonedo

Sophie Okonedo

Sandra Laing

Alice Krige

Alice Krige

Sannie Lang

Sam Neill

Sam Neill

Abraham Laing

T

Terri Ann Eckstein

Elsie Laing (aged 19)

B

Bongani Masondo

Henry Laing (aged 20)

Dan Robbertse

Dan Robbertse

Factory Foreman

Jeremy Crutchley

Jeremy Crutchley

TV Reporter

Court is in session

Put Skin on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.