58
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75The Film StageJared MobarakThe Film StageJared MobarakA just world would place [Bell] in the awards conversation, but ours will probably not give Skin the platform necessary for that to happen.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreIt is Bell who makes the movie, belligerent, coiled fury from the tip of his bald head to the toes he bounces on as he stomps into the frame, threatening one and all, righteous in his racist wrath.
- 70VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyLess dynamic than “American History X,” and less lurid than some treatments of similarly themed stories, “Skin” is a compelling character study whose narrative momentum flags somewhat around the three-quarter point. Still, it never loses interest.
- 70Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversThere are times when Skin can seem naïve and manipulative, almost in the same breath, which takes the film perhaps too long to get its bearings. But Bell is the binding force that locks us into Widner’s tumultuous journey.
- 63Slant MagazinePat BrownSlant MagazinePat BrownAfter a while, the film’s not-strictly-linear structure and handheld camerawork come to feel like self-conscious signs of “gritty” realism, attempts at masking a certain conventionality.
- 60The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinThe Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinNattiv's bio-drama has its flaws, but the performances across the board are outstanding. ... Nevertheless, there's something a bit queasy-making about the film's full-on plunge into melodrama in the last act.
- 60Screen DailyAllan HunterScreen DailyAllan HunterSkin is a little pedestrian and obvious in its early stages, skirting with the feeling of a television production. It is the nature of the story and the scale of the mountain that Widner had to climb that finally makes it into something more compelling.
- 60The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisA blistering story of rage and redemption that never fully illuminates the journey from one to the other.
- 58ConsequenceBlake GobleConsequenceBlake GobleWhat Skin lacks in history, context, or behavioral psychology, it compensates for with pure angst, dread, and guilt. It’s the human element, the bare skin as it were, that makes this film stand out. It’s a melodrama with characters that inspire interest, if not fondness.
- 50The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThe A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyThis kind of hamfisted manipulation seems par for the course in a movie that’s eager to lob as much as it can as its central problems. The theme of change is purely cosmetic: The characters are intractable, and they all offer different versions of the same pathology.