68
Metascore
18 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Village VoiceDennis LimVillage VoiceDennis LimWithout deploying reductive backstory or simplistic psychology, this fearless movie -- easily the year's best debut feature -- illuminates Esther's pathology as an extreme response to the mind-body split.
- 80The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasMakes heavy demands of even jaded viewers, who are unlikely to stomach de Van's anatomical noodling from the same curious distance. But for the brave, the film's literal journey to find the "I" inside the body moves forward with a riveting single-mindedness.
- 80VarietyDavid RooneyVarietyDavid RooneyDelves far more deeply into grisly physical manifestation than psychological motivation, making it seem something of an actorish vanity piece. But the drama is directed with arresting spareness and control.
- 80The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenAs unrelenting an exploration of isolation and dissociation as Roman Polanski's "Repulsion."
- 75Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittThe results are unsparingly perverse and oddly spellbinding.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.A. MusettoNeedless to say, In My Skin isn't for everybody. It's recommended to viewers who, like Esther, want to feel something, no matter how distasteful.
- 70L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasThe movie surely owes something to Polanski, Cronenberg, et al., in its use of an apparently placid, upper-middle-class setting as the background for perverse horrors, but De Van's fearless, high-wire performance is uniquely its own.
- 67Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAn experience you won't easily shake.
- 63New York Daily NewsJami BernardNew York Daily NewsJami BernardEven aside from the metaphorical aspect, this may be the first movie to give a precise sense of what drives people who self-mutilate.
- 60Los Angeles TimesManohla DargisLos Angeles TimesManohla DargisSpectacularly grotesque and literally nauseating, even for this usually intrepid moviegoer, In My Skin is among the more disturbing films in this blood-drenched cinematic season.