Skins Review
by Harvey S. Karten (film_critic AT compuserve DOT com)June 18th, 2002
SKINS
Rating out of 4 stars: 2.5
Reviewed by Harvey Karten
First Look Pictures
Director: Chris Eyre
Writer: Jennifer D. Lyne, novel by Adrian C. Louis
Cast: Eric Schweig, Graham Greene, Gary Farmer, Noah Watts, Lois Red Elk, Michelle Thrush, Nathaniel Arcand, Chaske Spencer
Screened at: Preview 9, NYC, 6/17/02
American Indians (or Native Americans if you prefer) can live anywhere they'd like in the U.S. but many live on reservations because of alleged tax advantages for doing so. You can locate the specific list of breaks that an Indian can get living thus by putting the terms "Indian Reservations Advantages" into an internet search engine like google.com. What comes up are some abstractions that only a lawyer could love, but to me the benefits seem to accrue to the rez corporation as a whole rather than to individuals. At any rate, see Chris Eyre's film "Skins" and you'll wonder that any American Indian would choose to live on one, particularly on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, two miles from the Nebraska border. Pine Ridge is considered the poorest county in the United States, and from the looks of the ramshackle place captured by cinematographer Stephen Kazmierksi, you might think you were somewhere in the Third World, that is until you see the famous tourist attraction of Mt. Rushmore a short drive from the shacks that house the locals. Hell, just a single trip to the outhouse patronized in one shot by the 17-year-old Herbie :Yellow Lodge (Noah Watts) would freak me out and convince me that I'll take New York. The kid seems happy enough though, but a couple of the adults are an absolute mess.
The aforementioned adults are Mogie (played by the versatile veteran of 50 films, Graham Greene) and his younger brother Rudy Yellow Lodge (Eric Schweiz). While Rudy becomes a cop, protecting the folks on the rez from one another, Mogie turns into a drunk, chain chugging Colt 45 financed by cash layouts from his brother. When Rudy, furious about the wasted lives he sees before him and in particular about the murder of one resident by two others, he takes matters into his own hands and becomes the town Rambo. His vigilantism backfires tragically.
Behind the story told by Chris Eyre (whose previous work, "Smoke Signals," starred "Windtalker"'s Adam Beach and dealt with a couple of Coeur d'Alene Indians who travel to Phoenix to retrieve a father's remains), is his determination to show the audience that the miserable conditions of the townspeople are largely the fault of the system. Stuck out in nowhere where there are few jobs and abject poverty, the locals take out their frustrations in drink, domestic violence, and even murder. This makes "Skins" an agreeable entry into New York's Human Rights Watch Film Festival in June 2002. The film succeeds as an education, putting into cinematic style the conditions that we all know exist but for want of being able to tour the area (Pine Ridge is no Taos, New Mexico), we would not have seen with our own eyes. It is less riveting, however, as a story. Despite Graham Greene's wonderful performance as a drunk with a heart, one who convinces us that he loves his kid brother no matter what, there is little suspense and not a lot of development of the character of the one key woman in the drama, who functions as a love interest. Rudy predictably breaks up drunken brawls, pulls apart a couple going at each other furiously in their shack, and engages in a more or less predictable reconciliation with his wayward sib.
Not Rated. Running time: 90 minutes. (C) 2002 by Harvey Karten, [email protected]
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
