What does it mean to be human? How did men create society? Why does our body move to a song’s beat and rhythm? How did that ever came to be? How do mirrors work and are even possible? Why is the human body the way it is?

These are just some of the issues Scarlett Johansson’s alien character Laura faces on Under the Skin. Of course, those are surprises. When you’re going to watch this, and you desperately should, what you’ll probably know is that ScarJo plays an alien and seduces random men on Scotland.

The hunting is incredibly realistic and candid. Well, save a few exceptions, most of the men Laura approached with her van were indeed strangers on the street and not actors. The European countryside does have its advantages. When they accept her ride and go back to her place, she seduces and…”disposes” of them.

The first thing people notice about Under the Skin is how abstract the movie actually is, which of course leads to several interpretations of the plot and scenes. You can tell that from the opening sequence. Lights and circles engulfing each other. Laura making some phonetic sounds. You could say they represent the universe and the alien coming to Earth and learning our speech and languages.

Johansson delivers her best performance to date. Just like the movie’s eeriness, her unpredictability scares you. Even though Laura is quiet and very still, as she’s an men-devouring alien, you think she might decapitate anyone at anytime. We see her trying to understand herself and the world around her, there’s a childlike quality to her acting. This innocence and curiosity is captured perfectly.

Jonathan Glazer (director of Birth and Radiohead’s videos of Street Spirit and Karma Police) did an unbelievably outstanding job with this piece. There are too many mesmerizing and remarkable scenes and images. It’s hypnotizing. Even the first picture entices your curiosity: a very, very small white dot on the centre of the screen. What is it? What will it change to? From this very start of shapes and light, Blazer paces his work, which remains constant throughout the entire movie.

One particular scene stuck with me. Laura is at a beach, watching a swimmer. He goes back to shore; they chat a bit and notice a lady trying to save her dog, being dragged by the strong tide. The lady’s husband goes to the water as well, fully clothed, to save her. The swimmer goes after him. For some reason, they reminded me of drowning ants. For us — and maybe for Laura when looking at us — the ants struggle on the overwhelming force of nature seems so futile and in a way it’s fun to watch.

Laura’s impartiality and indifference with many social conventions shows that, even though she might not look like an alien, she’s at the very least “out of touch.” Maybe in her on way she’s drowning on this sea of people called mankind.