Skin

A gang of skinheads chanting about white power cross a bridge. On the other side is a gang of anti racism protestors. The lead skinhead spits in a black man's face and it all kicks off. The police swarm in and the protesters scatter. A young black man is chased by 2 skinhead's who kick lumps out of him and then carve a swastika into his cheek. One of them is played by Jamie Bell. Yup. Little Billy Elliot has really grown up wrong.

Bryon Widner was hate personified. A white supremacist living in Indiana and part of the Vinlander social club, a hate group built around ancient Nordic beliefs. Beliefs Bryon had tattooed literally all over his face. Bryon, abandoned by his mother as a child was taken in Fred and Shareen Krager and groomed in the ways of bigotry. He was happy to live this life until one day he met Julie Price and the bond between them was strong enough to make him want to better himself. Unfortunately for him, the Vinlander social club had some strict laws about leaving.

American History X did this same story in 1999, almost verbatim. Swap out Julie Price for prison and its a very similar story. But where AHX used slick visuals and a fractured narrative Skin goes rough and ready and as such almost becomes it's own beast. Almost. Although the vast majority of the film is set in 2009 it's still an exceedingly timely watch. 10 years ago these hate groups were the extremist fringe. Now they're mainstream and energised by an American president who shares and espouses the very values they stand for. If one of them idiots, just one, watches this film and finds his mind changed well then it's been worthwhile.

Jamie Bell though, his appearance will appall you if you only know him from his most famous film. The gaunt face ruined with hateful ink, the shaved head, the constantly simmering violence bubbling behind his eyes. It's a hell of a brave transformation and one made even better by the fact that over the course of the film you actually start to give a fuck about him. At first you'll despise the chap but as the facts of his upbringing start to seep through you'll change your mind as he does. Danielle McDonald as his saviour does mighty work too. Forced into Bryon's world by financial reasons instead of ideological ones she bristles as he shows an interest in her but can see through the hateful veneer at the lost little boy inside. The chemistry between them really works and keeps the film afloat during it's staler moments. And there's plenty of those.

The film goes downhill everytime anyone else appears onscreen. Cliche abounds and the other gang members become an amorphous baldie mass with the exception of Bill Camp's Fred who's dialogue seems to only consist of combinations of homophobic and ablist slurs. He comes off like a badly written comic book villain and he sucks the life out of the film everytime he appears and its a shame because he's usually fantastic. The always reliable Vera Farmiga fares the same, saddled with a horrible character and poor Mike Colter as Daryle Lamont Jenkins, the creator of the One People's Project, an organisation that outs racist individuals barely even registers at all. His relationship with Bryon would have been a far more interesting story than what we got.

Skin works best when the focus is on Widner. Watching him grow is uncomfortable, it challenges your ideas of a monster and it doesn't give you a cheap flip ending either. Life isn't like that. For that and the performances from Bell and McDonald Skin is worth a shot.