Metacritic reviews

The genius of “Skincare” is how it uses Los Angeles and its image- and celebrity-driven culture as a metaphor for empty lives.

Austin Peters’ Skincare knows exactly what it’s doing, balancing a sense of total desperation with just enough camp to convey its nightmarish situations without ruining your day.

In Skincare, Elizabeth Banks leads a tense, socially conscious thriller that cleverly blends suspense and social commentary to create an engaging, if uneven, experience.

Though Skincare’s script lacks bite or balance, Elizabeth Banks gives a riveting lead performance with assistance from Lewis Pullman as her sketchy sidekick.

Fortunately, despite its stranger-than-fiction premise, this thriller does have a handful of interesting ideas outside of the realm of true crime. Unfortunately, it also all but abandons those ideas in its messy third act, making for a mixed bag of a movie.

Disappointing but not outright disastrous, Skincare never penetrates past superficial observations of how beauty, success and artificiality constantly commingle among the Los Angeles elite.

How we look from the outside versus how we are on the inside doesn’t always lineup, and that disparity can shake the visions we have of ourselves. The metaphor extends to “Skincare” itself as a film that looks bright on its face but ends up dull despite its best efforts and self-care.

Skincare feels like it wants to be a screwball caper movie but the comedy gets lost along the way.

It’s a film about the costs of selling your own superficiality to the world only ends up just as superficial.

The characters somehow behave both flatly and erratically, driving a cliché plot that manages to be both overly simplistic and confusing. Take care of your skin — and sanity — by sitting this one out.