Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
The definitive documentary on the history of nudity in feature films from the early silent days to the present, studying the changes in morality that led to the use of nudity in films while emphasizing the political, sociological and artistic changes that shaped that history. Skin will also study the gender inequality in presenting nude images in motion pictures and will follow the revolution that has created nude gender equality in feature films today.
A solid if uneven documentary that covers well-trodden ground about Hollywood history and the Hays Code while weaving in more contemporary angles around gender inequality and #MeToo. The archival footage and parade of talking heads are competently assembled but the cinematography is unremarkable TV-doc style. Acting scores reflect the quality of interview subjects rather than performers — mostly industry figures of varying articulacy. The narrative arc is coherent but meanders in its latter half, and the ending feels rushed rather than conclusive. Novelty is modest: the subject matter is genuinely niche and the gender-equality framing adds some freshness, but the approach is fairly conventional for a film-history documentary.