Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies, 2020 – ★★★

I love some good nudity in films, and Skin is a good retrospective of nakedness through the history of film. It even approaches greatness in its discussions of pre-Hays code nudies in the Teens and 20s. That said, it's surprising that a documentary over 2 hours sometimes feels very surfacy and unwilling to go deeper. It does perfunctorily address the #MeToo movement, and the pushing of actresses to be nude, but also contents itself with being more rah-rah than cautiously documenting. It really feels as though it deserved to be split into two films, because after all, how could any documentation of nudity in cinema not once mention the Mom and Dad “sex ed” films that toured the country as “educational” reasons to see nudity? Or John Waters. Or Helen Mirren, for Dame's sake!

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