The Man Who Sold His Skin

The Man Who Sold His Skin (الرجل الذي باع ظهره) is very good. I really like films about art, for the record. This movie is not up to the level of Museum Hours or The Square, but it's definitely intriguing, and Yahya Mahayni is great. I really enjoyed this. I think the reason it doesn't quite get to the level of brilliance is that the director, Kaouther Ben Hania, isn't willing to let her film be a tragedy. There's a moment near the end of the film where it really feels like she's going to let the bottom drop out, but a Hollywood sensibility brings us back around and the movie unfortunately can't stick its ending. Still, there's a lot of good stuff here, and as I said Yahya Mahayni is excellent.

The artist on which the entire premise of The Man Who Sold His Skin is based – Wim Delvoye – makes a cameo appearance in the film (his art does too), and so perhaps his involvement necessitated that we look at this artist in a more heroic light than we normally might.

Anyway, this is my first 2021 film, and it was good!