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Skincare spoilers ahead.
Welcome to ‘Showtime with Emily Maddick’, in which GLAMOUR'S Assistant Editor and Entertainment Director brings a unique perspective to the month's most hyped film or TV show. For November’s instalment, Emily reviews Skincare, Elizabeth Banks' new film out on digital release to rent or own today. On the surface, Skincare could seem like a frothy, fun, OTT thriller charting the downfall of Hollywood super facialist-to-the-stars, Hope Goldman. But it also sheds an important light on the real threat of deepfake technology and image-based abuse towards women - the very issues that GLAMOUR is calling on the government to urgently legislate on with our Stop Image-Based Abuse campaign and petition.
Skincare is a fun, frothy and often exaggerated snapshot of the long-since dead and buried, ‘girlboss’ era of glossy, can-have-it-all feminism so prevalent in the 2010s. But as we witness one woman spiral out of all control at the hands of a targeted campaign of abuse, we soon see that it's a world that rapidly loses its glossy veneer.
Elizabeth Banks plays Hope Goldman, Hollywood’s self-proclaimed ‘glow-getter’, a famous beauty maven at the top of her game, servicing the supple skin of the A-list and real housewives from Beverly Hills to Bel Air.
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Set in 2013, Skincare is loosely based on the real-life story of LA aesthetician, Dawn DaLuise who endured a stalking campaign that derailed her beauty career and landed her in jail charged with soliciting murder before being acquitted and rebranding herself the ‘killer facialist’.
On the eve of launching her own skincare range, Hope is ambushed by a series of threatening emails and videos designed to destroy her life. “Reputation is everything in this business”, says Hope in the opening scene, but very quickly her's is completely annihilated. And it’s terrifying.
First her email is hacked and her entire contact book is sent a sexually explicit message purportedly from her. While still reeling from this, explicit deep fake videos then emerge of Hope performing sex acts and soliciting for strangers to come to her clinic to fulfil her supposed ‘workplace rape fantasies’. An aggressive and violent would-be punter even shows up at the facial clinic looking for business.
It's so much more than a “bonkers thriller”.
We see Hope become more and more obsessed with the idea that the culprit responsible for all this is her new neighbour and industry rival, the scrappy yet in-demand aesthetician Angel Vegara (Luis Gerardo Mendez) whose business, Shimmer by Angel, is stealing all Hope’s clientele.
Meanwhile the actual perpetrator - a terrifying, incel-type psychopath called Jordan, who befriends Hope - is right under her nose and eventually revealed in a very ham-fisted manner that doesn’t leave the audience guessing long enough.
And while Skincare’s script is at times weak, a lot of the characters are one-dimensional and the overall vibe is a campy, hyped up black comedy with moments of marvellous melodrama from Banks (who puts on fantastic performance) - the film actually grapples with some serious and important themes.
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For not only does it explore feminism, fame, female rage and the ruthless Hollywood aesthetics industry, it also showcases the very real dangers posed to women by deepfake technology and image-based abuse.
And while the film may be set in 2013, it is actually even more relevant today due to the rabid rise of AI technology and deepfaking. For as we now know, in the past decade, deepfaking has become one of the most significant dangers facing women in the digital world today.
And the reason why earlier this year, GLAMOUR launched our Stop Image-Based Abuse campaign and petition in which we’re demanding the government introduces a dedicated, comprehensive Image-Based Abuse law to protect women and girls.
Image-based abuse is a broad term that covers a range of harmful actions involving nude or sexual images. This includes the non-consensual creating, taking or sharing of intimate images and digitally altered images, also known as ‘deepfakes’; coercing, blackmailing or threatening to share these images; requesting the creation of these images; cyber-flashing; and upskirting.
A comprehensive report into deepfakes in 2023 determined that 99% of those targeted by deepfake pornography are women.
And Skincare portrays the impact that such abuse can have on one woman with devastating effect. From the moment she is targeted, we see Hope’s mental health rapidly spiral out of all control as she becomes paranoid, unhinged and ultimately gets involved in a murder.
Indeed, as GLAMOUR’s purpose editor, Lucy Morgan, who is spearheading our campaign, says: “Having spoken to many image-based abuse survivors, it really can take over their life and take a great psychological toll; dealing with it is like having a second job and they can get overwhelmed, stressed and burnt out.
“Therefore it’s great that this film is showcasing what can happen when these technologies are abused to target a woman.
“It’s also interesting that it shows that these technologies were available and already being used over 10 years ago. But no one knew how to really deal with them, let alone legislate against them.”
And this is another very important point raised by the film. When Hope attempts to get the police involved in her case, pleading with them to take her seriously and consider the evidence she has compiled against whom she believes is sabotaging her, the LAPD officer dismisses her.
In partnership with the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Not Your Porn, and Professor Clare McGlynn.
“I still don’t think any of this is life-threatening,” says the police officer. “Well maybe that’s because it’s not your life, it’s mine and I feel very threatened,” she screams back. “Unless you can prove to me that this person is wilfully and repeatedly harassing you,” continues the officer, “I’m not sure we can be of any help at this time.”
As Lucy points out, even though Skincare portrays a fictionalised version of real-life events, the police response to situations like this is still typical in the UK as well. Even today.
“Based on survivor testimonies, police in the UK still approach image-based abuse as a grey area." says Lucy. "Victims essentially have to do their own investigative work and build their own case to present to the police, which is obviously traumatising and wouldn’t happen in any other crime. In fact in most other crimes the police actively advise you not to do your own research.
“Most survivors of image-based abuse aren’t sure if a crime has been committed and when they go to the police, they aren’t sure either.
We're calling on the government to take urgent action.
“This is because the legislation can’t keep up with the rate at which technology is developing in this area. But some legislation is there and there are gaping holes in it. And this is why it needs to change.”
But my overwhelmingly takeaway by the end of the film was the misogyny at play, even from the filmmakers themselves, when handling this story. We're shown the impact all this had on the female protagonist at the centre of the plot; it is the female victim’s identity, motives and behaviour that is pored over and interrogated by the film, after the abuse happens to her, instead of the perpetrator’s. It is the spectacle of her shame, her unravelling and her trauma that is the focus of the story causing the headlines and the hype in Hollywood. Whereas the male abuser’s reasoning for executing this abuse is not explored beyond the fact he’s a failed actor who likes weight-lifting.
In a final plot twist, as Hope is arrested over being involved in the suspected murder of her rival aesthetician, Angel, she eventually finds a way to try to capitalise on her abuse, cashing in on her ‘killer facialist’ reputation in order to attempt to save her business and forge a new identity. Therefore the messaging reads: 'the woman subjected to the abuse is now forced to try to make good of it instead of the perpetrator being appropriately punished.' And sadly, that's still the misogynistic double standard at the heart of this very unique and modern form of abuse today.
Skincare is out on digital release today on AppleTV, Amazon Prime Video and Google Play Movies amongst others.
GLAMOUR is campaigning for the government to introduce an Image-Based Abuse Bill in partnership with Jodie Campaigns, the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Not Your Porn, and Professor Clare McGlynn.
Revenge Porn Helpline provides advice, guidance and support to victims of intimate image-based abuse over the age of 18 who live in the UK. You can call them on 0345 6000 459.
The Cyber Helpline provides free, expert help and advice to people targeted by online crime and harm in the UK and USA.
For more from GLAMOUR's Assistant Editor and Entertainment Director, Emily Maddick, follow her on Instagram @emilymaddick.
