As a girl who used to have a career in skincare, but also was an entrepreneur with her own line and one private practice, let me tell that the biz is CUT. THROAT. A multi-billion dollar industry earns its keep on trade secrets, being “the next big thing” and snaking the competition. Austin Peter’s Skincare, takes the bitter rivalry trope to a whole new level with it’s story torn from the headlines.

Skincare is a fun blend of suspense, thriller, and dark humor starring Elizabeth Banks as Hope Goldman, a Hollywood esthetician on the cusp of launching her own long-time coming and hard won skincare line. Days after she tapes a segment soft-launching her brand on LA’s hottest moring talk show, her plans go up in smoke as a new skin spa owned by new-age and TikTok friendly Angel Vergara (Luis Gerardo Méndez) has opened just across the parking lot. In a quest to avoid possible sabotage at any cost, Hope’s likfe spirals as defamation and humiliation ensue, and she leans on her new-found self-help guru friend Jordan (Lewis Pullman) who vows to help shine her tarnished image and teach her the ways of modern marketing, with disasterous results.

Peter’s points the finger and stokes the divisive and competitve fires of the Hollywood beauty industry and the lengths some will go keep their reputation and hard work in tact, a folly understood and resonant of those whose well-crafted and cruated social personas can take a beating at the slightest mock, knock or rival. Banks is hysterical as hapless Hope, who’s bet her entire farm and thensome on her product launch, and watching her Lucy Arnaz her way out of one jam and into another keeps this map-cap thriller buzzing. Nathan Fillion playing suave and misogynistic on-air personality Brett Wright throws a few wrenches in Hope’s but she’s lovingly anad wholeheartedly supported by her receptionist Marine (Michaela Jae Rodriguez) and chopshop buddy Emerson (Jason Manuel Olazábal)

Skincare debuted at London Film Festival on October 12th and was released in US theatres on August 16th, IFC has plans to release it on streaming services soon.