Director: Andy Abrahams Wilson
This documentary about Lyme disease accomplishes the tricky feat of squeezing serious drama out of a rift in the medical industry. Disagreements in scientific philosophy don't normally make for thrilling cinema, at least not without a heavy layer of fiction and maybe a love story thrown in. But Under Our Skin lays out the stakes so clearly from the start that only a heartless viewer could be left indifferent about how things turn out. The focus on chronic Lyme disease and the horrible things it does to its victims makes up the bulk of the story. But the real target of the film is corruption and stale thinking in medicine - in particular, the strange cabals that control the way certain diseases are defined and treated. The film could've hit this even harder - possibly the filmmakers worried that an onslaught of facts would bore people, but it would've been a more satisfying movie if it had more rigorously challenged some of the interview subjects. Still, this is a gripping and illuminating film that's very much worth seeing.
A-