The new drama Skin doesn’t star Sam Rockwell, but it is about a white racist trying to reform his life. Instead we get Jamie Bell as Bryon, a guy who fell in with neo-Nazis during his difficult childhood and was raised in hate. (The character is actually based on Bryon Widner, a white supremacist whose decision to have his blood-and-soil–type tattoos removed was chronicled in the documentary Erasing Hate from 2011.) Bryon is looking for a way out of his life surrounded by violent bigots and to take his partner Julie (Danielle Macdonald) and her children with him. He’s got a lifeline in Daryle Jenkins (Mike Colter), who works to extract hate-group members from their surroundings and turn them into cooperating witnesses for the government.
Skin comes from Israeli director Guy Nattiv, who recently won an Oscar for his short film that shares the same title as this feature, but is not an extension of the narrative. (Though, it does deal with similar themes.) It debuted to strong reviews at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. See it in theaters July 26, and on DirecTV June 27.