Mysterious Skin Film Review (2005)

photo courtesy of thecinemasource.com

Welcome to another installment of Film Review Fridays. I recently re-watched a great indie film that I already own, Mysterious Skin; based on a novel by Scott Heim, directed by Gregg Araki.

Mysterious Skin is set in a small town in Kansas during the late 80’s and early 90’s. It’s the parallel story of two similar but very, very different boys. The film starts off with the narrative of Brian (George Webster and later Brady Corbet), who is telling us “the summer (1981) I was 8 years old, five hours disappeared from my life,” all while we see a flash of him dressed in his Little League uniform, then him sitting in the basement of his home with a nosebleed. His journey throughout the film is to determine what happened during those five hours and why did he continue having nosebleeds, nightmares and blackouts that would afflict him throughout his childhood. After watching a TV show about a girl named Avalyn, who was abducted by aliens, it occurred to Brian that maybe the same thing happened to him. Obsessed with finding the truth, he sets out to contact and meet Avalyn who lives in a nearby town.

On the flip side, we meet another little boy, Neil (Chase Ellison and later Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who remembered the summer of 1981, all too well. He too, played on the same Little League team and worshiped the coach (Bill Sage), a practiced seducer. Looking up to “Coach” as a father figure and trusting him, Neil went home with him, was seduced with junk food and video games, and later sexually molested. Throughout the rest of the summer, the molestation continued, grooming Neil to develop a compulsion to please older men; Neil becomes a teen hustler, profiting on the desires of others.

As the film picks up in momentum, the boys’ rediscovery each other 10 years later and have a chance to exchange their realities. Is there a connection between the 2 boys and their experiences? Is there a common denominator in all of this? What will be revealed? Watch and find out.

My Personal View:

I have not seen a movie so elegantly crafted to depict a horrid such as molestation, in a way that is not monstrous or scary. “The Coach” is not portrayed as the “boogie man,” but as a nice, caring man who relates to and draws young boys in with his college dorm styled home filled with video games and junk food. Araki continues with the elegance by slowly uncovering the layers of manipulation, which are at times playful, yet creepy.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance was awesome! He took the challenging role of Neil and ran with it. Not only did Levitt have the lean muscular physique and the slapdash attitude required of the role, but he also evoked a detached realism and an invulnerability that is apart of adolescence. His role was the center of the story, overshadowing the roles of others, unfortunately, and his acting complimented the given spotlight.

Brian, Brady Corbet, did a wonderful job also. He portrayed a nerdy, socially awkward teen that still seems to be stuck in the grasp childhood, afraid to grow up. The supporting actors also did a great job, making the film whole, Michelle Trachtenberg (Wendy, Neil’s childhood friend), Jeffery Licon (Eric, another childhood friend of Neil’s), and Mary Lynn Rajskub (Avalyn, the alien abductee that Brian sets out to meet).

Do I recommend watching this film? Yes, indeed! Other films and directors would take the topic of child abuse, spew hate towards the abuser(s) and end it there, but this film encompasses, not only the issue of child abuse, but friendship, truth, unknowing connections, and much more. It deals with the complexities of growing up with demons and how adolescents process their happenings with what they have available to them. This film pulls no punches in its storytelling of the characters and its later revelations; Mysterious Skin is a great movie if you are looking for something totally out of the box, as well as entertaining in its plot, acting, and it’s relation to life and the horrids we’d like to bury under rocks.

Check out the trailer below. (IE users click here)

GRADE: A