Mysterious Skin (2005)

I expected this to be a thrilling Alien mystery movie. That's what the title and the description of the movie suggests. Instead I got what is basically morose and depressing softcore gay porn.The story is thin and boring, the only time you'll be on the edge of your seat is when you need to stretch your legs to get the blood circulating again. "The big twist" is extremely predictable, which is a major pet peeve of mine. There's nothing I hate more than a movie which builds up to a forgone conclusion, especially if they take one and a half hours to get there. "Mysterious Skin" seems to want to convince us that sexually abusing children is immoral and has a major effect on their lives. Like that in itself is some revolutionary eye opening idea in the 21st century. I could have forgiven the misleading promotional material if they would have actually created a philosophical and poetic masterpiece. But instead it just tries to gross us out all the time despite the fact that we're already thoroughly grossed out by the idea. I give this movie a 4/10. Frankly I don't understand the praise this movie got at all. Just because it talks about difficult taboo subjects like pedophilia, homosexuality and prostitution, doesn't mean it does it in a dignified and thoughtful manner. Which it didn't.

Mysterious Skin is unlike the other Greg Araki films, as it doesn't feel like one, where normally there's crude humor within the drama, and sick violence, not to say The Living End, his debut was the other great one, where here he's climbed back up, and redeemed himself, in what is his best film. Alongside Palindromes, with it's pedophile themes, here this excellent films deals with the issues and scarring effects, it can have on one victim, that chiefly being of Corbett's innocent and slightly vulnerable character, that he wonderfully plays. Corbett is one of those really elite young actors, who I hadn't recognized years later as the plump psycho in the Funny Games remake. Here his character was abused as a kid by a baseball coach, spoiling him with lollies and taking him to R rated movies. One night he's punished, locked in a closet. Now in his teen years, he's having nightmares of alien abductions, where his only cure, could be going back to that of the past, revisiting his childhood, where he hunts down another of the victims, now a hustler, played by a take notice performance as seen in the great Joseph Gordan Levitt, who makes the movie his. His character sets no boundaries, picking up dirty old johns, one moustouched guy, also seen in Palindromes, another of that, being the creepy and evily smiling Billy Drago (check out his teeth). The film is a beautiful and poignant drama, and one of the more affecting films that deal with pedophilia, where to think it was initially in talks of being banned, that itself, is sick. Like these films, or ones that are banned, all together, these which are in denial of being shown, are crimes against cinema, for MS which luckily escaped a banning, was one of the best films and drama of 2005, where Mr Araki, should be proud to put his signature on. When our two long lost victims, finally meet which at first is, ugly, that last comforting scene, last moment, is one for the annals of cinematic memory. MS is a beautiful and dramatic Art house film which deserves bloody attention from all, with fantastic performances all around.

I hadn't made it a secret that I've never been a huge Gordon Levitt fan. I did like him in Don Jon though. Still, this film may have been enough for me to do a complete 180, and consider that he needs to stay away from all of these big movies and go back to independent cinema. He's so amazing here, totally lived in, not at all forced or fake like I usually find him. The film was pretty difficult to watch at times, with perhaps the most cringe-worthy, most disturbing rape scene I think I may have ever seen. Brady Corbet was no slouch either, he doesn't have the dramatic material Levitt has but he could've easily come across like nothing more than surface-level (like it seemed like he would the instant he popped up) but he's pretty fantastic too. It's a shame that he doesn't seem to get meaty roles like this, although I like that he usually pops up in random independent films from time to time. I honestly don't know how to grade this, I'm not sure we needed so many scenes or explanations showing us exactly what happened in their past, just got to be too much. Still, rather effective and unlikely to forget both leads' tremendous work here any time soon

My friends and I had the idea of watching this film, due to the promising summary that has been written here, on IMDb. However, I will confess right away that "Mysterious Skin" has NOTHING to do with alien abduction or any mystery. In fact, from the get go we're aware that every kid around has been raped by the coach, and in a matter of 30 minutes, we already knew that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character was a pervert. The story is, in my humble opinion, a big mess that leads NOWHERE. Also, there is no likable character for the spectator feel identified with, reason why my friends and I just wanted them all to die, especially of an uncured sexual disease. The ONLY thing that may be respectful in this project is the acting from Gordon-Levitt (who'd thought it!) and Brady Corbet, whose performances are what bring some occasional life to this picture. Everything else feels slow, boring, uninteresting and... implausible. There's simply no police, no D.A Office and no judiciary in this whole mess. In conclusion, I just feel like knowing why on earth this movie has such a high rating, and that would make me get calmer after watching this.