mysteriousskin

SYNOPSIS - MYSTERIOUS SKIN

Gregg Araki delivers his most powerful
film to date with this unyielding look at
the lingering effects of childhood
sexual abuse on a pair of young men
from a small Nebraska town.

REVIEW

In 1992, Gregg Araki punched the
cinematic world in the gut with his
breakout feature The Living End, a
hedonistic road movie about two
HIV-positive men who embark on a
Homeric crime spree. Since then Araki
has been flipping the bird to
mainstream culture at every turn. With
Mysterious Skin, adapted from Scott
Heim's 1996 novel, Araki takes a more
serious turn, taking on the
controversial subject of childhood
sexual abuse. In the process, Araki
proves himself to be a maturing artist
who is worthy of this difficult topic.

Set in the heartland hamlet of
Huntington, Kansas, the film follows the
wildly divergent lives of two young men
whose paths fatefully crossed when
they were 8 years old. Brian (Brady
Corbet) has grown into an introverted
18-year-old whose only memory of the
trauma is that five hours of his life
disappeared, and he has become
convinced that he was abducted by
aliens. Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has
morphed into a prolific teen hustler,
profiting greatly from the
companionship of older men. Neil's
wanderings ultimately lead him to New
York, where he takes his craft to the
next level, but Brian's search for the
truth ultimately leads him to Neil. Both
young actors turn in extraordinary
performances: Corbet's honesty as the
gawky, hayseed innocent is palpable
and Gordon-Levitt is scintillating as the
emotionless, self-destructive Neil. They
are surrounded by a bevy of great
supporting characters with Michelle
Trachtenberg (Dawn from "Buffy the
Vampire Slayer") as Neil's best friend
Wendy, Elizabeth Shue as Neil's
emotionally adolescent mother, and
Jeffrey Licon as Eric, the flamboyant
bon vivant who tries to keep Neil and
Wendy real. In Araki's hands they do a
superb job navigating the culturally
taboo subject matter.
Eric Moore