Directed by Gregg Araki
Written by Gregg Araki
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Elisabeth Shue
NC-17 • 2004 • 99 minutes

by Toasty Mac

Incredible, in a word.

This film was my favorite movie of the year. It is a drama of intense and sometimes repulsive dimensions. The subject matter is of sexual child abuse, and the movie does NOT trifle. To be sure, this movie is not for the faint of heart or stomach. It is harsh, and unflinching, and ugly. In it's imitation of life (for some), in my eyes it is a beautifully made piece of art.

The story picks up with some elegantly simple narration from each our two lead characters describing events that transpired during the summer when they each were 8 years old... Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet) introduces us to his history of blackouts and nose bleeds. Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) details the relationship he found himself introduced to with their baseball coach (Bill Sage).

The intent of the film is clear right off the bat. You are going to see sexuality in a context and atmosphere that you (any right minded person) will not enjoy. It doesn't just talk about child molestation, or skirt flirtingly around the topic... it presents the topic and the imagery that we all turn off in our minds when we hear these stories... making it nearly impossible for the audience to detach from the play at hand. Shocked and slightly disturbed, I did find myself toying with the idea of not wanting to watch anymore, fearful of what might be around the corner. Even after the story had left their childhood's behind and had moved to confronting the abusive potential of some consentual adult homosexual scenarios, I was still uneasy. One lady in the theater did in fact leave. But I'm very glad in the long run that I didn't let my nerve give way, because here's the thing... nothing in Mysterious Skin was done graphically. Everything was done just out of sight, but with an extreme implication.

You see, one amazing thing about this and so many other serious minded homosexually charged films is the way they can "shock" and "disturb" the audience, when there is not even one glimpse of frontal nudity in the film. There are dropping waistlines you'll see, sure.. but never a penis, never a rear end during the implied sexual imagery. The sexual content is implicitly done. You know what is being acted out, and it feels graphic, but it's not. And it's an amazing reaction they can pull from us, as an unfamiliar audience to the content of homosexuality. Implicit sex, is tough (especially in the context of child molestation) and I am glad the director only took the envelope to that point. But I am perplexed yet, at the fact that films like Mysterious Skin, Bad Education and My Own Private Idaho get slapped with NC-17 ratings, while equally intense and even more graphic sexual encounters found in a movie like Monster's Ball earn an R rating. That our culture will allow something as graphic and demented as the content of Halle Barry's "breakthrough" role steam through all the big theaters and earn her an oscar, while 2004's Mysterious Skin gets virtually ignored in the press... The double standard we live by is impenetrable still, in 2005.

The content in Mysterious Skin is what makes it difficult, of course though; that and the atmosphere in which Gregg Araki so effectively builds throughout.

There is no escaping your past, in Mysterious Skin.