Mysterious Skin Reviews

(MU) Before the self terapeutic finding the truth ending, its a great coming of age harsh sexy film in Hutchinson, Kansas. The boys, specially Gordon Levitt, are terrific...

Something weird in this movie wich give a very comprehensive and good vision of pedophilia. Not a bad movie, but a bad consequence.

An absolute must see for all fans of Gregg Araki or Joseph Gordon-Levitt. One of the Most intense and satisfying experiences I've ever had.

I had long ago written off Gregg Araki as a filmmaker of limited emotional scope, as someone who tried vainly to shock and provoke and create garish, tacky films like Nowhere to rattle the mainstream. The soundtracks were pretty good though. And he could always pull in a unique set of up-and-comers (although, most of them didn’t really establish great careers. A lot of them have found work as supporting character actors in television and independent film, which isn’t so bad.)

But something funny happened with Mysterious Skin -- Araki grew up, gained some emotional maturity, and crafted a truly poignant and disturbing film. But some of his heightened filmmaking choices and acting cues to his cast still mar the film in spots. But, mostly, it’s his best, most fully realized and engaged work. It’s also some incredibly tough and disturbing material to work through.

The film follows the emotional journey of a gay teenage hustler (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and an emotional stunted introvert with an obsession over alien abduction (Brady Corbett). The thing that binds them together is the childhood sexual abuse inflicted on them by their Little League coach. The painful, fractured shells that they’ve become are a reminder of the long-term effects of such abuse, and the two leads meet the challenges of the script. In fact, their performances are beautifully crafted and prove what talents they are, even at such young ages.

It’s the supporting cast and a few story beats that see Araki’s worst tendencies rear their ugly heads. Michelle Trachtenberg tries her best with her character, but just about anything involving her harkens back to the “Beverly Hills 90210-on-acid” aesthetic of films like The Doom Generation or Nowhere. It’s at its best when it focuses on the two boys, their lives after the fact, and the emotionally gutting finale in which Levitt fills in the memory gaps and explains to Corbett the systematic way in which they were abused, and how they had to groom each other for it. Harrowing stuff that will stick with you long after the movie is over.

One day, after a football game, Brian blacks out after getting caught in a rainstorm, and five hours later he finds himself sitting in his basement with his nose bleeding and no memory of what happened to him.
That's the beginning of the story about two pre-adolescent boys who are sexually abused in their childhood. It affects their lives in different ways: one of them becomes a reckless hustler, while the other retreats into a fantasy of alien abduction.

i did not expect the ending , great movie i see :) . UFO was not the deal , what a shook :p . i liked how the kid figure it out . his dreams was the key .

This movie was one of the strangest movies I've ever seen which was the basis of its appeal for me, but it was truly one of the best movies I've ever seen as well.
The emotions and personalities and events it the film were so intense that nothing in the world could have broken my attention to it. The movie says so much about the ways people think and interact based on their past.
The acting was surprisingly believable for the content of the movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is such a versatile actor and this movie really showed it.
It was excellent.

I have to admit that if I first didn’t stumble on that movie on IMDb I wound have not even know about it. It is almost 2 am and I just took the DVD out of my computer. Have to admit that this is one of the most brilliant films I have ever watched.
The movie shows the growth of two boys – in parallel - they both were abused as kids from they Baseball coach and are striving to find a way to cope with the past. Whatever happened back then seems to be shaping their personality – but in a different way. When I think about it – it is only natural that people are different and, being so they perceive different events and situation in their own unique way.
Mysterious skin – you may wonder why they picked such a name for that movie, but I am sure that by the time the last credits roll you will have some idea. What would be the life of the boys, if things happened differently? That is the question you have to answer for yourself.

There are quite a few sex scenes, which I didn’t like much – probably because the lust was overwhelming, and the money played their role. I guess it is just me, being romantic as usual – but these scenes just didn’t seem right to me. Then again – without them the movie wouldn’t be the same.
The acting in this movie was terrific, I almost felt like I can sense the feeling of the actors. Watch this movie and remember that what happened in the past may leave its traces for many years to come…