5/10/2015
This is the film that showed that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has
arrived as a serious and talented dramatic actor. A daring and explicit film that not only shed
his child actor status but shows great potential for years to come. Directed by indie auteur Gregg Araki who
always has something powerful and profound to say. Never afraid to go there.
This is the story of two young boys who were sexually abused
by their little league coach and the two different life paths it has taken them
down. The years of repression and coping
mechanisms is wearing them down as they get older. First we are introduced to Brian (Brady
Corbet) who as an 8 year old blacked out for a period of time and woke up with
a bloody nose. Even as he gets older he
is still convinced he was abducted by aliens that night as he still get those
bloody noses. After seeing a UFO program
on television he seeks out a young woman who also believes she was
abducted. Brian is an emotional wreck in
a desperate search for answers. Neil
(Gordon-Levitt) on the other hand is now about 18 or so and is a hustler,
hanging out at parks and playgrounds selling his services to older men. Neil hides behind a cocky, devil may care
attitude, but you know he is scarred and hurting inside. His best friend Wendy has been at his side
from the beginning and is now going off to college in New York City . Tired of his old routine back home Neil also
moves to NYC, which proves to be more that he bargained for as he tries to make
money like he did back home.
Brian's search for answers brings him to a small farm and he
meets with Avalyn, the woman from
TV, who has problems of her own. This whole alien abduction fantasy that they
share is just way to escape their crippling physical and emotional problems and
to find other such people to confide in.
Brian's emotional pressure cooker comes to a head with his own father
who he blames for not being their for him.
His mother is also in a deep state of denial about what could have
happen to him. Also at about this point
Neil has a run in with a brutally violent John that breaks him down physically
as well as emotionally.
Back home on Christmas Eve Brian finally meets up with Neil
and the whole truth comes flooding out.
It's obviously no secret that abuse at any age is life altering and the
after affects last for years if not forever, but their is still hope at the end
of the long dark tunnel. This film is
brutally honest and shies away from nothing in its depiction of its ugliness
and how it affects its victims. While at
times hard to watch "Mysterious Skin"is definitely a film to see.