"Mysterious Skin" is like a big tree falling slowly onto a car full of little children. It starts out by letting you know something disturbing will happen, slowly builds you up, and then surely yet surprisingly delivers the final blow as we encounter a jaw-dropping turn of events.After the final scene I sat for about a minute listening to the music as the end credits roll, a cold but very beautiful melancholy washing all over me. It was an extremely affecting moment from a movie I could only describe as life-changing.
Plot Overview :
At age eight, Neil and Brian played baseball in their hometown in
Kansas. Both boys were sexually abused by their baseball coach.Ten years later their lives are wildly different.Neil has grown into a calculating gay teenage prostitute who hangs out in parks looking to be picked up by older men.Brian quietly exists as a nervous introvert who is convinced that he was kidnapped by aliens .Both boys deal with the abuse in completely different ways. Neil embraces the time as a shining example of the one time he was truly loved, while Brian erases the event from his memory and transforms it in to a fantasy involving space creatures. But the scars of abuse are long and deep, and soon both boys must confront each other and their pasts if life is to move on.Review :
Because of its refusal to flinch at or turn away from the sordid reality of its subject matter, "Mysterious Skin" is not a film everybody will be able to sit through. It is ugly and harsh and almost impossible to watch at times, for there is no denying that what it shows us is deeply and profoundly disturbing and that it disgusts and offends us . Yet this is no cheesy exploitation film, but rather a heartfelt and compassionate work of art that makes us see the horror of the situation in a truly empathetic way. We come to care very deeply for these boys as we are forced to see what it is they're going through and to share in their pain.Similar films can often get carried away by sensationalizing events or leaving you with an artificial ending, which is completely opposite from the way 'Skin' works.It relies on script and characters to tell the story, and they all achieve greatly.
The movie shows how, in Neil's case, the early childhood experience has made it impossible for him to view sex as anything but a "business transaction," thus explaining his turn towards prostitution. He acts out his anger and confusion by indulging in self-destructive behaviors and by shutting himself off from any kind of rich emotional attachments with anyone other than his platonic girlfriend Wendy. Brian, for his part, has responded by becoming, essentially, asexual, a means of subconsciously recoiling from the personal violation that occurred to him as a child and of avoiding having it ever happen to him again.Both the characters are mentally disturbed, and this comes across often as we watch their everyday lives.As Brian's story progresses, his life will begin to fall into a bit more order, while as Neil's story progresses, it's going to get more messy and off-kilter.
Also this film points out that both young boy characters are molested by a coach who had access to the kids,because their parents were too busy to pick them up after school.Brian's parent's are so busy with office work that they have no time to take care of Brian .Neil has no father & his mother is a broke alcholic.The Baseball League coach, who it just so happens is a pedophile, who takes full advantage of the lack of these kid's parents concern for their children's welfare, by befriending them after the games, taking them home, feeding them a lot of junk food, & then playing secret games with them. .This is, very sadly, the main concern for children in today's world who are molested. Wake up parents! There are major sickos out there who can even be our neighbours or relatives as paedophiles don't have a tag plastered on their face saying "Stay Away " & yes as this film shows it can happen to your kid too without the right kind of love ,care and attention on behalf of the parents!.
The film is directed by Cult Director Greg Araki.He's a self-styled peculiar filmmaker who works largely with gay themes wrapped around inventive production design and confrontational violence.Few other directors like Gus van Sant would be brave enough to make a motion picture that presents a story that includes pedophilia and there find a moving study of developing sexuality in youngsters that becomes an important and sophisticated drama.Araki directs this story with such grace and finesse that he makes each of the main characters not only credible but also multidimensional and lovable. Araki chooses to candy coat his sets and photographs the drama through his unique lens of dazzling ethereal music and romantic angles. The journey may be a rough one, but it's presented in a soft way to make it palatable. Araki has done what filmmakers struggle with—he's punched through his highly visual style into a territory where it takes on emotion. He's found a way to make his pretty pictures powerful.
The entire cast should be congratulated. But the film belongs to Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Neil who is nothing short of riveting in his role and is awe-inspiring as the heartless rebel who oozes with sex-appeal in the most disturbing way. He makes us believe he's both enjoying and repulsed by his own personality. An amazing scene in which he is sitting in his bathroom after just being tortured, naked, wiping blood off his cold body, shows his dilemma about the real world and the regret of his own choices in life. Brady Corbet was barely 16 when he was cast as the lead in this film, yet he plays his world-weary role of Brian as if he were middle aged. We feel his pain, and know he is deluding himself with his alien fantasies.
The child actors, Chase Ellison and George Webster, were well selected for their vulnerable and innocent portrayals. It's difficult for me to admire Bill Sage, as the abuser, because he was too convincing as an amiable, warm helpful, generous, good-looking, young but realistic pedophile and not the evidently slimy caricatures and misfits pedophiles are made out to be.Other good performances come from the beautiful Elizabeth Shue as Neil's loving but reckless mother, Michelle Trachtenberg as his close female friend Wendy.Parting Thoughts :
Mysterious Skin begs to be discovered for its powerful emotional design. The film celebrates a dark subject with candy colored ferocity you won't see anywhere else. There's never been a movie like this. It's time to pay homage to a filmmaker who has refused to bend to anyone's ideas of what his movies should be. It has a dark soul, but Mysterious Skin vibrates with an exploding heart only an abused teenager could produce. Definitely a movie to be watched,I highly recommend this bold picture to all of you.Title : Mysterious Skin
Dir: Greg Araki
Cast : Bill Sage,Elizabeth Shue,Michelle Trachtenberg,Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet
Country :USA Language :English
Rated R for sexuality and violence
DVD features :Feature Length Audio Commentary with Director & Cast
Interview with Cast
London Film Festival Q&A session with Director Araki
Trailer Link :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lp5v4oQZRw
Torrent File Name :MYSTERIOUS.SKIN.DVDRIP.D7S
