July 15, 2005
review: mysterious skin
A review long in coming...
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Mysterious Skin, Greg Araki's latest film, is one of the better films I've seen in this disappointing summer of '05. It's the story of two young men set in Omaha. One of the young men has become a gay hustler, after being sexually abused by his baseball coach while a child. The second young man thinks he's been abducted by aliens. How these two lives become intertwined is a big part of the story, which I will not spell out here. It's a beautiful, tragic, lyrical, involving film. |
I haven't seen an Araki film since his debut, The Living End, a kind of Thelma and Louise road movie, with the two main protagonists being gay men who have just been diagnosed with HIV. I thought it was a good film, but his later films seemed to revel in violence, in which I do not revel. A gay Tarantino is still too much Tarantino in my book.
Mysterious Skin has its intense moments, and some pretty serious violence and sexual violation, but it's justified by the story and by no means justifies or celebrates that violence. And it has great writing, acting, and directing to appeal to those even more squeamish than me.
Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, playing Neil, certainly comes of age in this film. A great, break-out performance. His counter-part, Brady Corbet, playing Brian, is also good, as is Neil's mother, played by Elisabeth Shue.
Other reviews here:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mysterious_skin/