Director: Gregg Araki
My movie watching has been finding odd connections lately. As part of my continuing effort to catch up on the missed films from the A.V. Club's "New Cult Canon," (I've seen 83 out of 145) and Mendik and Mathijs's book, "100 Cult Films," (61 of 107, counting trilogies & whatnot as separate films), and after last week’s viewing/post on Shame, I’ve been compelled to reconsider something I saw a month or so ago. Mysterious Skin, based on the novel by Scott Heim, is a similar example of brave indie filmmaking, willing to tackle not just casual sex and homosexuality but also the really tough end of the taboo spectrum: child sexuality and pedophilia. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Neil McCormick, a young hustler in a dead-end middle-America town picking up any anonymous middle-aged guy he can get his hands on. On the other end of the spectrum is Brian (Brady Corbet) a nerdy teen who is bottled up by his belief that he was abducted by aliens as a child. Neil’s hunt for sex and Neil’s search for the truth are invariably connected in their past and take the film to some dark places, and it makes for an unsettling experience in the vein of Todd Solondz’s work (Welcome to the Dollhouse, Happiness).
Yeah ladies, this isn’t your heartthrob dancing down the street to Hall & Oates. He’s playing completely against expectations and while it starts a little crass and over the top, he handles the part with depth, dexterity, and apparent ease considering he was all of 23 and not too far removed from “3rd Rock from the Sun” when this was released. Apart from Elisabeth Shue as Neil’s mom, the rest of the cast is not as compelling. I didn’t particularly care for Corbet as much, but he handles the moments of catharsis effectively. In terms of structure, I understand it is necessary to build the link between the two of them by switching back and forth between Neil and Brian, but it gets a bit muddled and lacks a deft touch that might potentially deliver better forward momentum. Too much is revealed early on to make the ending truly shocking, though it is gut-wrenching, nonetheless. Despite this, the entire film has enough against-the-grain boldness to make it unforgettable. I must also mention that it contains the simple phrase “Here we go...” in such an important, twisted way that I cannot see a Bud Light commercial without it immediately bringing this movie to mind, and it makes me wonder how many other people associate that terrible, unsavory beverage with pederasty.
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