Mysterious Skin is one of those films that you watch once, are competely blown away by, but never want to watch again.
Following the story of two boys who were sexually abused by their baseball coach when they were young, it shows the affect such a thing would have on a person. One boy, Neil (Joseph Gordon Levitt) knows what happened to him, and acknowledges it (going so far as to frequently tell the audience how it made him feel special). The other boy, Brian (Brady Corbet) repressed the memories, and throughout his life is convinced that he was abducted by aliens.
Skip ahead about ten years, Neil is a male prostitute. He is amoral and actually seems to enjoy his lifestyle. Brian has reccuring nightmares of being abducted by aliens, and in all of these dreams there is one boy from his baseball team in them (obviously turning out to be Neil). Brian tries to track down Neil to figure out what had happened to him.
The film is narrated by Neil, and hearing his thoughts on what he does (and what happened to him) is disturbing to say the least. Throughout the film, we have to endure watching him hooking himself out to men, and being completely apathetic to it.
All in all, Mysterious Skin is an extremely powerful film, that occupies your mind long after you've seen it. I don't recommend watching this film for entertainment, but if you're looking for a powerful film that shows the affects things like this have on people, check it out.
-8.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment