This movie is mysterious to most people as it might go under the radar as it's deals with personal social issues in society such as homosexuality, child on child abuse, and prostitutes. It's hard to find anyways due to the subject matter and it being rated NC-17 in some areas and R in others. Surprising it was banned in Australia for a while. If you are homophobic, you might not like this movie. Honestly, you don't see much nudity, but a few ass shots, cruel language, and sex sounds. Some of the sex acts are bit hilarious to me, like the big guy asking a skinny guy to rammed him in the butt, or the whole talk about fisting. It's outrageous to me since I rarely know people that like that sex acts, but there is people out there that like to do those kinky stuff. Most audiences members will probably not watch a movie like this for entertainment reasons because of such taboos subjects. I would agree that this movie is not for the normal movie watcher, but for mature audiences looking for a movie to look deeper into these social issues and explain more and more why these subjects are deemed improper to talk about. First off, like the book by Scott Heim, the movie is disturbing. Not because of the homosexual acts so much, but because of the pedophile scenes and the whole male rape scene. I'd be grossed out the same amount even if it happen to a girl. I just don't like seeing rape, and child molested. It didn't help that the actor playing the Coach (Bill Sage) look like a young Robert Redford and the young man who grew up to be a male prostitute Neil McCormick is played by Joseph Gordon Levitt. I can't help thinking of this movie being Angels in the Outfield (1994) and the Natural (1980) mixed in a blender with My Own Private Idaho (1991). I do find the beginning parts very hard to watch though. While this is happening, a smart withdrawn young man Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet) is looking for the truth about his past. Brian Lackey is determined to discover what happened during an amnesia blackout when he was eight years old. He believes he was abducted by aliens, and believes that Neil McCormick may be the key as to exactly what happened that night. Without spoiling it, the movie is pretty predictable. You pretty much know what happen to Brian. The UFO and Aliens storyline was weird in the beginning but it all made sense in the end. The acting is pretty good. Both Joseph Gordon Levitt and Brady Corbet were good at their roles. About, Brady Corbet's role, I have to say, he was great. Too bad, it didn't state out. I was kinda confused, because his look and character was way too similar to Lucas's (1986), Lucas Bly character played by Corey Haims. I have to say, I love the women leads, such as Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg) who plays Neil's friend trying to save him from his dangerous life as a hustler. The other one is Avalyn (Mary Lynn Rajskub) who befriends Brian due to their share interest of aliens. I felt sorry for her character, and wonder why she believes she was abducted by aliens. Seeing her use of the cane, can only help explain a bit of that. I would had love a follow up of that character in the end, in my opinion. Gregg Araki did a fantastic making this film. Still there were some things that I would have like to be worked better on. The beginning felt more like a novel than a movie. It's starts with Neil narrating, and follow up with Brians. Then it's stops, and picks up again in the end, with Neil narrating yet again without Brian's closure narrating. If you going to make a movie, show, don't tell. If you going to have narrating, have one narrator, not two. Also, continue the narrating throughout the film. It felt sloppy and cut to pieces. Also the scenes were too short. It felt like every scene end with fade out. It would have been better to combined scenes together to make them longer. The movie drags way too long. I also didn't like the molested scenes with the child actors. I know those scenes were selectively edited. The children didn't know the context of their parts when they were filmed, but it's felt too real for me. While, I'm not gay, I don't believe being molested, makes you gay. If that were true, counting all the gay people in the world, we have a gross abundance of pedophiles and neglectful parents in our society. Child molesters, whether they molest the opposite sex or the same sex, find the most vulnerable children, lure them in, and use that trust to abuse them. Being molested doesn't change a person's sexual orientation, but it does damage them psychologically as you can see in the movie with Brian and Neil. One may act out in a self-destructive way, while the other would be more closed up. I don't think Brian was even gay. I'm not 100% sure. I didn't read the novel. It's interesting, where they went with character development, while not grand on a certain scale it was still.really powerful. The end, kind of left me feeling.a little hollow. Poor Brian, and poor Neil. I kept thinking 'I want there to be emotional closure for them'. I guess it's more realistic this way. Overall: not for everybody, but a phenomenal raw movie.
Review of Mysterious Skin
