Provocative indie filmmaker Greg Araki (“Splendor,” “The Doom Generation”) focuses his unflinching eye on pedophilia in “Mysterious Skin,” a dark, absorbing adaptation of the acclaimed novel of same name by Scott Heim. Rather than offer yet another blanket condemnation of child molestation or a lachrymose profile of its victims, Araki explores the radically different impact the trauma has on two boys from a rural Kansas burg whose innocence is stolen by a predatory little league coach (Bill Sage). Brian (Brady Corbet of “Thirteen”) is a nervous, virginal college freshman obsessed with unraveling the mystery of “five hours lost, gone without a trace” when he was 10 years old. Unable or unwilling to recall what really happened, Brian indulges an alien abduction fantasy even as he increasingly experiences terrible physical reactions to mnemonic cues to the truth. Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt of “Third Rock from the Sun” in a star-making turn), on the other hand, has grown into a hyper-sexualized hustler who turns tricks, symbolically enough, with older men he meets at the local playground. His memories of the sexual encounters with the coach are vivid and unsettlingly romantic.
Through Neil, Araki dares to ruminate upon some particularly incendiary taboos such as young boys as sentient sexual beings and willing participants who hardly succumb to anger or devastation. This challenging subject material is handled quite deftly throughout, especially at the emotional denouement when the two young men finally reunite and Neil helps Brian confront the past. Araki scores in giving his film, through the use of lighting, camerawork and music – an almost buoyant aesthetic. It’s a twisted world where dark stuff happens, but the way the filmmaker sees it, there’s something quite gorgeous about it. (Not rated. Running time: 99 minutes)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 6, 2005. Read the original PDF.