BEST MOVIE - 2006 POLISHED APPLE AWARDS

“MYSTERIOUS SKIN” (2004)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Elisabeth Shue, Michelle, Bill Sage, Jeffrey Licon, Lisa Long, Chase Ellison, George Webster & Mary Lynn Rajskub
Written by Scott Heim (novel) & Gregg Araki (screenplay)
Directed by Gregg Araki

Polly Staffle Rating: ****

Very few people are able to get through childhood without emotional scars. Sometimes it's because of what didn't happen. Mostly it's because of what did. “Mysterious Skin” is a look at how two people deal with the same scars. This is a beautifully-done, touching film. It's also one of the most disturbing I have ever seen. This is a very hard watch because it deals with issues we want to pretend do not exist. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet are the film's two narrators. They aren't friends and they do not even know each other. They seem like opposites, but actually have quite a bit in common. They share something traumatic that not only scarred them, but has left open wounds.

The story, based on the novel by Scott Heim, begins when they are eight-years-old. Brady Corbert plays Brian Lackey, who is convinced he was abducted by aliens. His story sounds a lot like Evan's (Ashton Kuthcher) in “The Butterfly Effect” at first. Brian suffers from black outs and nose bleeds. There are also hours missing from his life he can't account for. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Neil. He was sexually molested by his little league baseball coach (Bill Sage) over the course of a summer. Neil was the best player on the team and was literally showered with Fruit Loops, junk food and video games, before being taken advantage of. Neil wants to go back to that time period in his life to relive it. Sadly, it is the only time he feels he was ever loved. Unlike “The Butterfly Effect,” there is no time traveling in “Mysterious Skin.” Its characters wish there was, but like real life, they can not change their pasts.

The film jumps ahead to when the boys are 18. Brian lives with his mother. His father left them two years prior. When Brian's father was around, he was emotionally abusive and neglectful. Brian has an older sister, but she is off at college. His mother (Lisa Long) is overprotective of him and likes that he is a mama's boy. Neil also lives alone with his mother. He never had a dad and his mother's boyfriends have come and gone through the years. Neil's mother (Elizabeth Shue) tells him she loves him often, but she's more of a hangout buddy than a mom. Brian is asexual and an extreme introvert. Neil is gay and oversexed. He is a male prostitute and seems to not care about himself, anyone else, sex or money.

Neil's best friend is Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg). He says she is more than a friend. “If I wasn't queer, we'd have probably ended up having sloppy teenage sex, getting pregnant and just contributing more (screwed) up people to the world. But instead, she was my soul mate,” Neil said. Wendy has been friends with Neil since their childhood. She only person that truly knows him. She knows all of his secrets. She was even there as a partner in crime when Neil did unspeakable acts as a child to other children. She worries about him and is probably a better friend than he deserves.

Wendy leaves for New York and Neil later joins her. Before leaving, she sees their common friend Eric (Jeffrey Licon) has a crush on Neil. She warns Eric that Neil isn't like most people. Wendy tells Eric, “Where normal people have a heart, Neil McCormick has a bottomless black hole.” Her description is rather fitting. Neil is a shell of a person. He has no motivation and he feels no love. From a far everyone wants to know him or be him, but he's an extremely lonely person who is hurting inside that isn't much fun to be around. For money Neil will sleep with anyone. He sleeps with a man three times his age and a creepy guy with festering sores. Neil places himself in very dangerous and hard to watch situations over and over again. He pretends to take pride in his work, bragging that he has posted his hours on the wall of a men's restroom at the park and showing off his bruised penis after a rough encounter. When we are shown him with a John, he never really participates in the situation. He's just kind of there, if you can even say that. It's almost as sex is always an out of body experience for him. The money he makes goes into a drawer and seems to never be touched.

Brian isn't interested in much of anything, except for UFOs and aliens. After the first blackout and nose bleed, he has had nightmares and wet the bed. Now he is a timid boy in a young man's body. He is an empty shell as well, but not cold like Neil. He's fragile and easily influenced. He struggles daily with trying to find out what happened in his past and keeps a dream journal. When he watches a show on TV that features a local woman named Avalyn (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who says she was abducted by beings from another planet, he writes to her. They meet and share stories. She becomes attached to him and tries to seduce him. He wants no part of it and starts to avoid her.

Brian soon befriends Eric. These two end up being one of the better relationships on display. Eric, who wears black makeup, dye's his hair different colors and would be called “weird” or a “freak” by closed minded people, is probably the most stable character in the film. He's obsessed with Neil and calls him a God, but doesn't partake in Neil's dangerous lifestyle. Brian believes Neil is the key to explaining the mystery of his past. So Neil serves as Eric and Brian's connection at first, but they become friends.

Slowly we learn more and more about Brian and Neil. It doesn't take long into the film to figure out how their stories tie together. It's not “The Sixth Sense” and doesn't try to be, but I still will not spoil anything. At the close of the film, it is evident that neither Neil nor Brian has lived as their own person. They were running from, hiding from and trying to escape who they are because of something that took place. Facing the past and accepting it will hopefully help them cope and move on from what happened.

After watching this film the first time, I felt it was a great movie, but I said, “I never want to see it again.” Of course I re-watched it a few weeks later. The movie has been stuck in my head. My girlfriend has said the same thing. After a second viewing, I'd have to call this an extremely bold and brilliant movie. There are so many things that make it such a wonderful cinematic piece of art. It is brilliantly written and directed by Gregg Araki, who also brought us the off-beat road trip movie “The Doom Generation.” The acting is top notch from every person involved. Corbet and Gordon-Levitt are so good you start to feel for them as if they are people you know in real life. Corbet is an emotional time bomb. His role here seems completely different than his usual. Corbert played Evan Rachel Wood's brother in “Thirteen” and has been a regular on day five of “24.” Gordon-Levitt is just as impressive. Yes, he is the boy from “3rd Rock from the Sun.” Don't hold a sitcom against him. Gordon-Levitt has been acting since he was seven and it shows as he can perform with the best of them. In each film I have seen him in lately, he turns out a top rate performance. Now in his mid twenties, Gordon-Levitt is an actor to look out for. Fellow child actress Trachtenberg is solid here as well. You may remember her as Nona Mecklenberg on “The Adventures of Pete & Pete.” She also had the starring role in “Harriet the Spy” and more recently was Dawn Summers on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the pop princess Celeste on “Six Feet Under.” There are also great child actors on display in “Mysterious Skin.” I was impressed with Chase Ellison as Neil at age 8 and the adorable George Webster as Brian at the same age.

If the Academy Awards really stood for achievements in film, this would be the best picture for 2005. Originally rated NC-17 by the MPAA and released unrated, it had a very limited release and managed under a million at the box office. A movie like this wasn't made for money or awards. It was made because it's an important story that should be told. So many directors back away from films that deal with taboos. Araki doesn't. He shows us things we do not want to see. This movie is filled with abusive and violent sexual images. Mostly things are implied. However, what's implied is more disturbing than “Requiem for a Dream” or “Kids.” Because of that reason many will misunderstand it. But I feel this is a genuine film with the best of intentions.

This a story about understanding ourselves. Our childhood shapes us into the people we are. Most of us are not as damaged as Neil or Brian, but we all have our scars. Some are still festering, while others are locked away deep in our subconscious. We try to forget them. We try to hide them. They are a part of us. We do not have to understand the things that have scarred us. We just have to accept what happened. We don't have to like what did or didn't happen in our pasts that hurt us, but we have to accept our wounds to heal them. Most of all, we have to accept who we are. As children we had no choice and no control over our lives. As adults, we do.

- CCF, February 2006