Mysterious Skin

Mysterious Skin
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gregg Araki
Produced by	Gregg Araki
Screenplay by	Gregg Araki
Based on	Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim
Starring	Joseph Gordon-Levitt Brady Corbet
Music by	Harold Budd Robin Guthrie
Cinematography	Steve Gainer
Editing by	Gregg Araki
Distributed by	TLA Releasing
Release date(s)	May 6, 2004 (2004-05-06)
Running time	99 minutes
Country	United States Netherlands
Language	English
Box office	$1,524,966

Mysterious Skin is a 2004 drama film directed by American filmmaker Gregg Araki, who also wrote the screenplay based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Scott Heim. The film is Araki's eighth, premiering at the Venice Film Festival in 2004, although it was not more widely distributed until 2005.

Mysterious Skin tells the story of two pre-adolescent boys who are sexually abused by their baseball coach, and how it affects their lives in different ways into their young adulthood. One boy becomes a reckless, sexually adventurous male prostitute, while the other retreats into a fantasy of alien abduction.

Plot

Born in 1972 in Kansas, 8-year-old Neil McCormick (Chase Ellison as a boy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an adolescent) and Brian Lackey (George Webster and Brady Corbet) are sexually abused by their baseball coach (Bill Sage). Both boys are targets for abuse due to their dysfunctional families: Neil's single mother (Elizabeth Shue) is neglectful and preoccupied with a string of boyfriends, while Brian's parents are on the verge of divorce.

Neil showed signs of being homosexual at an early age -- he was fascinated with male models depicted in his mother's Playgirl magazines. He interprets the coach's abuse as an initiation into sexuality, and becomes sexually compulsive, being particularly attracted to middle-aged men. Eventually Neil leaves home, drifts into petty crime, and becomes a prostitute in New York City. His friend Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg), who harbors an unrequited crush, describes Neil as having not a heart, but "a bottomless black hole."

Brian reacts to the abuse by developing psychogenic amnesia and forgetting the events. He remembers waiting for his parents to drive him home from a baseball game, followed by a gap of several hours after which he regained consciousness, bloodied and hiding under the crawl space of his home. For many years Brian suffers from chronic nose bleeds and bed-wetting. In his teen years, Brian becomes nerdy and withdrawn, perceived by others as nearly asexual. He has unsettling recurring dreams about being touched by a strange, bluish hand. These odd dreams lead Brian to suspect that he and another boy may have been abducted by aliens. At the age of 18, Brian meets a young woman (Mary Lynn Rajskub) who also believes she was abducted by aliens. They begin to form a fragile friendship, though when she takes a romantic interest in Brian and touches him sexually he reacts with intense panic and refuses to speak to her again.

While trying to untangle his confused memories, Brian sees a photo of his childhood baseball team, recognizing a young Neil as the boy from his bizarre dreams. After being beaten and raped by a trick, Neil leaves New York City and returns home. Eventually, the two young men meet for the first time in over a decade. After breaking into the home that was previously rented by the baseball coach, Neil explains how the coach groomed both boys to make the abuse seem normal and acceptable, and how a bluish porch light shining through the bedroom window gave the abusive incidents an eerie atmosphere. Brian suffers a nervous breakdown and collapses into Neil's arms. The film ends with a voice-over narration from Neil:

...I wanted to tell Brian it was over now and everything would be okay. But that was a lie, plus, I couldn't speak anyway. I wish there was some way for us to go back and undo the past. But there wasn't. There was nothing we could do. So I just stayed silent and trying to telepathically communicate how sorry I was about what had happened...

Cast

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Neil McCormick
• Brady Corbet as Brian Lackey
• Michelle Trachtenberg as Wendy
• Jeff Licon as Eric Preston
• Mary Lynn Rajskub as Avalyn Friesen
• Elisabeth Shue as Mrs. McCormick
• Bill Sage as Coach
• Chase Ellison as young Neil McCormick
• George Webster as young Brian Lackey
• Riley McGuire, as young Wendy
• Chris Mulkey as Mr. Lackey
• Lisa Long as Mrs. Lackey
• Richard Riehle as Charlie
• Kelly Kruger as Deborah
• Rachael Nastassja Kraft as young Deborah
• Billy Drago as Zeke
• Pete Kasper as Sedan driver
• David Alan Graf as Gay Lumberjack
• John Ganun as NYC John
• David Lee Smith as Alfred
• Ryan Stenzel as Stephen Zepherelli
• Larry Marko as Old Man with Scar
• Bruno Alexander as Redneck Hick
• Forrest Fountain as Jackson
• Zane Huett as Jackson's Son
• Reedy Gibbs as Receptionist

Production

A number of measures were taken to avoid exposing the child actors to the sexual and abusive aspects of the story. Although their parents were given the entire shooting script to review, the boys were given separate scripts which included only the activities they would be performing, and their roles and the characters' relationships were explained to them in innocent terms. All of the sexual abuse involving children is implied rather than being directly depicted, and the scenes in which this seduction and abuse takes place were filmed with each actor performing alone and addressing the camera rather than the other actor, then edited together, so the children did not see or hear the performance by the adult actor playing the abuser. (This subjective approach to filming was consequently used in various places throughout the film.)^[1][2]

Reception

The film received generally positive critical acclaim, with an 83% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[3] Roger Ebert^[4] described the film as "at once the most harrowing and, strangely, the most touching film I have seen about child abuse".

According to psychologist Richard Gartner,^[5] the novel Mysterious Skin is an uncommonly accurate portrayal of the long-term effect of child sexual abuse on boys.

The film has been the subject of some controversy in Australia, where the Australian Family Association requested a review of its classification, seeking to have the film outlawed due to its depiction of pedophilia. They suggested that the film could be used by pedophiles for sexual gratification or to help them groom children for sexual abuse.^[6] The six-member Classification Review Board voted four-to-two in favour of maintaining an R18+ rating. The controversy is referenced in a review excerpt from the Sydney Morning Herald on the Region 4 DVD that reads: "How anyone could have wanted it banned is beyond me".^[7]

Soundtrack

Main article: Mysterious Skin – Music from the Film

The film score was composed by Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie.

Other songs include:

1. "Golden Hair" – Slowdive
2. "Galaxy" – Curve
3. "Game Show" – Dag Gabrielsen, Bill Campbell, Nelson Foltz, Robert Roe
4. "Catch the Breeze" – Slowdive
5. "Crushed" – Cocteau Twins
6. "Dagger" – Slowdive
7. "I Guess I Fell in Love Last Night" – Dag Gabrielsen, Alex Lacamoire
8. "I Could Do Without Her" – Dag Gabrielsen, Alex Lacamoire
9. "Drive Blind" – Ride
10. "O Come All Ye Faithful" – Tom Meredith, Cydney Neal, Arlo Levin, Isaiah Teofilo
11. "Away in a Manger" – Tom Meredith, Cydney Neal, Arlo Levin, Isaiah Teofilo
12. "Silent Night" – Tom Meredith, Cydney Neal, Arlo Levin, Isaiah Teofilo, Evan Rachel Wood, John Mason
13. "Samskeyti" – Sigur Rós

Awards

• 2004 Bergen International Film Festival – Jury Award^[8]
• 2006 Polished Apple Awards – Best Movie^[9]
• 2006 Icelandic Queer Film Festival – Best Fictional Work^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ 'Interview: Under the "Mysterious Skin"'
2. ^ Director and actors' commentary track on DVD release
3. ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mysterious_skin/
4. ^ "Mysterious Skin". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050602/REVIEWS/50531003. 
5. ^ Gartner, Richard. "Cinematic Depictions of Boyhood Sexual Victimization (part 5 of 5)". Originally published in Gender and Psychoanalysis (1999) Volume 4:253-289.
6. ^ Moses, Alexa (2005-07-19). "Pedophilia theme sparks film ban call". Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/call-for-film-to-be-banned/2005/07/18/1121538915851.html. Retrieved 2009-09-04. "Being able to get hold legally of a DVD where they can play the scene over and over again... could prove very helpful to some pedophiles." 
7. ^ Byrnes, Paul (2005-08-18). "Mysterious Skin". Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/reviews/mysterious-skin/2005/08/17/1123958122578.html. Retrieved 2009-09-04. "Mysterious Skin is a profoundly moving film, disturbing and beautiful and painful. How anyone could have wanted it banned is beyond me - but of course, the people who wanted it banned hadn't seen it." 
8. ^ http://www.biff.no/2007/index.php3?ID=Priser&Eng=Ja
9. ^ http://www.pollystaffle.com/pollies/index.shtml

External links

• Official website
• Mysterious Skin at the Internet Movie Database
• Mysterious Skin at AllRovi
• Mysterious Skin at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mysterious Skin Script
• Interview with Gregg Araki about Mysterious Skin at ion magazine