Mysterious Skin

There are a lot of films out there that fall way, way outside the entire popular concept of film as entertainment. If someone asks if you like the movie, there’s no easy, short answer. In fact, there’s no answer. Because sometimes a film does not exist to be liked, it exists to tell a story that no one else will tell. I don’t “like” Mysterious Skin, but it’s an amazing film nonetheless.

Directed and written for the screen by Gregg Araki, based on the novel by Scott Heim, Mysterious Skin tells the story of two young men and the road down which each escapes a tragic past. We see their stories separately, though we know at some point they’ll be drawn together. We begin with Neil, telling us in voice over narration from some distant time and place of the summer when he was eight, the year he played Little League. We soon switch to Brian. He’s also narrating from an older self, about that same summer when, at age eight, he too played Little League. The two boys, playing on the same team, could hardly be more different. Neil is the star player, Brian probably the worst. But that summer will shape both their lives, though in drastically different ways.

Straight up, this is a film about what happens to people after they’ve been sexually abused. There have been a lot of films that dance around this issue, even confront it head on, but none that I’ve seen do it as brutally, as honestly and as directly as Mysterious Skin. All those euphemisms we get used to from TV Talk Shows and scandals in the newspapers are gone. The exploitation of the subject for ratings or readers – gone. The toning down to make things comfortable for the audience – gone.

As the years have gone by, we’ve become distant. Reports of child abuse and sexual crimes are all over the place, every day. The reports always use the same language, “assault”, “molestation”, “abuse”. After a while, those terms don’t mean anything anymore, except to those who’ve become victims. To them, those words cover up the truth of their lives, the truth that kills them a little bit every day – a truth we don’t usually see on film.

Mysterious Skin never uses those words. It shows us what happens to children in the years after they first become victims of the worst mankind has to offer. Neil becomes mean, cold, hard and uncaring. Even his best friend (played by Michelle Trachtenberg) recognizes that Neil is heartless. Brian represses everything. He knows something is wrong with him, he knows something happened that summer, but he doesn’t remember. He’ll grasp at nearly every straw for an explanation, some clue to explain his dreams, his fear and his past. We see both boys as they become young men – tracking them from age eight, through age fourteen and up to age eighteen. Perhaps the ten hardest years ever put to film.

Without question, the most difficult aspect of this film is its unflinching eye. The scenes of sexual abuse are very, very graphic. You’ll notice (and appreciate) the editing that takes the young actors away from the scenes, but that makes them no less horrifying to watch. Araki puts this film together to make us as close as possible to these kids, make their experiences as real as he can without exploiting either the subject or his actors. And he largely succeeds. Some of these images will linger for a long, long time, putting meaning into those old, almost useless phrases from the nightly news. The older Neil is a gay prostitute, and his life is ugly and demeaning, though to him it represents the ultimate power. The film doesn’t hesitate to show us his life at this point, either, with the same graphic imagery. There is, actually, very little nudity – the scenes are cut precisely for maximum impact with minimum exploitation.

So far it doesn’t sound like anything anyone would want to watch. And I’ll never claim that it’s “entertaining”. Mysterious Skin isn’t here to entertain you – it’s here to show you what you only thought you knew about those who survive the headlines and the scandal – as well as the huge number of people who never make the news, but suffer the effects of childhood predation.

But there is something to watch for – something even greater than obtaining more of an understanding of the thousands of kids out there who live these lives. There’s the luminous, ridiculously outstanding performance of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Neil. Remember this kid? He was the little one on Third Rock From the Sun. I don’t think I ever even saw an entire episode of that program, but I recognized this kid (now a young man). He’s utterly, breathtakingly fabulous. For all his cold bravado and his foul mouthed cruelty, he manages to make his face reflect an entirely different human being below the surface. This is not a likable character, not at all. In fact, Neil is actively unlikable in nearly everything he does. Yet through the eyes of Levitt we see that inner spark, that touch of torment in every action, every gesture. Honestly, Levitt makes the film. He makes this character so human, so heartbreaking that we have to care. We just have to. Levitt was nominated for two awards for this film, winning at the Seattle International Film Festival for his performance. Were this a more mainstream film, perhaps he would have been honored more. But if it were a more mainstream film, its heart would have been lost, and I suspect the soul of this character along with it.

Starring alongside Levitt is Brady Corbet as the older Brian. Another terrific performance, but limited a bit by the role. Brian is a quiet, naïve young man. He’s almost child-like, as if he never really aged past that tragic summer. Corbet takes a while to get that across through his character – we don’t understand quite as much about him as we do about Neil. That’s an essential part of the story, his search for his repressed past, whereas Neil never forgot. The film is rounded out by good performances from the entire supporting cast, including Elisabeth Shue as Neil’s mom, Michelle Trachtenberg and Jeffrey Licon as another friend to both Neil and Brian.

Mysterious Skin is a difficult movie to watch. It cuts to the heart of every parent’s nightmare, making it all nearly too real. Honestly, there were times when I wanted to turn my head away; the scenes were just too painful. Herein lies the beauty and the downfall of the film. It’s so real, so brutal, so honest that it’s almost unbearable. Yet it’s that very honesty that gives it an aura of realism that’s missing in virtually every other film about children being abused or the lives they lead into adulthood.

Mysterious Skin isn’t a film I can really recommend. That’s the box I’ll check, and I’m glad I saw it, but this is going to be a really individual call. You won’t be entertained, you’ll be uncomfortable, you’ll take away images you might wish you’d not seen. But the stark truths revealed, the absolutely unflinching look into the trauma suffered by these boys is what marks the film as different, somehow more than the rest. It makes the term “sexual abuse” more than a headline. It is truly an unforgettable film. One that earns four stars for the quality of the production, the heart and courage of the screenplay and direction and the remarkable performance of Levitt in the lead role. If you do choose to see it, be aware of what you’re getting into beforehand.