Mysterious Skin (2005)
83 %
Reviews Counted: 92 Fresh: 76 Rotten:16 Average Rating: 7.1/10
Consensus:
Bold performances and sensitive, spot-on direction make watching this difficult tale of trauma and abuse a thought-provoking, resonant experience.
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Theatrical Release: 2005-05
Box Office: $508,378
Synopsis: In MYSTERIOUS SKIN, an unlikely director takes on an even more unlikely lead actor and crafts a deeply felt coming-of-age tale that pulsates with the scalding beauty of tragedy. The director, Gregg Araki, whose over-the-top gay melodramas have been criticized as largely empty... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jeffrey Licon, Bill Sage
Director: Gregg Araki
Screenwriter: Gregg Araki
Producer: Jeff Levy-Hinte, Mary Jane Skalski
Composer: Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie
Screenwriter: Gregg Araki
Producer: Jeff Levy-Hinte, Mary Jane Skalski
Composer: Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie
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Reviews
Even with the numb dialogue and trite characterizations we've come to expect from Araki, Mysterious Skin might have worked with the right actor in the charismatic role of Neil.
Comment
03/01/07
This one clearly has more meat on the plate than Araki's earlier more shallow and sensationalistic films.
07/20/06
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06/24/06
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05/12/06
Sensível e tristemente trágico, o filme é um doloroso estudo de personagens beneficiado por uma atuação estupenda de Gordon-Levitt.
01/03/06
Top Critic
A raw and unadorned look at child abuse and its idiosyncratic repercussions.
10/30/05
Araki has given us his most mature work yet, a fiercely focused yet oddly dreamlike meditation on innocence and loss.
09/30/05
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09/26/05
Top Critic
A riveting original that some may find almost too agonising to experience
08/30/05
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08/19/05
Top Critic
Delicately balances the sordid and rough with the childlike and fantastic...
08/15/05
Gone is the gloomy nihilism of The Doom Generation and The Living End, replaced by a melancholy, but hopeful, affection toward people with the capacity to overcome tremendous psychological trauma.
07/29/05
From a moralistic point of view, is it good that Araki is exposing the awful horrors of sex abuse? OK, I'll buy that. As a pedophilic expose, is it too much? For me, yes it was.
07/28/05
A very well acted film with a tremendous ensemble cast. My problem stems from how Araki chose to tell the story.
07/26/05
Related Forums
MYSTERIOUS SKIN gets a NYC preem @ the 4th Annual TRIBECA film festival!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 2/27/06
by: REEL_REVIEWER 2/27/06
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