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Mysterious Skin
Tartan USA


8.0

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 47 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Brady Corbet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elisabeth Shue, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jeffrey Licon, Lisa Long, and Bill Sage

Based on the acclaimed novel by Scott Heim, Mysterious Skin explores the hearts and minds of two very different boys who come to find the key to their future happiness lies in the exorcism of their collective demons. (Tartan Films)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Gregg Araki Scott Heim (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Gregg Araki
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 25, 2005 Theatrical: May 6, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Jury Award, 2004 Bergen International Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

This thoughtful, troubling drama is leagues above the sensationalistic stuff Araki peddled in earlier films.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

A gorgeous, heartbreaking and utterly convincing work of art.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The film's content is adult – and for the first time in Araki's career, so is the director.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Not for the squeamish, but it is a beautifully crafted and thoughtful film that genuinely provokes.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

At once the most harrowing and, strangely, the most touching film I have seen about child abuse.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Mysterious Skin dawdles more than it flows, but it comes alive whenever Araki, hovering between tragedy and voyeurism, reveals how sex can tear lives to pieces.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Invigorating, blistering and chilling.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A startling portrayal of how the cycle of abuse plays itself out in the lives of its victims.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A helter-skelter ride of the soul, an unblinking, white-knuckle crash landing into the mushy mysteries of the subconscious.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

With remarkable directness and composure, it shatters the myth of childhood innocence and the deathless taboo of prepubescent sexuality.

Newsweek David Ansen

Explores both prepubescent and teen sexuality with an honesty that may make some people uncomfortable, which is a sign of its potency, and a badge of honor.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

A warped, but beautiful and strangely hopeful, coming-of-age tale.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

It's hard to imagine a more serious or persuasive indictment of the horrors inflicted on children by sexual abuse than Mysterious Skin.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

The film is mentally graphic, not sexually graphic.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

An absorbing story. Even though it takes you to places you may not want to go, the film never loses its human touch--that feel of skin on skin or of the past inescapably invading the present.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Leah McLaren

Unlike Todd Solondz's "Happiness," Mysterious Skin is not an abuse movie that seeks to offend or upset.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The film is actually a major artistic breakthrough for Araki, a onetime bad boy of independent filmmaking. Its psychological intelligence, attention to emotional currents, and humanity are surprises.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A deft, affecting drama about childhood sexual abuse and its lifelong scars.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Mysterious Skin bears all of Araki's hallmarks, from its stylish compositions and lush colors to its willingness to confront difficult subject matter head-on.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Mysterious Skin isn't a picture about existential vacancy; it isn't even about anything so simplistic as the horrors of child abuse. It's more of a meditation on the necessity of making your way past, or through, any obstacle that prevents you from being a thinking, feeling person.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The result is flawed but frequently haunting.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It's an ideal collaboration: A stylish director desperately seeking substance transforms the first, somewhat flat novel of a promising young writer into powerful and brutally honest film about a highly controversial subject.

Variety David Rooney

By turns spiky and lyrical, this unsettling drama will be anathema to many audiences, but is bound to be a provocative, talked-about release.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Only half a great movie, because the other half follows a separate but related thread that isn't nearly as compelling.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A well-conceived story that is very hard to shake.

Film Threat Don R. Lewis

By the end of Mysterious Skin, I felt physically exhausted but I also felt satisfied at the way it all falls into place.

Slate David Edelstein

Araki is trying to work from the inside out; and he captures feelings about sexual exploitation that I've never seen onscreen--not all of them negative.

Empire Damon Wise

Corbet emerges as an actor of sensitivity and depth, but it’s Gordon-Levitt who steals every scene as the damaged, destructive but ultimately sympathetic rent boy.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Mostly, Mysterious Skin creeps you out, and not in any kind of fun way. There's an artfulness to it, but it's hard to imagine many viewers actually using the term "enjoyed" or "entertained" in conjunction with it.

The Hollywood Reporter Ray Bennett

Dull film about pedophilia that fails to shed any light on the topic.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Had Araki chosen to illuminate, rather than exploit, the traumatic aftermath of child molestation, his wallow in the horrors of Mysterious Skin might have had a purpose. As it stands, his film is just another trashy look at America as the land of imbecilic perverts.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 47 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dan B. gave it a9:
I didn't like it at first but as it went on it kind of made it difficult not to accept and keep watching. Whatever that means. It's really well made. It's not for everyone and I'm not sure, even though I liked it, that it needed to be as graphic as it was.

Chad S. gave it a10:
Sometimes it's like a gay "X-Files", and sometimes it's like the third season of "My So-Called Life" that never was(Ricky and Brian Krakow become best friends); all I know is that "Mysterious Skin" is compulsively watchable, a movie whose irreverent treatment of child abuse is grounded with irony-free angst (it's nothing like the equally brilliant "Happiness" by Todd Solondz) and a soundtrack (a Fraser-less Cocteau Twins) that perfectly encapsulates the feeling of alienation in a small-town. How the celibate boy's story is actually the same story as the chicken-hawking Goth’s gets told with enigmatic verve and sensitivity. It's ingenuous how this filmmaker doesn't oversell the moment when the asexual kid starts to remember. It's fascinating how the boy's orientation is unearthed when the gay Goth tells him the whole story of his youth. "Mysterious Skin", for me, is haunting because it treats the eighties seriously. Too often, that decade is played for laughs.

Gabor A. gave it a0:
I never walk out of movies. I'll suffer through anything to criticize it afterwards and warn others. That was until I tried to watch this movie. Utterly unwatchable.

[Anonymous] gave it a9:
A powerful movie that conquers challenging themes in a remarkably entertaining fashion. Fantastic character development. Some scenes very disturbing and thought provoking. A must see for every parent.

Scott W. gave it an8:
Why is it that those who dislike movies about tough subjects, tend to dismiss them entirely without consideration? Why watch the movie in the first place? Anyway, this was a well-made movie and provides a path forward for those kids that were abused. To me, it certainly is far superior to the movies like Mystic River and Sleepers that also make attempts at exploring this stuff.

Nolan D. gave it a1:
I was furious watching this movie, not because of the content but because of the treatment of the content. It's one of the most delicate subjects, if not THE most delicate subject, and this director went at it like a bull in a china shop, and then in an interview claims he's not trying to shock anyone, which is such utter @#$!. I agree with Matt A., and I truly don't know what to make of the general response that this movie has recieved.

John D. gave it a10:
If you don't recognize the beautiful acting and the that provoking plot, you should not be able to rate this movie. Though dreadfully disturbing in some parts, it is terribly compelling.

Mysterious Skin Tartan USA

Mysterious Skin
Tartan USA