Mysterious Skin ***** (2004, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Michelle Trachtenberg, Elisabeth Shue, Bill Sage) – Classic Film Review 160

Brady Corbet stars with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the provocative, accomplished 2004 coming-of-age drama film Mysterious Skin as a Kansas teenager who thinks he has seen a UFO and been abducted by aliens.

We can trust indie writer-director Gregg Araki for a provocative, accomplished movie. And here it is. Brady Corbet (from Thunderbirds) stars in the 2004 coming-of-age drama film Mysterious Skin as Brian Lackey, a Kansas teenage lad who suffers from nosebleeds, blackouts and bedwetting. He thinks he has seen a UFO and has been abducted by aliens.

Brian meets Avalyn Friesen (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who also believes she was abducted by aliens and they start a friendship. Eventually Brian seeks out Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), another boy from his old school, who is now a hustler in New York City, home to his best friend Wendy Peterson (Michelle Trachtenberg).

Neil has returned to his home town of Hutchinson, Kansas, to spend Christmas with his irresponsible single mother Ellen (Elisabeth Shue), so Neil and Brian meet for the first time in more than a decade from back when they were eight-year-old Little League teammates. Corbet thinks Gordon-Levitt can help him find out the truth about a dark secret in the past and give him the clue to the future.

Based on a 1995 novel by Scott Heim, and with its main story set in 1991 and its back story in the summer of 1981, this dip into the dark recesses of human nature is a provocative, bleak, truthful and outstanding treatment of an extremely difficult subject. Bleak though it may be, it’s darkly amusing and ultimately very moving and hopeful.

It is beautifully filmed by an inspired Gregg Araki (director of The Doom Generation, Totally F***ed Up and The Living End), and lit up by superb performances. An on-fire Gordon-Levitt (wearing blue contact lenses and sometimes not much else) is absolutely amazing, and Corbet proves perfect for it.

It was not a major award-winner maybe, but it picked up deserved wins at the Brisbane, Bergen, Rotterdam, Iceland and Seattle film festivals, a good result for an indie movie like this.

Heim based the Brian character on himself. He entered his screenplay from his novel in a writing lab at Sundance, where Araki was a judge. Eventually Araki wrote his own screenplay.

Three weeks of low budget filming started in August 2003, a fast shoot so there was no chance of retakes.

Gordon-Levitt said: ‘It is a really different role for me. Gregg was the first one to call me sexy, and I’ll always be really grateful for that.’

The cast are Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Neil McCormick, Brady Corbet as Brian Lackey, Michelle Trachtenberg as Wendy Peterson, Chase Ellison as young Neil McCormick, George Webster as young Brian Lackey, Riley McGuire as young Wendy Peterson, Jeff Licon as Eric Preston, Mary Lynn Rajskub as Avalyn Friesen, Elisabeth Shue as Ellen McCormick, Bill Sage as Coach, Chris Mulkey as Mr Lackey, Lisa Long as Mrs Lackey, Richard Riehle as Charlie, Kelly Kruger as Deborah, Rachael Nastassja Kraft as young Deborah, and Billy Drago as Zeke.

It premiered at the 61st Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2004 and was released in US cinemas on 6 May 2005 without a rating.

Mysterious Skin is directed by Gregg Araki, runs 105 minutes, is made by Fortissimo Films, Antidote Films and Desperate Pictures, is distributed by Tartan Films (UK) and TLA Releasing (US), is written by Gregg Araki, is shot by Steve Gainer, is produced by Gregg Araki, and is scored by Harold Budd and Robin Guthrie.

Release dates: 3 September 2004 (Venice) and 6 May 2005 (US).

American film-maker Gregg Araki (born 17 December 1959) is noted for the Teen Apocalypse trilogy: Totally F***ed Up (1993), The Doom Generation (1995), and Nowhere (1997) and his role in the 1990s New Queer Cinema movement. His 2010 film Kaboom was the first winner of the Cannes Film Festival Queer Palm.

Araki’s next film after Mysterious Skin is the stoner comedy Smiley Face (2007), followed by Kaboom and White Bird in a Blizzard (2014).

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 160

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