Mysterious Skin movie review

ratbag's review

I was a little apprehensive about watching "Mysterious Skin", as I knew it was a movie about child abuse, was given an R rating in Australia, and certain groups even tried to have this film banned. But now that I've seen it, I cannot stress how important it is for people to get out and see this.

"Mysterious Skin" is powerful film which tackles the issue of child abuse head on, by showing its impact on its victims. The two victims in this story are Neil (Gordon-Levitt), and Brian (Corbet). Neil is described by his closest friend Wendy as having a "bottomless black hole" as a heart, believed that his relationship with his baseball coach was consensual, and that he enjoyed his work as a hustler. Meanwhile, Brian has no recollection of his abuse, and suffers from blackouts, anxiety, and bed-wetting.

Some scenes were hard to stomach, and would make audiences squirm uncomfortably in their seats, others would bring about roars of laughter. Even though we see Neil and Brian's lives spiraling downwards as they get closer to confronting the truth, we hope that by facing it together, they will give each other the strength to continue, even though we know that the damage done is irreversible.

There were strong performances by the whole cast, notably Gordon-Levitt. Bill Sage manages to gross audiences out as the baseball coach, in his short shorts and 'mo.