Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet) is a young man, a loner, really, obsessed with two things: aliens, and discovering what happened during an amnesia blackout when he was eight years old. After some research, he begins to think the two things are related, and that he was the victim of an alien abduction. Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a fellow player on Brian's childhood baseball team, has a connection to what happened to Brian that night, but he isn't disillusioned at all- he knows the truth and it's simultaneously shaped and wrecked the person he is today. As Brian searches for the truth and tries to track Neil down for answers, Neil takes up male hustling and moves away to New York, hoping to push away the memories from his childhood that plague him. Together, the two of them uncover the terrible truth of the scars they share, and discover that reality is often stranger than the stories we make up.
It's difficult to describe why Mysterious Skin works so well without giving away Brian and Neil's shared secret. And though it's revealed fairly early on in the movie, it would be a disservice to the film to share it. But aside from the fresh and painful way the film represents one of the most raw problems that face children, it is beautiful to look at. The characters are all a little cold, and the way they are posed onscreen is reminiscent of a dollhouse, softly lit and perfectly arranged. What's also nice is that director Gregg Araki contrasts the two men's lifestyles: Neil in the harsh city of New York, and Brian in the warm comfort of Kansas. Still, neither of them find what they're looking for until they meet each other. Neither feels quite settled. Mysterious Skin is not for the faint of heart. But it will impact you, forcing you to look at the factors in childhood that shape our lives, and how one act can change all of that forever.
It's difficult to describe why Mysterious Skin works so well without giving away Brian and Neil's shared secret. And though it's revealed fairly early on in the movie, it would be a disservice to the film to share it. But aside from the fresh and painful way the film represents one of the most raw problems that face children, it is beautiful to look at. The characters are all a little cold, and the way they are posed onscreen is reminiscent of a dollhouse, softly lit and perfectly arranged. What's also nice is that director Gregg Araki contrasts the two men's lifestyles: Neil in the harsh city of New York, and Brian in the warm comfort of Kansas. Still, neither of them find what they're looking for until they meet each other. Neither feels quite settled. Mysterious Skin is not for the faint of heart. But it will impact you, forcing you to look at the factors in childhood that shape our lives, and how one act can change all of that forever.