Mysterious Skin
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
8 September 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
22 June 1971, Detroit, Michigan, USA
17 April 1992, Los Angeles, California, USA
17 February 1981, Los Angeles, California, USA
3 May 1948, Viroqua, Wisconsin, USA
24 June 1994, Bellflower, California, USA
6 October 1963, Wilmington, Delaware, USA
11 October 1985, New York City, New York, USA
23 August 1966, Blissfield, Michigan, USA
May 11, 2016
Like most good films, this one demands something from you, not just you from it. Some may run for cover, or for the exit, but those who stick around this strange and rich film will be sent out floating.
March 07, 2014
Contains a few flat notes of community participation, but Araki locates all the necessary surges of hopelessness and misguided desire, ending victorious in his quest to adapt Scott Heim's provocative novel.
July 21, 2005
The audience has gotten the point roughly 90 minutes before the characters do.
August 21, 2010
a bizarre, beguiling coming-of-age drama
July 01, 2005
This is a challenging and ultimately moving film that deserves to find a like-minded audience.
July 22, 2005
Araki's best film in a long time.
June 24, 2005
The usual Araki elements are here (hustlers, rebels, uproar, the absurd), but now he appears to be working with focus and compassion.
July 21, 2005
Manages to deal with its raw, awful subject matter in ways that are both challenging and illuminating.
March 17, 2014
[...] For a movie about something as painful as child sexual abuse, Mysterious Skin doesn't repel. There's an allure to the images, which are as carefully posed and framed as figures in a softly illuminated dollhouse.
September 15, 2009
treads harrowing ground without falling into the pit of cliché
July 29, 2005
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.
November 07, 2012
By exploring the taboo topic of paedophilia in a humanist manner that avoids sensationalising or heavy-handed verdicts, Araki's eloquent, sensitive film actually presents an indictment far stronger than any moral grandstander ever could.
