Mysterious Skin

Mysterious Skin (2004), written & directed by Gregg Araki, adapted from Scot Heim’s novel of the same name, is a truly realistic and disturbing film depicting the story of two teenagers, Brian (Brady Corbet) and Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who were sexually abused as a child by their baseball coach.

Film opens with a voice over “The summer I was 8 years old, five hours disappeared from my life.” (Brady Corbet as Brian) that draws the audience's attention straight into the plot itself. There is a broad time span covering 10 years of the characters’ aftermath of their trauma and self-development. Brian who is an obsessed child, suppressing sexual abuse in his subconscious as alien abductions and UFOs where as Neil who is aware of the situation and hustling with older men. We see two different ways that the boys handle their past. However, they don’t connect with each other until the end of the film which, in my opinion, is another interpretation of their distinct journeys of healing and processing. The outcome of the shared trauma reveals itself as the common ground that brings back Neil and Brian together in the last scene.

There are many scenes depicted as their childhood memories and they are told by a kid’s point of view which is a significant aspect defining the atmosphere from camera movements to symbolism. Araki says that he wanted this movie to be visually appealing and to have a dreamy, poetic kind of flow. So he manipulates the lighting, the colors (blue associated with abuse), the editing to achieve his goal. Especially for Brian’s scenes, there are significant blackouts and unclear images like his hazy thoughts scratching the surface of his conscious.

It is indeed a disturbing movie with its sexual violence scenes left to imagination (there isn’t any visual demonstration) but I think, another reason of this disturbance is mixing the elements of purity and infancy with sexuality and adulthood. The scene where Neil, as a child, littering cereals around and playing with his baseball coach in his kitchen just before he abuses him is a perfect evidence of the symbolism used through colorful cereals.

“Mysterious Skin”, thus, has a successful visual narration of child abuse through the eyes of the victims by combining the preserved memories of their childhood and the harsh reality of the aftermath.