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After the Abuse: 'Mysterious Skin' tackles an uncomfortable topic

Becomes one of the year's best films

By JAMES DIGIOVANNA

Mysterious Skin. Directed by Gregg Araki. Starring Joseph
Gordon-Levitt, Michelle Trachtenberg, Brady Corbet and Bill Sage.

I can't imagine that anyone in America would make a film that showed
Hitler as a hero, or Jesus as a villain, or that questioned the general
moral supremacy of the United States (and if you watch Michael Moore's
movies, one thing that's clear is that, in criticizing specific moral
failings of the U.S., he is nonetheless quite the flag-waving,
jingoistic rah-rah American, no matter what his flag-waving, jingoistic
rah-rah American critics say). I also wouldn't imagine that anyone
would make a movie about child molestation in which the victim claimed
to enjoy the abuse.

Except that Gregg Araki has just done it, with Mysterious Skin, and
he's somehow succeeded in making one of the best movies so far this
year. Obviously, with his topic, it's not going to be one of the most
commercially successful films of the year, but I think that even those
who are initially disgusted by the premise might find something to like
in this beautifully shot, perfectly acted film.

Skin stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Neil, an earthman who, at the age of
9, entered into a sexual relationship with his Little League baseball
coach. While Araki makes it clear that this is rape, and that the coach
is a manipulative monster, nonetheless little Neil is flattered by the
attention. In fact, the first time he sees the man he knows only as
"Coach," he's struck dumb by the older man's Playgirl-style beauty.

Bill Sage, in a 1970s mustache, plays Coach, and he gives a perfectly
nuanced performance. There's nothing in his acting to indicate how
wrong what he's doing is; in fact, he has impeccable confidence in his
actions. It's thus easy to see how Neil is sucked in and flattered by
the attention.

Coach's amoral outlook doesn't have the best effect on Neil, though,
and he becomes something of a monster, albeit a beautiful one. As he
grows into a teen, he acquires a cadre of adoring fans who are seduced
by his good looks. He also acquires a shadow in the form of another boy
named Brian Lackey.

Lackey, who's the same age as Neil, also had an odd experience at the
age of 9. Unfortunately, he can't remember it, and begins to think that
he may have been abducted by a UFO. In investigating this missing time
in his life, he comes to see that it must have some link to Neil.

Brian Lackey is played by Brady Corbet, and he's credible in the role,
though his nerd-boy routine is a bit stock. The other performances,
though, are brutally effective. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has matured into a
potent performer (he grew up on TV's Third Rock From the Sun, which may
be something of an inside joke, what with UFO obsessed Brian stalking
him throughout the film). Araki knows how to put good looks to use, but
Gordon-Levitt goes him one better by epitomizing exactly the kind of
person who acquires a following in high school: a visually appealing,
highly manipulative individual who can easily mimic affection, but
doesn't feel any strong attachment to anyone.

Michelle Trachtenberg also shines as Neil's best friend, Wendy. She's
the human counterpart to Neil's black-hole-for-a-soul existence, and
Araki is smart enough not to make her into a clingy cardboard cut-out,
in spite of her good nature.

She's also beautiful, and beautifully made up in blacks and reds that
match the palette of the film. Araki is one of the few directors who
can control all the colors in any given shot, and it gives his films an
oddly painted quality. In Skin, the hues seem to be borrowed from a
Polaroid picture, everything appearing in oversaturated fields of solid
colors that fade into deep shadow. The cinematography is not only
dazzling; it's also clearly and inventively focuses on storytelling.
The visual sequences are so well constructed in terms of both narrative
and raw beauty that you could easily follow and enjoy this film with
the sound off.

Though you'd miss the painfully naturalistic dialogue that Araki
penned. Araki is very careful in showing the harmful effects of sexual
abuse while not going the TV-movie route of simplifying things into
some kind of conflict between abused angels and predatory devils.

What makes the continuing abuse that Neil suffered so horrifying isn't
that it involved a brutal assault, but that it played on his need for
adult approval and affection, and that he could only assimilate it by
becoming, himself, a tremendously manipulative and yet seemingly
benevolent character. In celebrating what happened to him, Neil is made
into a much more interesting character than one who is simply a victim.

However, Araki presents that victimized character as well, and their
coming together produces a conclusion that should satisfy those who
don't appreciate moral ambiguity on matters of extreme moral depravity.

Mysterious Skin is probably the best American movie I've seen this
year. Not that there's a lot of competition, what with Tom Cruise's
Extremely Heterosexual Summer Film and Annual Adam Sandler Project
Number XIV dominating the screens, but still, it's a damn a good film,
and I think it deserves, and would be appreciated by, a much wider
audience than will actually see it. So if you're sitting around
listening to your Interpol records and polishing your white belt for a
night of posing, and you decide to stop off first at the cinema, maybe
you should invite Mom or Aunt Agnes along, assuming that they wouldn't
be impossibly repelled by the theme. I think they'd enjoy it every bit
as much as that Melissa Gilbert TV movie they were planning on
watching.