The Best Films of the Zeroes: 18

MYSTERIOUS SKIN. (2004)
Directed by Gregg Araki

There was quite literally nothing in Gregg Araki’s career to suggest a film of the beauty or impact of MYSTERIOUS SKIN was within him. One of a handful of films in the zeroes to focus on child abuse as a prominent theme, and unquestionably the best American film about the subject in the decade, MYSTERIOUS SKIN is a knockout punch of a film.

The two central characters, Neil and Brian are disparate characters when we meet them, Neil (Joseph Gordon Levitt) is a hustler, trading on his good looks, on the verge of a move to New York City, while Brian is a shy teenager, obsessed with alien abductions. What links them together are the terrible events of their shared past, from their time on a Little League team, at the hands of their coach (a superb Bill Sage).

While Brian can’t remember the abuse, Neil most definitely can. Brian’s search for answers has led him to believe that he was abducted by aliens, and he needs to find his former teammate to give him some answers.

In the two lead roles, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Brady Corbet give astonishing performances. Levitt, in particular, gave a performance of far greater weight than had seemed possible at that stage of his career – he’s since gone on to prove himself a fine actor. Corbet, meanwhile had a small role in THIRTEEN and the lead in the ill-advised THUNDERBIRDS, and has done little of note since. This remains his finest performance by some way.

There’s great support too, Elisabeth Shue as Neil’s mother shines in a small cameo, while Billy Drago is superb in his only scene, one of the film’s best. Michelle Trachtenberg, meanwhile, gives a career best turn as Neil’s best friend and ‘partner in crime’. Araki’s handling of his actors to get these performances is terrific, something that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with the director based on his previous films. As already noted, this is streets ahead of his other work.

Along with Drago’s scene, there are a number of other standouts, most of which involve Levitt, including a number of distressing and brutal moments. The two best sequences are the two most distressing in the film, a brutal rape suffered by Neil at the hand of a punter in NYC, and the flashback to the abuse scene, which is sensitively handled, but utterly crippling at the same time. Credit should go to the two young actors, Chase Ellison and George Matthews, who play the younger versions of Neil and Brian.

MYSTERIOUS SKIN is not a film for the faint of heart, but it is a film where everything came together, including a terrific soundtrack, to produce career-bests for just about everyone involved.