Mysterious Skin Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Two boys. One can't remember. The other can't forget.
"The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life. Five hours, lost, gone without a trace..." These are the words of Brian Lackey ('Brady Corbet' (qv)), a troubled 18 year-old, growing up in the stiflingly small town of Hutchinson, Kansas. Plagued by nightmares, Brian believes that he may have been the victim of an alien abduction. Local Neil McCormick ('Joseph Gordon-Levitt' (qv)) however, is the ultimate beautiful outsider. With a loving but promiscuous mother ('Elisabeth Shue' (qv)), Neil is wise beyond his years and curious about his developing sexuality, having found what he perceived to be love from his Little League baseball coach (played by 'Hal Hartley' (qv) veteran 'Bill Sage' (qv)) at a very early age. Now, ten years later, Neil is a teenage hustler, nonchalant about the dangerous path his life is taking. Neil's pursuit of love leads him to New York City, while Brian's voyage of self discovery leads him to Neil - who helps him to unlock the dark secrets of their past. Based on the acclaimed novel by 'Scott Heim (II)' (qv), "Mysterious Skin" explores the hearts and minds of two very different boys who come to find the key to their future happiness lies in the exorcism of their collective demons.
| Joseph Gordon-Levitt | Neil |
| Brady Corbet | Brian |
| Rachael Nastassja Kraft | Deborah |
| Lisa Long | Mrs. Lackey |
| Chris Mulkey | Mr. Lackey |
| Elisabeth Shue | Mrs. McCormick |
| David Lee Smith | Alfred |
| Bill Sage | Coach |
| Michelle Trachtenberg | Wendy |
| Ryan Stenzel | Stephen Zepherelli |
| Richard Riehle | Charlie |
| Larry Marko | Old Man with Scar |
| Gregg Araki |
7.90 out of 10 (16516 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Once a victim, always a victim....that's the law.
posted on 26 Aug 2009Mysterious Skin captures the effects of sexual abuse in a very truthful way. Only a victim would know this truth. The bed wetting, The nose bleeds, UFO's and alien probing. Asexual adolescence, promiscuity, and self destructiveness. Yet, the most important truth is that our society raises us to fear sex. Instead, it teaches us about Santa Claus. We are raised on illusion and lies as well as fears. This is why these boys fall into isolated roads of growth. Middle and lower class values engulf the two young men keeping them in boxes of destructiveness. One boy forgets the experience whereas the other seems to enjoy the playfulness as he realizes sexual desire at the age of eight.The performances seem real and the film has a personal approach as if Director Araki wanted to show the world an experience of an unfamiliar territory. It is uneasy viewing at times but the film bounces back to compassion and empathy. Joseph Gordon Levitt possesses the screen presence to carry the film. We like him. Yet, like most street kids his youthful rebellion will turn into aged bitter pain and sadness only leading to one outcome...an empty soul that could never love or trust. The question is who is truly at fault. The Coach? The Mother? The American Dream? The film has no conclusion for these young men except: Welcome to Life and join the ranks of all us victims and strive for the pursuit of happiness like everyone else in America.A powerful and painful film. Yet, Mysterious Skin examines a subject we need to pay more attention too as kids are more exposed to sex at early ages with the invention of the internet. We are too distracted by our desires.
Wow.
posted on 24 Aug 2009I will begin by saying this film is not for everybody. Well, just don't bring your date to see this. I've been following Araki's career for a while, and while I enjoyed the Doom Generation, and Nowhere the same way I enjoy a Bret Easton Ellis novel - quick consumption, a kind of late night fast food delirium of disaffected and nihilistic youth drifting from gore to sex to drugs to gay sex to gore - this is quite a departure. That's not to say he omitted any of the gore or gay sex or drugs, it's all there, but this time surrounded in something distinctly human and beautiful. I saw it in the theater with my date one evening, which i quickly regretted, and returned the next day to sit by myself and absorb what I could not get out of my head the previous night.. Did I really just see a Gregg Araki picture... that made me cry? Yes! What a powerful movie! Couldn't get it out of my head for months after having seen it. The subject matter is similar to a Todd Solondz film, but while he always leaves the audience a few feet away from his characters never really allowing us access to what's going on inside of them, Araki rips the brains clear out and wags them in front of us, ultimately more serious about his subjects than any of his previous films. First off, the acting was phenomenal. Joe Gordon Levitt I've never really cared for, Third Rock seemed to be preparing him for a life time of looking like one of the Olson twins, Brick and Manic seemed a bit disingenuous to me, partly because the films sucked, but partly because I didn't believe him, this good looking kid, could get himself in any sort of a fix short of dropping peanut butter on his pressed silk tee. But here, wow, I've gained enormous respect for the guy. Such a complex character - a gay prostitute who was raped when he was a child, but you get the impression that he was gay and evil even before he was abused. How do you go on set and deliver a line with that in the back of your mind? He found a perfect note, his eyes are always half shut and his demeanor is cocky but hiding something behind all that laziness. Brady Corbet I had never remembered seeing before, but he is the prime mover behind this film. He is Levitt's other half - they are essentially the same character only one is introverted, stunted and asexual, the other outlandish, self confident, gay. Their stories are told in parallel narratives without them meeting each other until the end, but when they act across from each other you can see a desperately human need for compassion and love, since underneath both of their exteriors there are still two kids who haven't grown out of the abuse they faced when they were younger. Supporting cast was just as great. Two anchor characters (Trachenberg and Licon) act as best friends for both Levitt and Corbet. And in a film where most of the action is decided by sexual tendencies, it's refreshing to see these characters be genuine friends. In another film they would have opened a sub plot between Trachenberg and Levitt, since it's clear she loves him very much, but she doesn't act on it. And Licon plays the flamboyantly gay Eric Preston, who in another movie would have taken advantage of the strangely asexual Corbet, but he doesn't , he's just there to be his friend. Kelly Kruger as the crazy sci-fi whore is brilliant and funny. I wasn't entirely pleased with Elisabeth Shue. I don't know, her character wasn't really there, both literally and in the script. She's just a figure, perpetually drunk and watching television, but you get no real sense of who she is. i don't want to give any more away, except to say that the film starts and ends with two very disturbing scenes that are vital organs and could not have been cut out to reduce the NC-17. This is one of the only films that truly deserves this rating, but also would not be as effective without it. But the center of the film is the heart, and the head. There is one scene that transcends the body of this movie and becomes something more, something entirely in its own. Those of you that have seen this will know what I mean when I say 'Mysterious Skin'. Such a strange and beautiful scene... Possibly the most intense and emotional film I've seen in years. Drop everything and see it, but prepared for something very very honest.
Very disturbing.
posted on 29 Jul 2009We watched this under the advice that, if we liked K-Pax we'll like this movie. Under normal circumstances, I can handle a lot of movie plots and concepts, but was not prepared for this. I wasted almost 2 hours of my life on this because someone said it was a 'Must See'... READ THE SPOILERS BEFORE WATCHING THIS MOVIE! If you are are a parent, if you've had things 'done' to you when you were little, if you think it has anything to do with aliens, or if you have a soul, this movie is not for you.Yes, the acting was great, but character development went a little farther than it should have. Disgustingly so.
Tell him you like it.
posted on 27 Jul 2009This movie was excellent because it depicts so much of what real life is about. It starts out with these two little boys and they both play on the little league baseball team. Then later on, the two boys go their own separate ways. Something happens in this movie between the boys and the coach and one boy thinks that he was kidnapped by aliens and the other boy ends up gay. So what happens between the boys and the coach messes them both up in different ways. It's just like real life with real people. Trauma happens to some people and some people embrace it and some repress the memory into something else. It's quite a sad movie too. I felt sorry for the boy who thought that he was kidnapped by aliens. It hurt him a lot to learn the truth.
amazing
posted on 19 Jul 2009This movie is simply amazing. The acting is first-class, the script intelligent, there is a clear development of the characters and what is also very important, the movie treats pedophilia in a quite objective way without preaching or without descending into clichés. I would even say it is a very emotional and sad movie on the one hand but very uplifting and beautiful on the other.Apart from the softness with which Araki deals with the very delicate subject of the movie there are some pretty harsh scenes. There is for example one extremely disturbing rape scene. I am not easily shocked but after seeing this scene I was holding my breath and the only thing escaping was: 'wow'.Araki does not use clichés and his images are very strong. The story is quite realistic and touching. The beautiful music by ex-Cocteau Twins Robin Guthrie is amazing and fits in perfectly.An absolute astonishing movie, worth seeing, but not for all ages.
What It's Not
posted on 13 Jul 2009I used to define a broad range as but-I-don't-belong-to-the-club films. The issue wasn't so much subject matter as presentation. These films speak most successfully to viewers who share the filmmaker's world view, vocabulary, anger, joy, politics, or whatever. An extreme example might be an angrily pro-creationist film. But given films with identical subject matter, one will be a "club" film, while another fascinates. I know some feminist efforts have been "club," yet only memory prevents me rattling off dozens that were sublime (Citizen Ruth and Baise moi, both sublime, surface I'm not sure why). One whose name I should but can't recall, extremely well thought of, about generations of black women on an Atlantic coast island afforded me little entry though I think I tried a second time or third time on TV. On the other hand, the 2004 doc, A Doula Story, about a near saintly woman assisting births in dour West Chicago thrilled me beyond words. Mel Gibson's offer of righteous suffering I declined. Trailers for third-rate romantic comedies, African-American, gay, or whatever, make me cringe, not because of their subject matter but because they're third rate or not even third rate, because their makers fail to achieve universality. Others, African-American, gay, religious, feminist, whatever, start the very same places, but do achieve it.Mysterious Skin surfaced as the third and final entry in a "Sneaks" program at this year's SFIFF. Festival goers took their seats to discover each film's title only after the lights went down. Before the second Sneak, a slightly goofy journalist passing up and down the aisle telling people "It's Star Wars!" had another woman so disappointed she was ready to bolt. That sneak turned out to be Carroll Ballard's beautiful Dula, so order returned.I don't know whether Araki's ever made a "club" film. Haven't seen the others. But when the lights went down on Mysterious skin, his name and reputation had me thinking it an oddly un-middle-of-the-road selection for a blind sneak. I've been so naive that I left high school without knowing what the routine homophobic playground taunts actually meant. Mishima's Confessions of Mask had the same science-fictiony value as Kobo Abe's novels (perhaps most significantly here "Face of Another"). Proust's Marcel, at least my first time through in Moncrieff's English, seemed such a homophobe in his descriptions of Charlus, and his experiences of Albertine, Gilberte, and the "jeunes filles en fleurs" were so comprehensible to me, that I still balk at gay-lit Proust.But no way is Mysterious Skin a "club" film. It's graphic, in the sense of what is portrayed but not what is shown. It's maybe a little alien to someone like me, but alien in a way that makes its science fiction analogy ingenious and sublime. Joseph Gordon-Levitt comes across with such acuity that it took me a good while to remember he was, relatively speaking, the comic straight man of the Third Rock family.Maybe that's enough, the message that it's not a "club" film but one that as many as can bear it should see.
"The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life, five hours. " - Brian
posted on 09 Jul 2009Wow! An incredibly intense and disturbing motion picture, that is well, extraordinary. This is definitely not for the weak, and it tackles very intense and seedy issues. Neil and Brian were both sexually abused by their baseball coach at age eight and ever since then they have been scarred since. Neil ended up a male hustler and Brian ended up a paranoid geek obsessed with UFOs and the notion aliens are invading our planet. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet give the performances of their career that should have been recognized by the Academy Awards this year. Elisabeth Shue plays Neil's (Levitt) mother and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Michelle Tratchenberg plays Neil's best friend. If you can get past the unpleasant material, 'Mysterious Skin' is a amazingly powerful film. Grade: B+
A movie that really stinks!
posted on 27 Jun 2009This movie is horrible. Why it received any positive reviews from the mainstream media and people like Roger Ebert, I have no idea. First of all its not for the squeamish, it is a very, very graphic portrayal of pedophilia and is quite violent as well. There is a good reason this movie has no rating because it would get an X! I tried to give this story a fair shake as the description on the box made it sound really good. -By the way, no mention of the graphic scenes are made in the plot outline issued by the studio. Mysterious Skin is deliberately provocative and violent in such a way, it was really annoying. There were too many scenes inserted for shock value that did not contribute to the plot or were redundant. I felt very uncomfortable from the beginning of Mysterious Skin like I was being manipulated. The characters are not very likable in this movie either, even towards the end. As I watched this flick I quickly began wondering why I should care what happened to the characters. This movie deals with pedophilia and male prostitution and is NOT for the faint hearted. I like movies about difficult subjects but felt manipulated by this flick and I think most people will feel the same way when they watch it. The fact that the outline on the box never mentions homosexuality or pedophilia makes one feel even more ambushed by the graphic violence and sex. Watch a great movie like One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest if you want a shocking movie with real social value is my advise.
great film
posted on 27 Jun 2009As a movie lover and social worker, I was really moved throughout this film - for most of this film - by the subject matter and by the powerful portrayal and production of these characters. Overall, this is a highly rated movie and one can only wonder at the mentality of persons in Australia who pushed for the banning of this film. This is a realistic account of the affects on the victims of child abuse and tells a compelling story of their plight. But don't expect a happy ending; there is some resolution but you know the battle continues and their struggle to overcome will go on. (I'm getting emotional again just thinking about the last scene.) I work with young people (15-25) who have been abused, often by their own parents, and placed into the care system. However, I have had clients who have then been abused in care as well. It is hard to reconcile such young people but gaining justice is quite central, as is a belief they are accepted and worthwhile human beings. Because they may have been sexually aroused during the abuse they can often feel guilty and to blame. They often internalise these feelings and depending on their personalities they will implode against themselves (drugs etc) and/or become de-sensitised to certain feelings and take risks. The boys in this film portray these two dichotomies and they do it very well. 10 stars.
Don't go to this movie unprepared
posted on 07 Jun 2009I've never before reviewed a film that I walked out of, but want moviegoers to be aware that the first 25 minutes of Mysterious Skin involves very disturbing scenes of paedophilia directed at at least one boy, as well as child-on-child sexual practises.I go to a lot of movies and work in the industry as a writer, so am used to various and challenging depictions of sex and violence, but I have never left a cinema because of it. The scenes of 'grooming' and subsequent sexual contact here are not only graphic, but made me actually question the borderline exploitation of the child actors portraying Brian and Neil.While this film as a whole may well have merit (I know I went because of excellent, if disturbingly incomplete, reviews), my friend and I found the first act so horrible and embarrassing that we left.
Neil: "I wished with all my heart we could just leave this world behind. Rise like two angels in the night and magically disappear. "
posted on 24 May 2009Mysterious Skin (2004) directed by Gregg Araki is powerful, shocking and absolutely convincing in every detail movie about two teenagers that were deeply affected by the events of one long hot summer of their childhood; events that one of them could not forget and the other desperately tried to remember. Ten years later, their lives could not be more different - Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has became a gay hustler, cynical, manipulative but charismatic, while Brian (Brady Corbet), nervous and shy believes that he was abducted by the aliens for some strange experiments.The film like this requires very good performances from all cast members and it's got them from everybody but Gordon-Levitt is simply the shining star and I'll make sure from now on to check out all his new movies.
Too 'mysterious' to get totally under my skin.
posted on 22 May 2009The 7 marks out of ten I gave this movie are due to the power and skill demonstrated by Araki in setting up some nightmarish scenarios that we bear witness to, but no hint is given come the end of how these experiences may eventually start to be worked through. A 'happy' ending would of course have been inappropriate, but I would've liked to have seen at least an attempt at displaying how these young adults begin starting to move their lives forward in the years beyond this difficult reliving of a nightmare. The shocks are there, but they don't teach us much because the film ends right before any analytical period would presumably happen! We deduce from the beginning that they will be scarred, but disappointingly we're forced to abandon them at precisely the same state, we're not invited into any form of 'progress', at all.I give credit to Araki, because this time he gives us material that's easy to care about; rather than some snotty rich kids hurling themselves towards oblivion as part of the appalling "Doom Generation". However, he still seems a mite too eager to go for the shocks just for the sake of a reaction, when I would better appreciate more opportunities for learning slotted in alongside the 'sucker-punches'. I can only hope his next work edges even further along the road of 'wisdom', because he does possess a good deal of talent.
It's so wrong, but it's so right
posted on 20 May 2009A strange movie about strange people. When I was watching this movie, glued to the screen, I was constantly waiting for several things to happen - that the alien-theme would either dissolve or be proved real, and that metaphorical sparks would fly as soon as Neil and Brian meet. But instead the story remains unexpectedly "straight" instead of taking any wild turns, which in turn actually makes it seem more like a twisted story set in a real world! This is an "anti-twist" I thoroughly enjoyed - it suits the real-but-twisted setting and story.Obviously this movie contains a lot of sensitive themes that are hard to portray without making it awkward or distasteful. But somehow Araki has pulled this off... as extremely strange as that may sound, some of the characters actually reminded me of my self somehow! I grew up on approximately the same period of time, and there's something about the "80's freak" thing that's incredibly precise, but also horribly off... all in a good way. I felt I could relate to how the characters feel, but at the same time was stunned by this strange, hidden world.All in all, this is not your average movie. It's themes and storytelling are exceptional, and a definite plus. The acting was convincing, especially considering the homosexual themes, which must have been hard to pull off. However, it seems a little obvious that it was adapted from a novel... it felt a little "uneven" in its progression. But that's also part of what makes the storytelling fresh and exciting, so in the end - just watch it.
Distubring and Powerful...
posted on 08 May 2009Wow, what a disturbing movie! Throughout the movie I just wasn't sure what to think of it. Even after finishing, I was just sitting there wondering what I just saw.The movie follows two kids who grew up in the same neighborhood and played on the same little league baseball team sharing an experience one summer that one cannot remember, but the other cannot forget. One of the kids grew up to be a street hustler who is the epitome of heartlessness, and the other grew up to be an asexual book worm who is constantly trying to figure out what happened to him as a kid that one summer.I won't go too much into the details of this movie, as it is something that needs to be experienced to really feel its power. Needless to say, there were a LOT of disturbing images and situations explored in this movie in brutal honesty.What makes this movie good is the stellar performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the kid from "Third Rock from the Sun" on TV. I cannot believe how good he was in the movie playing the heartless hustler, yet showing a glimpse of vulnerability that only a superb actor can manage. The story is at times confusing and weird, but in the end, when everything comes together, it delivers a powerful punch and will leave you saying, "Wow." Check it out if you're into indie films that explore tough concepts. You'll need a very open mind to watch this movie.
A must see film, with a disturbing truth
posted on 14 Apr 2009OK i'm not good at writing long comments or descriptions about anything so i'll try my best. From the description of the movie i never thought it was going to be any good. Then i read peoples comments and reviews and decided to give it a try... This movie was incredible and it deeply saddened me because it touches on such a real subject. Everything felt so real to me. The acting made it almost seem as if you were watching a documentary. These kinds of movies a truly great. I HIGHLY recommend watching this film, but be warned. You will feel truly sorry and deeply saddened and will make you want to go hug someone. WOW i am glad i was bored tonight and stumbled across this title.
Wow
posted on 29 Mar 2009WOw, what a film. This film is an enigma to me.. Its not a particularly amazing film (in any obvious sense) but the beauty is in its subtlety, its building of very real, understated characters and the beautiful cinematography. This was contrasted by some sometimes brutal, disturbing scenes. All of this made for a very good, powerful piece of cinema, but where the film really becomes really becomes something special is the ending. It builds up to a conclusion which really caught me by surprise with its power. I can honestly say no film has ever affected me the way this one did.. I never even realised a film could touch you so deeply and with such subtlety. When you put the whole package together this is real cinema. Wow.- Luke
Authentic and heartfelt
posted on 19 Mar 2009Five hours, from the time it was raining after a Little League game until he woke up in the cellar of his home with a bloody nose, are a blank to eight-year old Brian (George Webster). In Gregg Araki's powerful drama, Mysterious Skin, Brian accounts for his missing time by confabulating it with stories of alien abductions and sets out on a path to uncover long suppressed memories. This is not a film about alien abductions, however, but about inappropriate sexual seduction of children and its deleterious effect on their development. While it is often graphic and difficult to watch, it is a sensitive film, held together by authentic and heartfelt performances by Joseph-Gordon Levitt as Neil and Brady Corbet as Brian that allow us to connect with their open wounds.Based on a 1996 novel of the same name by Scott Heim, Mysterious Skin opens as Brian and Neil (Chase Ellison) are on the same baseball team in their hometown of Hutchinson, Kansas. Neil is the star athlete on the team, while Brian is not as good, a fact repeatedly pointed out to him by his father (Chris Mulkey) who later abandons the family. Neil is the son of a single mom (Elizabeth Shue) who is more attentive to her many boy friends than to Neil. Although only about ten, he feels that he's gay and is flattered when the coach (Bill Sage) takes an interest in him and brings him to his house to introduce him to snacks, video games, and sexual activity.The film then moves ahead ten years to reveal two boys who have gone in different directions. Neil has become a male hustler who prefers older men and has found a niche in the town park that is available to prostitution. Though he seems to be to searching to recover the special loving feeling that he felt with his baseball coach, this proves elusive and he goes from one unloving john to another (typically depicted as old, fat, ugly, wealthy, or sadistic). His friend Wendy (Michelle Trachtenberg) describes Neil to his gay friend Eric (Jeff Licon) as a person with a black hole for a heart. To find more edgy experiences, Neil follows Wendy to New York but all he finds is more of the same and a lot edgier.Brian, on the other hand, has become a deeply introverted teenager who accounts for his memory loss by assigning it to a UFO-related abduction, though he has none of the other common signs of alien abduction and is without physical evidence to prove it. He watches a television program about alien abductions and decides to meet one of the abductees on the program, a young woman named Avalyn (Mary Lynn Rajskub) with whom he visits and shares the dreams he has recorded in his notebook. Brian tells her of a dream he has had about a young boy on his baseball team and she encourages him to find out the boy's identity to shed some light on the missing time incident. When the young woman tries to seduce him, however, he recoils in horror. Eventually, Brian discovers Neil's identity by researching the team history at the library and the final sequence in the coach's empty house when Neil and Brian meet at Christmastime is memorable for its tender beauty.Mysterious Skin is an honest and compelling film in which there are no good guys and bad guys, just flawed people who act out their deep-seated needs in a harmful sexual way. Although Araki doesn't stand in judgment of his characters or their behavior, the results of their actions are unmistakable. Although we watch Neil engage in self-destructive behavior, the performance of Joseph Gordon-Levitt is so revealing that we root for him in spite of reluctantly noticing the open pit into which he is falling. The only false note in the film is the implication that "screen" memories masking the repression of sexual abuse are an explanation of alien abductions. According to David Jacobs (Secret Life, 1992), of the thousands of accounts of UFO-related abductions no screen memories have ever been stripped away to reveal a past history of abuse. This is only a minor flaw, however, in one of the best films of the year.
Gave me goosebumps
posted on 09 Mar 2009Amazing. I was expecting another sexually charged adrenaline infused dark comedy a la Doom Generation or an ironic look at relationships in the post-modern world like Splendor. Instead I found a more mature, calmer tale. Still funny, but muted, dark but based on the darker parts of human nature in reality... The performances were unbelievable. Joseph Gordon-Levitt came across with a combination of grit and beauty, anger and happiness that reminded me of Colin Farrell. The cockiness of youth, the sadness of child abuse, and a realistic recognition of prepubescent sexuality. The opening sequence reminded me of something in my youth - nothing specific it just left me with this certain feeling. I hope this is a sign of things to come....
I was bleeding, I kept passing out, I wet my bed, and you never asked why!
posted on 09 Mar 2009Gregg Araki's film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Brick), and featuring Michelle Trachtenberg (Inspector Gadget), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Little Miss Sunshine), Brady Corbet, and Jeffrey Licon (Hood of Horror), with Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas) was powerful and captivating.It was difficult to watch as it dealt with pedophilia and gay sex, but, as difficult as the subject may be, I was unable to take my eyes of the screen for one moment. I did not want to miss a second of this film.Having worked with teens that were victims, I am aware that the subject is not one that males can talk about. I would never have imagined the construction of a defense mechanism as elaborate as the one in the movie.Looking at the soulless character of Neil, and the obvious love of Wendy for him, you can readily see the lasting damage done by pedophiles.It is tough to watch, but I feel that everyone would be a better person for having seen it.
A mature departure from the Gregg Araki we know and love.
posted on 28 Aug 2009MYSTERIOUS SKIN is from one of my favorite directors, Gregg Araki. I avoided reading anything about this film before going to see it, because I didn't want to spoil it. Which left me surprised to find that it was based on a book, and not an original Gregg Araki script. That being said, it is apparently a faithful adaptation of a powerful story about child molestation, and the real way it effects victims. It may be a bit too realistic for some people to watch without squirming, if at all.Ultimately I enjoyed the film. I found it moving and thought provoking. However, fans of Gregg Araki will find this a departure from his earlier work. He's matured and moved to working with a larger budget, and an "established" cast. This transition was noticeable in his previous film SPLENDOR. Which doesn't have the same life as NOWHERE or DOOMGENERATION.Part of the problem was casting, in my opinion. Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Neil (from TV's Third Rock from the Sun) was unbelievably good. He even went to the trouble of flying to Kansas to capture the accent and attitude of the people there. He's Araki's replacement James Duval, though not beautiful. Elisabeth Shue (Neil's Mom), Mary Lynn Rajskub (Abduction Girl), Bill Sage (Coach Pervert) were also great. My issues lay with Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn from TV's Buffy), who has always grated on my nerves. She could only act reliably if cast as Idiot Number 3 in the Poseidon Adventure. Being prepared for that going into the movie, I was successful in simply ignoring her "performance". Brady Corbet (Abduction/Molestation Boy) was a bit over the top for me. But Jeffrey Licon was worst of all. He came across like a straight guys sketch of a gay club kid. Whatever he's sellin, I ain't buyin. Young Neil was played by a very talented young Chase EllisonThe soundtrack was pretty forgettable as well, which surprised me.I can't say I didn't like the film, I was just expecting something different from Gregg Araki. If I imagined this as an unknown directors first film, I could have enjoyed it more. Don't get me wrong, Gregg did an amazing job of it, it just didn't come across as his work. I look forward to the next project he writes and directs himself. (7/10)