In watching the 2004 drama, Mysterious Skin, by filmmaker Gregg Araki, I was reminded of the old gilding the lily nostrum, in that a little bit less would have been a whole lot more, qualitatively, for this film. This is a very good film that certainly had the potential to be great, but its excesses knock it a notch or two below, just enough that it barely makes the argument for near greatness. On the surface, it may be said to be much like a 1970s ABC Afterschool Special of a film, admixed with a sometimes gratuitous penchant for over the top sexuality. Despite that, however, it does succeed as a teen-based drama in ways that another teen drama, Mean Creek, did not, but also in ways that a similarly themed, and also excellent, film like L.I.E. did not.
Based upon a 1996 novel by Scott Heim, the 100-minute long film has many things going for it, including the linkage of the often overlooked phenomenon of ‘alien abduction’ with childhood sexual abuse, an obvious connection which modern psychiatry has overlooked for too long. The tale is rather simple, although its telling is not. It follows the intertwined lives of two boys, in Hutchinson, Kansas, over a ten year period from 1981 to 1991 (the Grunge Generation). The boys are Neil McCormick (Chase Ellison) and Brian Lackey (George Webster), who are sexually abused by their Little League Coach (Bill Sage), and who narrate the tale through voiceovers.
Brian blocks out the incident, and because he returns one night with a nosebleed, he believes that and his ‘missing time’ are indicative of being an alien abductee. Neil, however, claims to have always been queer, and likes the attention of Coach, as well as acting as a lure to seduce other little boys. Neil grows up to be a gay hustler (then played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), while Brian (Brady Corbet) becomes an introvert who is befriended by a shy and crippled UFO abductee claimant, Avalyn (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who soon develops sexual feelings for Brian, offering to blow him in his bedroom just seconds after his mother has left. It’s a hilarious scene, and one of the few non-violent, non-abusive sex scenes in the film. This, however, leads to the end of their friendship, and Brian’s renewed determination to find Neil, whom he hasn’t seen in a decade, believing Neil is also a UFO abductee.
Neil, meanwhile, has moved to New York to be with his best girl ‘friend,’ Wendy (played by the oddly attractive but highly convincing Michelle Trachtenberg), and leaves behind his hometown bung buddy, Eric (Jeff Licon, who is just as good as Gordon-Levitt playing a queer teen, but in a far less showy role as a celibate flamer), and his single mom, played by the always easy on the eyes Elisabeth Shue. Eric befriends Brian, and the boys await Neil’s return for Christmas. Neil, meanwhile, decides life as a gay prostitute in New York is much harder than in rural Kansas, after some way over the top, and brutal, encounters with johns.
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