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Mysterious Skin Details

2004 Certificate 18
  • Rated:
  • 60
  • from 11,172 members

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth. Read more

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbett, Elisabeth Shue, Michelle Trachtenberg
Director Gregg Araki
Genres Drama

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Mysterious Skin

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbett, Elisabeth Shue, Michelle Trachtenberg
Director Gregg Araki
Studio TARTAN FILMS
Run time DVD: 1 hr 41 mins
Certificate Certificate 18
Genres Drama
Language DVD: English
Dubbed None
Hearing-impaired None
Subtitles DVD: None
Released DVD: 24 Oct 2005
Production year: 2004
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (6) of Mysterious Skin

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  • A compelling story marred somewhat by uneven storytelling, Araki leads us through the early lives of two Kansas boys,... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
  • A lyrical, atmospheric and deeply involving film

    • Heat
  • Most helpful member's review of Mysterious Skin

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  • 48 out of 69 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    Stunning movie

    This film is the best of its kind i have ever seen. It is a rollercoaster from start to end. Superbly cast with the acting painfully believable. The film is very careful to stay in context and not over emphasise the graphic points leaving enough to the shocked imagination. my heart was pulled from scene to scene. As a victim of similar life to the lead role i felt strongly intuned to his life and truly believed his performance.

    A must buy for anyone who can cope with the powerfull story and haunting visuals.

      • A customer from Kent , England
  • Most recent members' review of Mysterious Skin

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  • 4 out of 6 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 1 star

    what?

    Two very different young men each traumatised in their own way after a joint paedophillic encounter as children. The film follows them as they attempt to 'heal' themselves and each other.

    Mysterious Skin slaps you across the face with a 'difficult' subject matter, degradation and small town American no-brainess. It knees you in the knackers with unconvincing acting (bar Elizabeth Shue and Brady Corbett). It spits in your face with a rape sequence that you knew was going to happen right from the moment you met the (mock) tough protagonist Joseph Gordon-Levitt (he's playing 'difficult' roles to challenge preconceptions about his double-barrel surname).

    Unfortunately the film uses Gordon-Levitt as the character by which every other character is judged. Perhaps if the film had focused on the life of the man played by Brady Corbett then this may have been more interesting. Here was a man who was so traumatised by the his molestation that he resorts to re-interpretation and delusion using alien abduction as a safety net. A distant memory emerges through the sensation of reaching into a cow carcass. This should have been made by Cronenberg...

      • A customer from Lancashire
  • News and features

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    Mysterious Skin

    Getting under Mysterious Skin

    • 18 May 2005

    With Star Wars fever sweeping across the nation, it would be easy to believe that no other new films were screening at UK cinemas this week. This is not the case though, as the critically acclaimed dark drama Mysterious Skin is released on May 20th. The film, directed by Gregg Akari, was selected for the Sundance, Venice and Toronto Film Festivals, and tells the story of two boys seeking to discover themselves after very different upbringings. Akari is relatively unknown as a director, his... Read more

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Rating breakdown

11,172 Member ratings
  • 100
957
  • 90
966
  • 80
1,819
  • 70
1,739
  • 60
1,870
  • 50
1,218
  • 40
853
  • 30
690
  • 20
687
  • 10
373

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    • A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth....