We arrive in what I consider to be the peak of Greg Araki’s filmogaphy. In Mysterious Skin style stays in the picture but the sensitivity of Araki’s first steps returns and really moves you, part because of the original story part because Araki for the first time films his heroes with love and tenderness, but still staying on the edge of what is filmable or not.

The story is divided in two characters.

The 8 year old Brad lackey in 1981 woke up having lost five hours of his life. For ten years he tries to discover what had happened during this time, being sure that he was abducted by aliens, while his father never really seems to care about the incident.

On the other side you have Neil McCormick who at the age of 8 was in love with his coach, who introduced him to his first sexual experiences, while his mother doesn’t really cares. 10 years later the openly gay Neil is still passionate about his coach and pushes his sexual experiences to the limit, while being unable to let any one near him.

Brad tries so hard to remember while Neil cannot forget, both lost in the tyrrany of their memories.

Araki chose to adapt for the screen Scott Heim’s first and critically and commercially successful novel, and that was a great thing. On one hand the novel’s dark material and the mind games that memory plays, allowed him to keep his imagery alive as in his previous movies, on the other hand the tight story never let the plot get lost into lynch-like mazes and out of the blue resolutions. It’s probably the first time that Araki actually like his characters, he feels for them and captures them.

He is also lucky to have such a talented cast to play Neil and Brad in the different ages, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt outstanding as the 18 year old Neil, followed by Brady Corbet (lately seen in the american version of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games). He also has a great supporting cast with Elizabeth Shue as Neil’s mother and the well-known in the indy films Bill Sage as the paedophile coach.

The subject of paederasty is always at the edge, even by mentioning or implying it. Araki dares to enter and create images of it and never becomes exploitive of the subject. He never treats the subject as an erotic situation, on the contrary his voluptuous camera, creates a thriller level suspense as you never know when is going to stop. Earnest and direct he slwly crates a tension that will not allow you to stop watching it. i saw it on video with my mother and despite the fact that she hated the subject and the gay scenes made her realy uncomfortable she desperately wanted to see the end of the story and what was next.

It was the first time that Araki actually embraced hsi story and didn’t let his stylistic tendencies to control the movie. For the Araki fans his most complete film, even though not his most flamboyant. For the rest a great movie that you should have never missed, and deserved much more attention. For me unmissable and beyond its queer cinema label.

and a clip with Mylene Farmer’s sublime Redonne-Moi

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