Mysterious Skin (2004)

Drama

Director: Gregg Araki
Writers: Gregg Araki, Scott Heim
Starring: Chase Ellison, George Webster, Rachael Nastassja Kraft, Lisa Long

"Two boys. One can't remember. The other can't forget."

An R-rated indie gem starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a teenage prostitute hustler in the 80s and 90s.

The film follows the separate stories of two young men from a small town in Kansas: Brian (Brady Corbet) is a troubled 18-year-old obsessed with finding out what happened to him during an alien abduction experience he had in his childhood that left him with a mysterious blackout and a bloody nose, and Neil (Levitt) is a careless teen with a magnetic personality who prostitutes himself to various men around his home town before moving to New York City to do it.

Extremely controversial for its time, but also the magnum opus of "New Queer Cinema" independent filmmaker Gregg Araki that features the surprising breakthrough performance that turned Joseph Gordon-Levitt a grown-up actor, Mysterious Skin tackles the hot topic paedophilia, while also exploring male homosexuality and prostitution to deeply dramatic and shocking effect, and challenges the viewer to think about the effects of abuse, sexuality and the loss of childhood.

Plot summary from IMDb: Brian Lackey is determined to discover what happened during an amnesia blackout when he was eight years old, and then later woke with a bloody nose. He believes he was abducted by aliens, and N. McCormick, a fellow player on Brian's childhood baseball team, may be the key as to exactly what happened that night. As Brian searches for the truth and tries to track him down, Neil McCormick takes up hustling and moves to New York, in attempts to forget childhood memories that haunt him. Together, the two of them uncover the terrible truth of the scars they share.

Awards: 5 wins & 8 nominations.
Runtime: 105 min
NC-17