"Here we go..."

Previously, there have been several outstanding films dealing with the overwhelmingly tricky subject of childhood sexual abuse of boys by older men, and no doubt there will be others. But, in my opinion, there will never be one that depicts this subject with any more depth, sadness, grace, heart and sheer brutal reality than Mysterious Skin.

This is the kind of film I was thankful to have seen at home (courtesy of Sundance on Demand) rather than in a theatre, where the intensity of the experience would have been just too unbearable. Mysterious Skin doesn't just 'tell' the story of how two 8-year-old boys are corrupted by their little league coach and the subsequent contrasting ways these horrendous events shaped them; it puts you there and makes you feel it.

The casting in this film is crucial. It has to be completely believable that the younger Neil and Brian have grown into the teenagers we see, otherwise the credibility would have been shot early on and the film would have no power. Araki, however, has done a brilliant job of getting the perfect actors to portray the younger Neil and Brian - in fact, it's uncanny in a downright spooky way how much alike they look. This brilliant casting creates the effect that we literally watch the boys become teenagers before our eyes, and this contributes largely to what gives the movie the feeling that we, as the viewers, are going through their lives with them. This is what makes the film so unflinchingly compelling.

It's particularly true in the case of Neil's character, portrayed with astounding fearlessness by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who gives the performance of a lifetime here (even though he's only in his 20's). There's not a false note anywhere to be seen, by Gordon-Levitt, or by Brady Corbet, who portrays Brian (whose part is a little smaller). By the end, when the two boys reunite, you're left with the feeling that you have gotten some sort of closure, yourself, some sort of cathartic resolution on a personal level. Quite an achievement.

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