Blu-ray Review – Mysterious Skin

Stories rarely come more uncomfortable than "Mysterious Skin." Not only is the film's sexuality bluntly displayed, but the tale concerns molestation and abandonment, detailed in a graphic manner that requires viewers to place their trust in the hands of writer/director Gregg Araki. A helmer not known for his sense of good taste, Araki plays this 2004 effort carefully, aware of the tonal tightrope walk the material demands as it visits places of deep-seated despair and lifelong confusion. "Mysterious Skin" contains a few flat notes of community participation, but Araki locates all the necessary surges of hopelessness and misguided desire, ending victorious in his quest to adapt Scott Heim's provocative novel. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com