Fridae

The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from
my life.

So claims Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet), a teenager obsessed with
alien abductions who believes them to be the cause of his adolescent
black-outs. Shy, introverted and slightly awkward in the presence
of others, Brian is the epitome of the boy-next-door harbouring
a dark secret.

On the other hand, small town hustler Neil McCormick (played with
such sexy abandon by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) wears his dark secrets
on his sleeves with enough cockiness to fuel an entire week of sexual
fantasies. But beneath the exterior of that Devil-may-care attitude
lies a soul whose innocence has been prematurely crushed, and which
is trying desperately to defer acknowledgment of its own fragility.

As different as they seem, the two leads search for their individual
answers lands them in a shared past experience. The film is told
in episodic atmospheric fade-outs, whimsical and assured.

The camera never flinches from its subject matters that include
paedophilia and child prostitution. The sex scenes, in all their
rawness and the occasional violence, are treated with honesty and
respect.

We are back in the terrains of Gus Van Sant's Idaho; incidentally,
the all-grown-up Gordon Levitt bears an uncanny resemblance to Keanu
Reeves in his swaggy body language and throaty delivery.

Ultimately, Mysterious Skin transcends its own skin as
a gay-oriented film to become a sensitive depiction of the alienation
and thirst for love that must have haunted most of us in our growing-up
days. Not to be missed.


READ
Fridae Lifestyle Movie Review. In Chinese