MYSTERIOUS SKIN

Year: 2004
USA: Tartan Films USA
UK: Tartan Films
Cast: Brady Corbet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elisabeth Shue, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jeffrey Licon, Lisa Long, Bill Sage, George Webster, Chase Ellison, Richard Riehle, Billy Drago, Kelly Kruger, Rachael Nastassja Kraft, David Alan Graf, Forrest Fountain, Zane Huett, Chris Mulkey
Director: Gregg Araki
Country: USA
USA & UK: 99 mins
USA Rated: N/A (previously rated: NC-17 in 2005)
UK Certificate: 18 contains child sexual abuse theme and strong sexual violence
USA Release Date: 27 May 2005 (Limited Release - Los Angeles)
USA Release Date: 6 May 2005 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 20 May 2005

Synopsis

"The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life. Five hours, lost, gone without a trace..." These are the words of Brian Lackey (Brady Corbet).

When he was eight, Brian woke up in the crawlspace beneath his house with his nose bleeding, having no idea how he got there. Now 18, Brian believes that he was abducted by aliens. Neil McCormick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the ultimate beautiful outsider, the boy everyone loves from afar but is afraid of when they get too close. Also 18, Neil longs for the relationship he had with his baseball coach when he was eight years old.

Neil's search for what he thinks is love leads him to New York City. Brian's (Brady Corbet) search for what happened to him leads him to Neil. Together they come to realize that the events that shaped them most were not what they seemed to be.

Based on the widely acclaimed novel by Scott Heim. Gregg Araki's ravishingly beautiful, provocative and deeply moving film, MYSTERIOUS SKIN, puts us inside the hearts and minds of two very different boys living very different lives who maybe aren't as different as they first appear.