Two boys. One can't remember. The other can't forget.
Overview
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Ratings
Curator score: 9.0/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 4.21/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
Metacritic: 74
TMDB: 7.7/10
Director
Gregg Araki
Production
Desperate Pictures, Fortissimo Films, Antidote Films, Next Wednesday Productions
Cast
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jeffrey Licon, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Elisabeth Shue, Lisa Long, Bill Sage, Chase Ellison, George Webster, Riley McGuire, Rachael Nastassja Kraft, Chris Mulkey, David Lee Smith, Kelly Kruger, Ryan Stenzel, Richard Riehle, Larry Marko, Clover, Bruno Alexander
Curator Review
Verdict
A devastating, formally distinctive drama about childhood sexual abuse, dissociation, and the long afterlife of trauma. It’s not easy viewing, but it’s one of Gregg Araki’s most accomplished films: tender, surreal, and emotionally punishing in a way that feels purposeful rather than exploitative.
Best for
viewers who can handle intense sexual abuse themes
fans of emotionally raw coming-of-age dramas
people drawn to surreal, lyrical filmmaking
audiences interested in trauma narratives with strong performances
Skip if
you want a comforting or uplifting watch
you’re sensitive to sexual violence or child abuse content
you prefer straightforward, plot-driven realism
you’re looking for a light teen drama or mystery with a conventional payoff
Overview
Mysterious Skin is the kind of film that doesn’t just depict trauma; it structures itself around the ways trauma fractures memory, identity, and desire. Gregg Araki filters an unbearable subject through a style that is at once dreamlike and abrasive, letting the film feel both intimate and destabilizing. The result is a rare coming-of-age story that understands how abuse can distort the very language of adolescence.
Worth noting
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet anchor the film with performances that make its emotional extremes feel painfully human. One character turns to fantasy to survive; the other turns to sex, self-destruction, and performance. Araki never reduces either of them to a symbol, and that restraint is part of why the film lands so hard.
Bottom line
This is not an easy recommendation, and it shouldn’t be treated like one. But for viewers prepared for its subject matter, it’s a striking, compassionate work with real formal confidence. It lingers because it refuses false catharsis while still finding a fragile, necessary tenderness in its final movement.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Logan Kenny (5★) · 22166 likes
“I wished with all my heart that we could just leave this world behind, rise like two angels in the night and magically disappear.”
amanda :( (5★) · 14392 likes
strange how the greatest movies make you want to die.
Karsten (5★) · 14057 likes
So violent and so innocent. I honestly can’t remember if Araki had this many shots of characters looking directly into the camera in his other work but that choice is working stronger than ever here. What I really appreciate about this is how he’s capturing the manipulation in all forms of abuse. His use of shoegaze also does so much as far as romanticizing not these specific events but adolescence. I just felt very close to Neil by the end, as though I was one of those little moons orbiting around him. I'll never forget about this movie.
2001 · Fantasy, Drama, Mystery · 1h 54m · R · Curator 8.7/10 (3.2M ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Shares the same early-2000s melancholy, adolescent alienation, and surreal emotional logic, with a similarly haunted sense of youth under pressure.
2011 · Drama, Thriller · 1h 53m · R · Curator 6.8/10 (710.7K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, Peacock Premium, Philo, MUBI, OVID, Cineverse, Midnight Pulp, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Peacock Premium Plus
For audiences interested in psychological damage and the aftermath of violence, with a similarly unsettling emotional chill.