The rambunctious bad boy of the New Queer Cinema, Gregg Araki, burst on the indie scene in 1990s with a series of low-budget, blithely irresponsible, youth-centric sex romps. Then “Mysterious Skin” (2005) elevated his game to a new level.
This visionary tale of child abuse, now restored, opens Friday for a run at the IFC Center. Tender as it is, it still packs a wallop.
Taken from Scott Heim’s quasi-autobiographical novel by the same name, “Mysterious Skin” tracks the entwined stories of two 8-year-old little leaguers in Kansas who are each molested by their charismatic coach (Bill Sage). Unlike Todd Solondz’s “Happiness” and “Life During Wartime,” roughly contemporaneous comedies of discomfort that feature unhappy pedophiles, Araki’s film belongs to the child victims.
Brian, the team nerd (played by Brady Corbet, who was then 16), represses the memory of his abuse, or rather he “remembers” it as an incident of extraterrestrial contact. The team star, Neil (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), was more sexually curious and emotionally starved. Wooed with junk food, video games and lavish paternal attention, he develops feelings for his abuser that determine the trajectory of his life.
The film unfolds over the course of a decade. Obsessed with stories of unidentified flying objects and alien abductions, Brian gradually comes to realize that his trauma has something to do with his long-forgotten childhood teammate. Neil, after years of contemptuously hustling older men in Kansas, has moved to New York, where he encounters a far rougher sexual scene. His trysts are indelible: One john covered with lesions tells him that he “just needs to be touched,” and another beats and brutally rapes him.
The depth of Araki’s humanism is as unexpected as the performances he directs are extraordinary. The scenes with the 8-year-old actors are tactful (although edited for effect), while the former child actors, Corbet and Gordon-Levitt, fully inhabit their adolescent roles. Corbet is stubbornly self-protective, while Gordon-Levitt, in his early 20s when he made the movie, exudes a hardened teenage bravado. (Given that Gordon-Levitt’s previous credits include an alien on the sitcom “3rd Rock From the Sun” and a mystical baseball fan in “Angels in the Outfield,” Araki might almost be stunt casting.)
The secondary performances are also strong, with Mary Lynn Rajskub particularly affecting as an older, no less damaged “abductee” with whom Brian makes contact. Everything resonates. “Mysterious Skin” is a movie of deep psychological acuity. It’s unsurprising to learn from interviews that both Araki and Bill Sage experienced childhood abuse.
Subtle isn’t a word one would ordinarily associate with Araki. His billboard mise-en-scène — based on primary colors, punchy montage and bluntly symmetrical close-ups — is still in evidence here but strategically toned down. A Christmas Eve ending flirts with but avoids sentimentality. Fitting in a movie so haunting, all is not explained.
A.O. Scott’s review for The New York Times praised “Mysterious Skin” as “a gorgeous, heartbreaking and utterly convincing work of art.” Indeed, it’s one of the great movies of the early 2000s. Having made it, Araki, who continues to work in his trademark mode (see “I Want Your Sex,” which opened earlier this summer), has nothing he needs to prove.
Mysterious Skin
Through Aug. 20 at IFC Center, Manhattan; ifccenter.com.
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