Mysterious Skin

Gregg Araki's adaptation of Scott Heim's novel is a disturbing, compelling, and altogether mesmerizing indie triumph. Set in a small Kansas town in the 1980s and early '90s, the film traces the parallel tracks of two boys into their early teens, where their lives veer off on wildly different courses. Brian is UFO-obsessed and believes he was abducted by aliens when he was eight (or at least that is the explanation he embraces for recurring nightmares and for a blacked-out five-hour period from his youth that he cannot recall). Neil is an openly gay lad whose childhood infatuation with a Little League coach was betrayed when the adult sexually molested him. Maturing into adulthood, Brian emerges as something of a misfit with his seemingly irrational fixation on extraterrestrials, while Neil becomes a gay prostitute, first working locally before leaving for New York. The twin stories are painful and challenging, and the area in which Brian and Neil share common ground is not likely to come as a total surprise. Nonetheless, Araki's willingness to address a wide variety of issues in a single film (everything from pedophilia to peer pressure to the suffocating restrictions of small-town life) offers clear evidence of why he's considered one of the most provocative filmmakers working today. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)[Blu-ray Review—Mar. 25, 2014—Strand, 99 min., not rated, $29.99—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 2004's Mysterious Skin features a solid transfer and a DTS 5.1 soundtrack. Extras include audio commentary (by director Gregg Araki, and costars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet), a staged performance reading of the book featuring cast members (55 min.), a 2014 conversation with Gordon-Levitt and Corbet at Sundance (24 min.), a 10-year retrospective by novelist Scott Heim (9 min.), early audition footage (8 min.), deleted scenes (6 min.), a text script/sketches gallery, a photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: Araki's powerful coming-of-age drama makes a welcome debut on Blu-ray.]