The movie sugarcoats nothing, but it doesn't revel in its own darkness either. It sheds a clear, compassionate, illuminating light.

| Feb 28, 2018

[...] For a movie about something as painful as child sexual abuse, Mysterious Skin doesn't repel. There's an allure to the images, which are as carefully posed and framed as figures in a softly illuminated dollhouse.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 17, 2014

Gordon-Levitt's performance is nothing short of astonishing.

| Original Score: A- | Nov 28, 2005

Araki's best film in a long time.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 22, 2005

The audience has gotten the point roughly 90 minutes before the characters do.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 21, 2005

Manages to deal with its raw, awful subject matter in ways that are both challenging and illuminating.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 21, 2005

Filmmaker Gregg Araki, heretofore best known for his numerous ragged and nihilistic coming-of-age, gay melodramas, here crosses over from the fringes to make his most mature and penetrating drama to date.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 5, 2005

This is a challenging and ultimately moving film that deserves to find a like-minded audience.

| Original Score: A- | Jul 1, 2005

A tough but rewardingly original child abuse drama, centred on Levitt's brave and compelling performance. A rising star for sure.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 25, 2005

The usual Araki elements are here (hustlers, rebels, uproar, the absurd), but now he appears to be working with focus and compassion.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 24, 2005

While watching this movie, I scribbled the word 'whoa' five times into my notebook.

| Jun 24, 2005

There is a terrible, terrifying honesty at the core of Mysterious Skin that will make it chillingly recognizable to some viewers and important to recognize for others.

| Jun 24, 2005

By the time the climactic revelation finally comes, it's such old news that all the scenery chewing that accompanies it seems alien.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 23, 2005

The film has a weird buoyancy.

| Jun 18, 2005

Of all the recent films about child abuse, Mysterious Skin stands out as the one that most directly and eloquently addresses the emotional toll of the experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 17, 2005

You're likely to be bruised by its truths. To his credit, Araki has made that a risk well worth taking.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 17, 2005

As tough as it is to take in, and perhaps even tougher to contemplate, Mysterious Skin demands serious consideration and appreciation for Araki's evident maturity. He's a grown-up, finally.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 10, 2005

It's a film that deals with childhood sexual abuse in an original and dry-eyed manner rarely seen in our culture today.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 10, 2005

The adult Neil is ably incarnated by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the same is true of Brady Corbet as the grown-up Brian.

| Jun 9, 2005

This is the film that really sticks with you after you seen it.

Full Review | Jun 6, 2005