Mysterious Skin

Mysterious Skin offers a strong story, great performances and a breathtaking look at the issue of paedophilia and its victims. The director doesn't shy away from the thorny subject and many scenes are uncomfortably real and frightening. The UFO connection only adds to the appeal of this controversial film, which many may find quite distasteful - especially because of the level of authenticity. (04/06/2011)

It's not often that a movie hooks me like this in the first few minutes (for example, "just" the atmosphere during the opening credits was excellent). The opening is adorned with a precise directorial feel, where almost every shot has the perfect style and together creates visual-emotional perfection (I appreciated similar sophistication and complexity in this style in Jackson's Heavenly Creatures, for example). That's why I was also a bit disappointed that the initially very strong direction in the second half focused only on the story itself (undoubtedly very strong and at certain moments even drastically escalated), while the initial creativity was completely neglected. Of course, I understand, and it is abundantly clear that the inclusion of mystery elements would be highly distracting, especially in the second half, but the whole film is conceived from a certain point on as a raw and intimate drama, which does not correspond with the approach taken at the beginning, which I had liked so much. In short, the combination of mystery and pure drama bothered me a bit, despite being justified given the disturbed psyche of the main characters. But the ending is a hardcore and the overall impression is on par with some European films with similar themes in terms of its emotional experience. (10/04/2011)