Mysterious Skin
TLA Releasing | Release Date: May 6, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
74
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
This thoughtful, troubling drama is leagues above the sensationalistic stuff Araki peddled in earlier films. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana Stevens
A gorgeous, heartbreaking and utterly convincing work of art. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
The film's content is adult – and for the first time in Araki's career, so is the director. Read full review
88
New York PostLou Lumenick
Not for the squeamish, but it is a beautifully crafted and thoughtful film that genuinely provokes. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
At once the most harrowing and, strangely, the most touching film I have seen about child abuse. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Mysterious Skin dawdles more than it flows, but it comes alive whenever Araki, hovering between tragedy and voyeurism, reveals how sex can tear lives to pieces. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Invigorating, blistering and chilling. Read full review
80
Village VoiceDennis Lim
With remarkable directness and composure, it shatters the myth of childhood innocence and the deathless taboo of prepubescent sexuality. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Explores both prepubescent and teen sexuality with an honesty that may make some people uncomfortable, which is a sign of its potency, and a badge of honor. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
A warped, but beautiful and strangely hopeful, coming-of-age tale. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
It's hard to imagine a more serious or persuasive indictment of the horrors inflicted on children by sexual abuse than Mysterious Skin. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
A helter-skelter ride of the soul, an unblinking, white-knuckle crash landing into the mushy mysteries of the subconscious. Read full review
80
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
A startling portrayal of how the cycle of abuse plays itself out in the lives of its victims. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverLuke Y. Thompson
Mostly, Mysterious Skin creeps you out, and not in any kind of fun way. There's an artfulness to it, but it's hard to imagine many viewers actually using the term "enjoyed" or "entertained" in conjunction with it. Read full review
80
The DissolveNoel Murray
With Mysterious Skin, Araki burrowed into the hearts and minds of his audience, looking to provide his viewers with Neil and Brian’s deeper understanding of how to piece together a fractured life, then go looking for the fragments that are still buried deep. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The film is mentally graphic, not sexually graphic. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
An absorbing story. Even though it takes you to places you may not want to go, the film never loses its human touch--that feel of skin on skin or of the past inescapably invading the present. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Leah McLaren
Unlike Todd Solondz's "Happiness," Mysterious Skin is not an abuse movie that seeks to offend or upset. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The film is actually a major artistic breakthrough for Araki, a onetime bad boy of independent filmmaking. Its psychological intelligence, attention to emotional currents, and humanity are surprises. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A deft, affecting drama about childhood sexual abuse and its lifelong scars. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Mysterious Skin bears all of Araki's hallmarks, from its stylish compositions and lush colors to its willingness to confront difficult subject matter head-on. Read full review
70
VarietyDavid Rooney
By turns spiky and lyrical, this unsettling drama will be anathema to many audiences, but is bound to be a provocative, talked-about release. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Only half a great movie, because the other half follows a separate but related thread that isn't nearly as compelling. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
It's an ideal collaboration: A stylish director desperately seeking substance transforms the first, somewhat flat novel of a promising young writer into powerful and brutally honest film about a highly controversial subject. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The result is flawed but frequently haunting. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Mysterious Skin isn't a picture about existential vacancy; it isn't even about anything so simplistic as the horrors of child abuse. It's more of a meditation on the necessity of making your way past, or through, any obstacle that prevents you from being a thinking, feeling person. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
A well-conceived story that is very hard to shake. Read full review
60
Film ThreatDon R. Lewis
By the end of Mysterious Skin, I felt physically exhausted but I also felt satisfied at the way it all falls into place. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
Araki is trying to work from the inside out; and he captures feelings about sexual exploitation that I've never seen onscreen--not all of them negative. Read full review
60
EmpireDamon Wise
Corbet emerges as an actor of sensitivity and depth, but it’s Gordon-Levitt who steals every scene as the damaged, destructive but ultimately sympathetic rent boy. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
Dull film about pedophilia that fails to shed any light on the topic. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerBill White
Had Araki chosen to illuminate, rather than exploit, the traumatic aftermath of child molestation, his wallow in the horrors of Mysterious Skin might have had a purpose. As it stands, his film is just another trashy look at America as the land of imbecilic perverts. Read full review
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