Few films dare to go where Gregg Araki takes his adaptation of the Scott Heim novel, Mysterious Skin. Now available on DVD, the film tells the story of two Kansas boys who share an experience in childhood and react in completely different ways. The subject matter is dark, to say to least, dealing with child molestation, teenage prostitution and alien abductions. As these are all things that I have dealt with in my life, I feel a close affinity to this movie. Actually, I feel close to all of Gregg Araki's films except Splendor, which I am only fond of because the male leads are so attractive.

The first Araki film I saw was The Doom Generation starring Rose MacGowen and Jonathan Schaech. I hated it. Then I wondered why I hated it so much. I watched it again. And again. And again, until I realized that I hated it because I was jealous. Jealous that Araki had made it before me. Jealous that I hadn't thought of it first. His films are to me, what I imagine Kubrick is like for straight boys. Araki reinvented my cinematic imagination and cast his spell over me. The copious amounts of absurdity, perversion, subversion, sex, violence, and whatever, were exactly what the doctor ordered.

I devoured his previous efforts, The Living End and Totally F*cked Up, with glee. By the time Nowhere was released, I was hailing Araki as a god. It has been years since his last film and I had wondered if Mysterious Skin would be worth the wait. It was. Skin is the finest film of his career and upon reviewing the DVD (twice last night) I declare it to be the best film I have seen all year. While I realize Skin may not be for everyone, I adore it and implore you to seek it out. It will make you laugh and cry and it's better than pretty much everything out there.