Mysterious Skin
This was a really hard film to watch. I felt very tense throughout most of it, as the scenes of abuse were so hard to watch. Though I didn't enjoy watching this film, I do think there is value in having representations of these taboo topics in film, because it's definitely not something we discuss much, so it raises important conversations about how this kind of abuse often happens and how it can affect people's identities and relationships as they grow up. I thought the two story lines of Brian and Neil were interesting in that they showed two different ways that abuse can affect a kid as they grow up. In Neil's case, he mimics some of the things that the coach did to him and performs them on other kids. The abuse also ends up affecting his sexual relationships as a teen, when he becomes very sexually involved and works as a hustler. He also is clearly trying to fill a void created by the abuse in that he feels that he had never felt as special as when he was with his...
