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Mysterious Skin

Mysterious Skin

Drama · 2005

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

Movie details

Mysterious Skin

“Two boys. One can't remember. The other can't forget.”

2005 Drama 1h 45m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.7 / 10

Community rating

A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Mysterious Skin?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Trafficked

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In this story inspired by real characters, three girls from America, Nigeria and India are trafficked through an elaborate global network and enslaved in a Texas brothel, and must together attempt a daring escape to reclaim their freedom.

The Saint of Fort Washington

The Saint of Fort Washington

Drama · 1993

Matthew, a young schizophrenic, finds himself out on the street when a slumlord tears down his apartment building. Soon, he finds himself in even more dire straits, when he is threatened by Little Leroy, a thug who is one of the tough denizens of the Fort Washington Shelter for Men. He reaches out to Jerry, a streetwise combat veteran, who takes Matthew under his wing as a son. The relationship between these two men grows as they attempt to conquer the numbing isolation of homelessness.

Cherry

Cherry

Drama · 2021

Cherry drifts from college dropout to army medic in Iraq—anchored only by his one true love, Emily. But after returning from the war with PTSD, his life spirals into drugs and crime as he struggles to find his place in the world.

Mammal

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After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver

Crime · 1976

Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

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Drama · 2011

After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.

Crash

Crash

Thriller · 1996

A car crash victim inexplicably finds himself aroused by car accidents and becomes involved with an underground subculture of like-minded souls.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Gregg Araki

Written by

Gregg Araki

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Neil McCormick

Brady Corbet

Brady Corbet

Brian Lackey

Michelle Trachtenberg

Michelle Trachtenberg

Wendy Peterson

Jeffrey Licon

Jeffrey Licon

Eric Preston

Mary Lynn Rajskub

Mary Lynn Rajskub

Avalyn Friesen

Elisabeth Shue

Elisabeth Shue

Mrs. McCormick

Lisa Long

Lisa Long

Mrs. Lackey

Court is in session

Put Mysterious Skin on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.