The Shadow of Brokeback

Brokeback Mountain saw the loss that would shake the gay world as it were. Yes, it was disappointing to lose to Crash. I saw both films and although I felt Crash was a well done, I never really felt it was great.

I have said before and will continue to believe that the Academy generally rewards films that they feel cover a broad field. Brokeback Mountain was in my opinion considered more specific in its message. It should be commended for portraying a relationship between two men that was unabashed at the very least. We were no longer campy, but able to feel love like our heterosexual counterparts.

Winning would have meant that we were on the cusp of a new level of acceptance. Acceptance by and large is something that every minority group fights for.

I enjoyed Brokeback and I do believe it has done well by everyone involved in it including director Ang Lee. Heck, I'd say it certainly re-invigorated Heath Ledger's career whose subtle brooding performance of Ennis Delmar was most definitely Oscar worthy. Even though I found it humorous that the networks seemed to be running previews of Casanova non-stop as if to say, "he likes the ladies."

However, if were are going to talk about cinematic loss, I'd like to bring to your attention the film Mysterious Skin. I remember this movie coming to the art theater and wanting to see it, but for whatever reason never getting there. I finally rented it this past weekend and have to say it was an incredibly profound and thought provoking movie that has left its mark on me.

Unlike Brokeback, it's not exactly a classic tale of unrequited love. Brokeback has its gorgeously framed rolling hills and valleys. Mysterious Skin has theories of alien abduction and a dark secret.

The movie opens by introducing us to two characters who are so different that their lives quite possibly would have never intersected excluding a shared experience that occurred to them.

The first character we meet is Brian Lackey. A introverted, frail young boy who has been misplaced on a little league team. During the course of this game a thunder storm ensues and the images flash from storm to a scared little boy with a nosebleed hiding in a cellar. One of his first lines of dialog is "The summer I was eight years old, five hours disappeared from my life".

This sets up the pretext of what Brian so desperately wants to know that it consumes his very being.

Shortly after Brian's introduction we are introduced to Neil McCormick. Extroverted Neil is quite different from Brian. We know this as he voyeuristically watches his mother have sex with her then boyfriend while masturbating. We hear him say in a voiceover "The summer I was eight years old, I came for the first time."

Mysterious Skin isn't merely an exploration of young sexuality in arresting and blunt terms. It's a layered view of the long-term effects that follow those who
have been sexually abused and the coping mechanisms employed therein.

Without giving away spoilers for those who may want to see this film, I highly recommend it. The ensemble cast including Joseph-Gordon Levitt as the adolescent
Neil and Elizabeth Shue as his good-hearted yet clueless mother are both performances that were sadly unnoticed this past year.