i have not read the book so my comment have only to do with the film . i be deeply and deeply impressed and move by this film . this rank among the best movie i have see in the last several year and include y tu mama tambien and eternal sunshine and punch drunk love . the film have a tone that be totally original and bizarre and and dreamily beautiful . it be frank and candid and unexpectedly brutalizing . and and just as often and unexpectedly funny and strange . and even ( so strange to admit ) uplift . i say strange and because this movie be more hard core than any american film i have see since and perhaps and happiness . and yet it so much more heartfelt and kind hearted and and yes and even love and than that aforementioned hyper toxic indictment of new jersey suburbia . mysterious skin have scene and image that i do not think i will soon forget . it also have bizarre parallel and clue that do not occur to me until hour after i would see it . spoiler represent for example and the scene where brian be compel to slide his hand up into the body cavity of a dead deer . wow . the context be shatter . the scene involve pedophilia be unbelievably potent and disturb . i do not know how araki manage to shoot these sequence while retain the innocence of such young and innocent performer . i mean and it come as close to kiddie porn a anything i have see on film . and yet araki handle it with such grace and strangeness and and you be there subjectivity and there no way you can dismiss it a pornography . the perfect amount of restraint . the perfect amount of revulsion and confusion mixed with the tragic sexuality of the moment . i can easily see this movie be ban in various place . oh well and that be the world we live in . whoever dismiss this film without see it and it be their sad loss . this be the wise and brave and most honest and heartbreaking portrayal of childhood trauma ever put on film . joseph gordon levitt be amaze in this film . it like he rise from the world of tv sitcom to become and all at once and the best young actor work in film today . seriously . no hyperbole here . he have everything he need to be the next de niro . the effortless body language and those impenetrable eye and his turn on a dime delivery . he be that good . i read somewhere and someone compare him to a young colin farrell . please . the kid only 22 and he already 10 time the actor farrell be . he so good and in fact and that he could very well be a teen hustler from an hbo documentary . beyond realism . levitt completely live in the mysterious skin of his character . i will comment on one other scene and and yeah and i be gon na spoil it and but do not worry and it not much of a spoiler . this scene really blow me away . neil ( levitt ) have just pick up a john and play by billy drago . ( you will probably recognize this guy . he super creepy look and and yet also terrifyingly cool and inscrutable . he play capone main henchman frank nitti in the untouchable ) he join the john back at his stark white apartment and and a scene which seem destine for tension and dread and horror . suddenly become beautiful and incredibly sad and and transcendent . to the point where and after this scene and i realize i wasn not just watch a cool sundance indie . i wasn not just watch a gregg araki film . i wasn not catch the late trendy indie at the sunset 5 in west hollywood and surround by hipster and shock hound . i be and in fact and witness a movie that transcend all of these fashionable label . it only happen once in a blue moon and but when i saw this film and it definitely happen represent i realize i be watch a work of art .