01
The Mudge Boy
Why this pick
A similarly fragile rural coming-of-age drama, centered on an isolated teenager whose grief and sexual awakening unfold with quiet, unsettling tenderness.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE2004 1h 45m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
Mysterious Skin
Drama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved Mysterious Skin, try these.
01
02
L.I.E.
Why this pick
Matches the film’s unsparing attention to vulnerable adolescence, exploitative adult dynamics, and the uneasy overlap of longing, shame, and survival.
03
Manic
Why this pick
Its raw, intimate performances and volatile young characters carry a comparable emotional exposure, following damaged teenagers searching for connection in institutional confinement.
04
Happiness
Why this pick
For its suburban malaise and brutally uncomfortable treatment of sexual harm, loneliness, and family denial, delivered with an even more corrosive deadpan tone.
05
Moonlight
Why this pick
A lyrical, fragmented portrait of a boy becoming himself amid neglect, desire, and violence; gentler in approach but equally attuned to memory and emotional isolation.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
Two eight-year-old Little League teammates Neil McCormick and Brian Lackey both experience life-altering events in the summer of 1981 in Hutchinson, Kansas. Neil, the son of an irresponsible single mother and already discovering his homosexuality, is Child sexual abuse by the Little League coach, who leaves town after that summer. Brian, with a neglectful father and a mother who is often working, remembers it starting to rain during a game. The next thing he remembers is being in the crawl space of a house with a bloody nose, having no memory of the intervening five hours.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Neil
Brady Corbet
Brian
Michelle Trachtenberg
Wendy
Jeffrey Licon
Eric
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Avalyn
Elisabeth Shue
Mrs. McCormick
Billy Drago
Zeke
Chris Mulkey
Mr. Lackey