Posted on 05/06/2005 7:19:55 AM PDT by Houmatt
A new movie about pedophilia opening today in New York is being accused of violating U.S. laws against child pornography.
"Mysterious Skin," which traces the story of two 8-year-old boys abused by a homosexual predator into adulthood and a life of homosexual prostitution, is directed by Gregg Araki.
Ted Baehr, a film critic who has a degree from the New York University School of Law and who worked for the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York, said the movie violates U.S. law and those of most states.
"This film clearly violates the child pornography statutes written by Congress and most state legislatures," he said. "We urge the authorities to take action and investigate."
A review in the Christian publication Movieguide, written by Tom Snyder, who holds a Ph.D. in film studies from Northwestern University and who taught film history at National University in Southern California, said the graphic sex scenes in the movie "are just shy of the hardest hardcore pornography you can ever find."
The review also notes that the movie "tries to justify the graphic nature of its scenes and descriptions of homosexual pedophilia and homosexual prostitution by tacking on artistically directed scenes of sadness, pain and humor."
"The film, 'Mysterious Skin,' reaches a new low in depravity," said Baehr, founder and publisher of Movieguide, who served as director of the Television Center at the City University of New York in the late 1970s.
Baehr said the movie contains graphic scenes of homosexual prostitution and homosexual rape, scenes of a homosexual pedophile seducing a young boy and a graphic description of the homosexual abuse of two little boys.
The film stars Brady Corbet as an 18 year-old introvert who has recurring nightmares of his childhood and thinks he may have been the victim of an alien abduction. Co-star Joseph Gordon Levitt plays a teen-ager ready to leave his small town of Hutchinson, Kansas, for a more jaded and dangerous life in New York City.
The movie is based on Scott Heim's novel of the same title.
(Sarcasm mode: WAY ON.)
Wonder if they will exam the cause/effect...
Before the 'Hollyweird' brigade comes around...this film, and Araki in general, are about as far away from Hollywood as you can get.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
I saw "The Doom Generation" that Araki also directed. Aside from the blazing-hot Rose McGowan, that was the strangest film I've EVER seen.
Araki is a strange character. Anyone who titles a movie 'Totally F***ked Up' is not interested in reaching the mainstream.
It'll prolly be the next Salo.
Whatever message the film portrays will be negative - I am sure the perspective is that any crimes committed are committed by sensitive souls who have been forced into acts of desperation by cruel hetero society.
Did he get a government grant to make the film?
Salo goes for big bucks on ebay. Have you seen it?
Oh, you are so right. Those busybody religious right fruitcakes coming out of the woodwork again. After all, if girls can get abortions without a parent's consent, why can't children star in porn movies, too? It's their constitutional right! (sarcasm!!!) HOW UTTERLY DISGUSTING!
I don't think I would want to see it. Of course shortly after making that film Pasolini was murdered by a gay hustler.
Good heavens, no! Sounds like a real nausea-inducer. It's supposedly an allegory about the evils of fascism, but I think WWII showed us the evils of fascism quite clearly. A movie about people objected to sadisitc and degrading tortures before being murdered is not my idea of entertainment (nor is a movie about pedophilia).
I think people collect the DVD just so they can say they have such a rare film in their collection.
I'll bet the movie gets two fists up from Andrew Sullivan.
I'm not convinced that this was a movie that needed to be made, or that needs to be seen. It might, however, be a movie that needs to be prosecuted.
Except of course, that he went to USC film school like many Hollywood directors, was a music and film journalist for LA Weekly, films at LA studios used by Hollywood directors, has his films distributed by TriMark pictures and casts Hollywood B-actors like Rose McGowan, Nicky Katt, Christina Applegate, Ryan Phillippe, etc.
His films are not mainstream blockbusters, obviously. But he is as purebred a product of Hollywood film culture as anyone.
BTW, let me just state that the breadth of your film knowledge continues to impress. I wanted to ask you on the last thread - what's your favorite Ozu?
NAMBLA Alert.
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