Amour Fou: Mysterious Skin

In the summer of 1981, eight-year-old Brian (Bradley Corbet) regains consciousness in the basement of his house, unable to recall the last five hours of his life after rain started falling on his little league game. That same summer, the team's star player Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is seduced by their coach.

As the boys grow into teenagers, their lives are haunted by their experiences of that time. Brian, desperate to find out what happened during his missing hours, becomes obsessed with alien abductions and recording his dreams. Neil becomes an in-demand hustler. By coincidence, the pair meet again.

An adaptation of Scott Heim's novel, Mysterious Skin is a provocative, audacious work that boasts bravura performances and a striking soundtrack (courtesy of The Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd). A major work and perhaps Araki's finest.