Adapted om the novel of the same name, Myster Sk prents a tale of homosexual sire and the dangers which faced young gay men the late 1980s. Director Greg Araki creat a film followg the parallel liv of two boys Kansas, Neil McCormick played by Joseph Gordon-Levt and Brian Lackey, played by Brady Corbet.…
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WAS IT GOOD FOR THE GAYS: ‘MYSTER SK’
* mysterious skin gay *
“Myster Sk” is relevant to the queer muny for more than the obv reason – that one of the two male leads is gay, along wh his iend Eric. Michael (he/him) is the gay Wrer & Content Manager behd Sce g out as a teenager, Michael has veloped a fascatn for Queer films. In this regular lumn, we’ll look at pictns of queers cema and ask, Was It Good For The Gays?
His breakout film was 1992’s The Livg End, a ic drama about two HIV-posive drifters who murr a homophobic police officer and, turn, live a life together on the road. He participat risky sex wh his johns, which one uld argue is a ttament to his upbrgg (at least terms of his geographic lotn, as well as his generatn — the film tak place the late ’80s and early ’90s at the height of the AIDS epimic, although his Kansas hometown seems worlds away om the gay mecs on eher asts).
Prevly Was It Good For The Gays:.
One youth (Brady Corbet) be obssed wh UFOs, while another (Joseph Gordon-Levt) be a gay htler the years followg a childhood trma. * mysterious skin gay *
There are a few ancillary elements the film that suggt the abe has damaged the boys—Neil’s attractn to horror films, Neil’s rape near the end of the film, and his nial of the severy of any of the events—but the odd thg, pecially for a film by a gay filmmaker, is that the implied repercsns of the child abe are activi associated wh a sexually active gay youth. If anythg the pictns of the johns New York e off as dictments of anonymo gay sex.
Narratively the rape might serve as an emotnal punctuatn of the trma ed by Coach, but pats gay life negatively. Like most young boys Neil enjoys junk food and vio gam, but unlike many boys at that age he is pletely open, fortable and nfint about his gay sexualy.
A gay teenage prostute and another teen, both om the same small town Kansas, narrate separate stori om their childhoods.