I did not explain sufficiently, I think. IMO, there is enough sentimentality inherent in the story, that adding it in with the direction takes the show from "touching, but relatable", to eye-rolly Hallmark.

Ah. Point taken and agreed with.

I just saw this on a friend's blog:

Orders 1 through 65 
1 - Tuna Salad sandwich. Lightly toasted.
2 - Shine boots.
3 - Brush your teeth and go to bed.
4 - Coffee. Sugar. No cream.
5 - Clean blaster.
6 - Move in an unnaturally fluid CGI manner.
7 - Stop removing your helmet.
8 - Consider, but do not perform, self castration.
9 - Do something to set yourself apart from the crowd.
10 - Get back with the crowd, mister.
11 through 56 - Create gigantic circular man-ass-daisy-chain sandwich. 
Remember - making love to your clone does not make you gay. Just vain. 

57 - Perform self castration.
58 - Stop and smell the flowers.
59 - Tell a stranger "hello" today.
60 - Coffee. Cream. No sugar.
61 - Around the survivors, a perimeter create.
62 - Coffee. Black.
63 - Coffee. Two sweet-n-lows. No cream.
64 - Coffee. One equal. Extra cream. The fatty stuff too, not that
coffee-mate shit.
65 - Pretend that everything is fine with the Jedi. We're all one big 
happy family. 

Is it just me or, movie being what it is aside, do the television commercials for RotS just suck? I mean, not a lot to work with, but they seem very very bad.

I agree, Aimee. They're very "here are four second shots of everyone you'd recognize from this movie, to remind you why you SIMPLY MUST see it." (Because of the pretty.)

I think it's because if they tried to cobble any amount of plot together into a 30-45 second spot, you'd just come away with a feeling of WTF?

I saw Mysterious Skin today. It was even more hard-hitting than I'd expected. Very well-done and totally gut-wrenching. While I thought it was a good movie, I don't know that I'll need to see it again. It was pretty tough.

I wonder about the parents of kid actors who put their young children in roles like the ones in Mysterious Skin. I'm not sure what I think, but it certainly feels wrong when you see it. See also Jena Malone in Bastard Out of Carolina .

It was weird seeing little Dawnie running around saying fuck and being involved with a young hustler.

I wonder about the...

I read an article about how an alternate screenplay was written specifically for the kids, so that the director could aquire the footage he needed without having the kids ever know what the movie was really about.

Very well-done and totally gut-wrenching. While I thought it was a good movie, I don't know that I'll need to see it again. It was pretty tough.

That's how I feel about La Pianiste (The Piano Teacher). It was a very good movie, but I don't think I could ever watch it again. It's definitely the most disturbing movie I've ever seen. I'd actually like to read the book sometime, but I've heard that's it's even harder to read than the movie is to watch, so I don't know if I could make it through (especially since I have a habit of quiting books after several chapters due to a sudden unexplainable loss of interest).

Gloomcookie, have you seen La Pianiste? Is Mysterious Skin anything like that?

I haven't seen La Pianiste, but I remember hearing about it when it was out. Re: the white font stuff I figured that's what they do. I wonder how the kids will feel when they are older about having been in those roles. Also if I were the parent, I'd never be able to watch the final product. Far too disturbing.

Most amusing IMDB user comment on La Pianiste:

Why was the whole film in French?

Why was the whole film in French?

Seriously...?

I'm not sure what I think, but it certainly feels wrong when you see it.

The latest issue of Sight and Sound (with Clive Owen on the cover - mmmm) contains an interview with Gregg Araki which includes the following paragraph:

Much of it [Mysterious Skin] is acted straight to camera. Partly, this was a response to the problem of how to make a movie showing scenes of child abuse without traumatising the child actors. "Those scenes are so critical to the story that I didn't want to make the movie if I couldn't include them," says Araki. "So I figured out a cinematic stragegy to shoot them using subjective camera and point of view, and eye-line. It was related to the Kuleshov experiement, in the sense that meaning is created through the collision of images. It was possible to create those scenes by editing disparate shots together".

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I bet if you pay attention to the editing in those scenes (always difficult on a first watch), you'll find that the kids weren't necessarily present for the nasty stuff.