Beowulf = AWESOME

Forget all the trailers you've seen - they don't even come a little bit close to doing the film justice. The animation, seen properly in 3D, is spectacular. If you do not live near a theatre that is showing this film in digital 3D or (even better) IMAX 3D, do NOT see this movie. Just don't even bother. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie that so seamlessly married style and narrative.

(There are still a few things that look silly when animated this way, like running. Fortunately our heroes spend most of their time fighting, swimming, or on horseback.)

Also, in spite of the MPAA briefly losing their collective minds and giving this a PG-13 rating, DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS TO SEE THIS MOVIE. It's not just the near constant sexual overtones in every single scene, or even the multiple scenes containing full frontal (albeit CG) nudity. This movie is freaking VIOLENT. The violence is beautifully coreographed and shot and some of the best action sequences I've ever seen, but it is intense. And very, very bloody.

Laga, my final conclusion on MS is that while a movie that skillfully gets across the point of the horror of pedophilia, I still would have known that child molestation is bad, m'kay, and a horrible thing. And I don't feel richer in my life for now feeling that intimately crawling under my skin.

I know it, and I really don't think that I needed to (and I know I didn't want to) know it, know it..

The movie was described as a story of self-discovery, and, I'm sorry, I think it failed. The discovery was just more molestation, lovingly filmed. Maybe the movie was too subtle for me, maybe there was nuanced stories being told in the background through hints and expressions on the parts of the families, but I didn't see it.

I went looking at reviews of MS on Rotten Tomatoes (MS is 90% fresh in the Cream of the Crop category - a rarity) and I agree with this one:

There is a terrible, terrifying honesty at the core of Mysterious Skin that will make it chillingly recognizable to some viewers and important to recognize for others.

Ann Hornaday

Washington Post

That said, it's brutal, heartbreaking, and really tough to watch. I will say that I can't imagine letting my child act in one of the kid roles. I know they gave the kids a different script so they wouldn't know what was actually going on but I wonder when they grow up and watch the movie if they'll wonder WTF their parents were thinking. That could be damaging, I think.

I had never heard of this movie before, but now I am intrigued.

I read a preview review of The Kite Runner which pointed out that while certain scenes in the book are horrifying enough, to see them on the screen it was impossible for the reviewer not to worry about the actors, the children, who acted them out. I think for this reason I might need to skip both movies.

I think I learned all I need to know about child molestation reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

There was child molestation in that? I think I read it in high school. Maybe. Or maybe the only Angelou we read was All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes. For which we made a totally awesome movie trailer that I am still proud of, even though I don't have a copy of it.

I don't know the story of The Kite Runner, but I know the kids and their families had to be relocated by the movie company because they feared for their safety after the movie came out. Scary shit.

There is a terrible, terrifying honesty at the core of Mysterious Skin that will make it chillingly recognizable to some viewers and important to recognize for others.

I agree that the honesty, terrible and terrifying, is there, but why is it(and what is) important for me to recognize? I'm back to "pedophilia, bad, check". Unless this is visited upon my own life or the life of any child I know, why is it important for me to endure this overly visceral experience? I would love for real people in real life to be spared this horror, so why should I want vicariously witness this in my "entertainment"? /not rhetorical

to see them on the screen it was impossible for the reviewer not to worry about the actors, the children, who acted them out.

I was thinking this too with MS, and not just the child actors, but even the adults. At least, as it seems, the kids didn't know what they were doing.

I had thought for the longest time that the reason we could never really see Adam Baldwin's face in Radio Flyer was because he had chosen to not be filmed shoulders up because he didn't want to be associated with child abuse.

You don't like the movie. I do like the movie. That's okay. I just think it's a really important film, which is why I guess I keep talking about it. But I've said my piece.