Mysterious Skin

I saw Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin last night; a sold-out session as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival. Controversy had attached itself to this film due to censorship threats via Attorney-General Philip Ruddock. I found the film spellbinding; two lives affected by the same incident, both spin off onto different trajectories, coming together again ten years later in a touching dénouement, wherein the answers they seek reside in each other. The subject of paedophilia is treated with curious objectivity, we're not asked to condemn the perpetrator, nor to sympathise with the victims; we're asked for empathy. The film moves with the glacial pull of Claire Denis or Sofia Coppola; tugging at your sleeve, as you wander through a blur of childhood memories, evinced by the Harold Budd / Robin Guthrie score, and tracks by Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and a great drunken scene with Ride's "Drive Blind".