I think I've learned my lesson. Never watch two disturbing films in one day, much less one after the other. Seriously my mind is still somewhat paralyzed even after a good night's sleep, with the last 15 minutes of Requiem for a Dream still fresh in my head.

Mysterious Skin is one of the few films to tackle the taboo subject of child sexual abuse, namely pedophilia, in a realistic and serious manner, by focusing on the impact of the trauma on the victims. There's no glamorization of the abuse or heavy-handed treatment of the subject matter, instead we're given a raw and objective depiction of the lives of two boys after having been molested by their baseball coach.

The film opens with a narration by Brian Lackey, who was the weakest player in the baseball team, who thinks that he had been abducted by aliens resulting him waking up in the cellar with no memory of what happened to him. He's determined to find out the reason behind the blanks in his memory and the nose-bleeds, nearly convinced that he was experimented on by extraterrestrials. We're then introduced to Neil McCormick, who as an eight-year-old boy was sexually precocious possibly due to the promiscuous tendencies of his mother with other men, discovering that he was attracted to men at a young age. He has a fetish for older men which I think could've arose from the lack of a father figure in his childhood. Neil immediately develops a crush on his baseball coach, who is really a pedophile and takes advantage of Neil's attachment to him to sexually abuse him. 10 years down the road, Brian is the introverted geek and thoroughly obsessed with alien abductions while Neil has become a gay hustler, with particular interest in older men.

Mysterious doesn't have any particularly gratuitous scenes but rather plays on our knowledge of understanding what is going on to evoke our repulsion. There's a certain sickening atmosphere in the segments with the coach and his victims which provokes the audience to recognize just how revolting the act is. Pedophiles are not people who love children. In fact there's also the subtle theme of how adults can affect impressionable young children, indicated in the exploration of the hearts and minds of the two protagonists: Brian and Neil.

Between the two, Brian is obviously the more subdued one. He's the one who 'does not remember' owing to the shock from the ordeal and has decidedly become 'asexual'. Ironically, he's desperately trying to recall the events and the witnessing of an actual UFO behind his house (something I found really out-of-place in the film) only fueled his belief that he was abducted by aliens. Brady Corbet turns in a wonderfully controlled performance although his role is not exactly the 'flashy' type. However, Brian's ultimate realization of the truth becomes one of the most heartrending scenes in the movie and this viewer feels that he did not just lose five hours of his life as narrated but the entire period of his teenage years, being self-obsessed with the mystery behind his condition.

Neil is probably the more dynamic character. IMO, he's more emotionally detached than Brian, rather unsavory with a swaggering confidence knowing that he is the object of desire of everyone around him, and yet, his character invokes more of my sympathy. Perhaps one of the main reasons is the fact that his actions are in truth, self-destructive. His emotional being and sexuality having been warped by the sexual abuse he experienced, it seems like he's still constantly seeking for that 'affection' that his coach showed him. However, it's not until when he travels to New York City for new tricks that his naiveté begins to show and he realizes that being attached to someone does not necessarily have to involve sex. Neil has long emotionally distanced himself from everyone, looking only for physical contact having been 'programmed' that way by the sexual abuse. It is a brutal awakening, physically and emotionally, for Neil to finally realize or accept that he had actually been abused rather than loved by his coach.

All of the actors give very convincing portrayals but Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Neil) really steals the entire movie with his magnetic performance. I have only seen Levitt in 3rd Rock from the Sun and 10 Things I Hate About You prior to this film, so I was extremely impressed by his daring and absorbing portrayal of a gay hustler, the subtle emotions that he reveals of the character's vulnerability beneath all that arrogance leading to his breakdown at the end. The direction of the film was strange at times, especially with the use of color and brightness that contrasted with the bleak atmosphere of the entire movie, as if to suggest the innocence lost in the dark reality of the situation.

Mysterious Skin isn't a film that is easy to stomach. Certain scenes are rather harrowing to watch, in particular Neil's rape towards the end (which was nearly as disturbing as the rape in Irreversible), and the conclusion is a brutally realistic one. But it is a still a remarkable film which deserves at least one viewing.

Requiem for a Dream is a disturbing look at the psychological ramifications of drug abuse in the same vein that Mysterious is for child abuse, except maybe Requiem was more visceral in its execution.

Requiem follows the lives of four characters, each inevitably spiraling down a path of misery and madness following their abuse of drugs. We have Sarah Goldfarb, a sweet old woman who cares about her son but suffers from loneliness and spends her time glued to the TV set. And three others, Harry Goldfarb, Marianne (Harry's girlfriend) and Tyrone, who are working their way into the drug trafficking business.

Ellen Burstyn (Sarah Goldfarb) is really phenomenal in her performance, and her character's descent into drug abuse is the most shocking and terrible. Her yearning for some meaning in her mundane life is a very real depiction of the cruelty of old age and solitude. Believing a phone call that she'd been selected for participation in a TV contest, she embarks on a diet program so that she can wear her favorite dress. When dieting fails, she seeks medical help and starts taking obesity pills to slim down. I'm not really sure if these sort of pills can actually have hallucinogenic effects (and that doctor in the film I found unrealistically irresponsible and nonchalant, but maybe it was lousy clinic) but Sarah later develops tolerance to the drugs resulting in consuming more than the prescribed amount and there begins her madness.

The other three junkies seem to have their lives revolve around drugs. Their addiction becomes all-consuming, being their source of happiness and then pain at the end of the film.

The message of this film is simple: don't do drugs. But it doesn't preach, rather it shocks the viewer, much like the ghastly pictures of cancer-stricken lungs that are pasted on the packets of cigarettes. I've never seen an anti-drug movie that so vividly and relentlessly captures the psychological hell that victims of drug abuse experience.

What's interesting is how each act is described by a season. Summer at the beginning to depict the good times, Fall when the problems arise and the characters are themselves plunging into increasing chaos, and finally Winter when all hell breaks loose. The last 15 minutes is raw, manic and gruesome, and really kicks you in the stomach. It goes without saying that these characters have no 'Spring'. There's no new beginning or redemption. Perhaps the only scene of compassion amidst the cruel turn of events, is when Sarah's neighbor comes to visit her in hospital, and then cries outside after seeing the hopelessness that has befallen her friend.

Requiem is really such a horrific film of self-destruction that I don't think I'll want to watch it a second time.