20 Hidden Drama Movie Gems You Can Watch On Netflix

13. Mysterious Skin

One of the two-or-three toughest films to watch on this list, Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin sees an impossibly young Joseph Gordon-Levitt (24 at the time but looking about twelve) star as a fifteen-year-old homosexual prostitute who crosses paths with Brian (Brady Corby), a boy obsessed with alien-abduction fantasies. The boys both share a haunting secret that has led, respectively, to Neil's (Levitt) life as a teenage hustler, and Brian's reclusive, absurd beliefs, and, without giving too much away, it involves their high-school coach and how his actions altered the boys' fragile young minds. Frank in its descriptions of paedophilia - and too its depictions, which obviously aren't explicit but are framed and shot in such a way that we always, disturbingly, know what is being alluded to - Mysterious Skin is a harrowing watch, not only for the aforementioned, but also for its scenes of brutal violence. Not just a shock picture, though, Mysterious Skin is more about the connection Neil and Brian make, ensuring that Araki's film becomes more touching and ultimately hopeful than a film about such horrific acts should ever have license to be.