Boy Erased (12A.)
Directed by Joel Edgerton.
Starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton, Russell Crowe, Xavier Dolan, Flea and Joe Alwyn.
In which the cream of Australian acting talent conspire to put the boot into gay-conversion therapy, and Christianity while they’re at it. There are worse things they could do, but as the same topic was covered by The Miseducation of Cameron Post less than a year ago, there might have been better ones too. That was something of the period piece, set back in the early 90s, this adaptation of Garrard Conley’s memoir is more up to date. The son of a pastor (Crowe) Jared (Hedges) is sent to de-gaying camp when his leanings are revealed to his parents by a college mate.
Edgerton’s second film as a director is competent and subdued but does tread rather delicately through its subject. The course, as run by Victor Sykes (Edgerton) is controlling and overbearing and filled with dumb logic: at one point it explained to the star High School athlete that he wasn’t born a quarterback it was a choice, and so is being gay. In places the straightening out methods are almost touchingly simplistic – they get to play baseball and are taught to stand in a more forthright posture to make a man of them. It is rooted in a rehashing of the first act of Full Metal Jacket with an inmate called Cameron (Britton Sear) a bulky football player taking the role of Private Pyle, getting the brunt of the abuse in an attempt to get him to fall into line. Red Hot Chilli Pepper Flea, does a very effective drill instructor cameo.
The surprise of the film is that a Christian based course would fall back on the basic tenets of psychotherapy: trying to blame the parent. So Sykes fixates on Jared's Pastor father as being the cause of his gayness, without it ever seeming to occur to him that perhaps having a protective mother (Kidman) with a hairstyle inspired by Dolly Parton might have had an effect.
It’s a quiet, muted little film, well made, well performed but totally safe. Its message is Forced Conversion Is Bad and by aiming it at an audience that already knows this to be so, it shows its adherence to this principle.
Directed by Joel Edgerton.
Starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton, Russell Crowe, Xavier Dolan, Flea and Joe Alwyn.
In which the cream of Australian acting talent conspire to put the boot into gay-conversion therapy, and Christianity while they’re at it. There are worse things they could do, but as the same topic was covered by The Miseducation of Cameron Post less than a year ago, there might have been better ones too. That was something of the period piece, set back in the early 90s, this adaptation of Garrard Conley’s memoir is more up to date. The son of a pastor (Crowe) Jared (Hedges) is sent to de-gaying camp when his leanings are revealed to his parents by a college mate.
Edgerton’s second film as a director is competent and subdued but does tread rather delicately through its subject. The course, as run by Victor Sykes (Edgerton) is controlling and overbearing and filled with dumb logic: at one point it explained to the star High School athlete that he wasn’t born a quarterback it was a choice, and so is being gay. In places the straightening out methods are almost touchingly simplistic – they get to play baseball and are taught to stand in a more forthright posture to make a man of them. It is rooted in a rehashing of the first act of Full Metal Jacket with an inmate called Cameron (Britton Sear) a bulky football player taking the role of Private Pyle, getting the brunt of the abuse in an attempt to get him to fall into line. Red Hot Chilli Pepper Flea, does a very effective drill instructor cameo.
The surprise of the film is that a Christian based course would fall back on the basic tenets of psychotherapy: trying to blame the parent. So Sykes fixates on Jared's Pastor father as being the cause of his gayness, without it ever seeming to occur to him that perhaps having a protective mother (Kidman) with a hairstyle inspired by Dolly Parton might have had an effect.
It’s a quiet, muted little film, well made, well performed but totally safe. Its message is Forced Conversion Is Bad and by aiming it at an audience that already knows this to be so, it shows its adherence to this principle.
