Boy Erased actively competed with The Miseducation of Cameron Post for theaters in my neighborhood so while two movies about gay teens sent to gay conversion camps is not a lot considering (gestures dramatically at) the last one hundred plus years of cinema, it was apparently too much for 2018 so the prior got more coverage than the latter: more star power, based on a true story and boys/men as protagonists. I was more attached to the latter because I was a fan of the director and the star and prefer girl/women protagonists.
It was really aggravating to see the previews for the latter everywhere then Boy Erased came out of nowhere with very few previews and proceeded to show in all the theaters that promoted The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which was nowhere to be found or playing too far away to go. So I irrationally and unfairly refused to see Boy Erased in theaters. If this theatrical dynamic had not happened, I am not sure if Boy Erased would have even hit my radar because there was so little promotion plus the way that it kind of swooped in and took the stage reminded me of what happened when the film establishment agrees that a movie and an actor are Oscar worthy, and it can be a turn off. Lucas Hedges is the latest acting favorite, and while I enjoyed his performances in Manchester by the Sea, Lady Bird, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, anyone who gets the Shia LeBoeuf treatment gets harder scrutiny from me because now I will wonder if you are actually good or if I fell for the hype machine. Ben Is Back did not do him in any favors so now he is on probation. He is good at choosing emotionally nuanced roles that fit his style and as an individual, he never teeters into melodrama, but may not be as versatile as I initially thought.
If Boy Erased had promoted its director, I definitely would have seen it in theaters. Joel Edgerton is a good actor, writer and director. I enjoyed his directorial debut, The Gift, which had narrative structure flaws, but was always absorbing, beautifully shot and well-acted. I basically owe him money so once again, sorry Edgerton. I will pay up one day. I promise. Edgerton has a gift for fully occupying the furthest emotional corners of a story whether he is playing the character or trying to convey it to his audience. He seems to be drawn to stories about bullied boys/men, especially if there is a whiff of homophobia involved, but often casts himself as a perpetrator too, which means that he is not under any delusions of being immune from sin. His career seems to be devoted to examining and understanding toxic masculinity in the ways that boys/men hurt each other and the ways that those men try to heal in healthy and unhealthy ways. He has a real sense of nuance without giving in to knee-jerk morality. It is a laudable way to dedicate your talent and art without simply being self-serving or a glory hound.
Boy Erased is an adaptation of Garrard Conley’s memoir, which I definitely want to read then with his permission, go back in time, scream at and hit a lot of people on behalf of his younger self then give him a big hug. Conley is the son of a Baptist minister, whom he loves, and is an average fundamentalist Christian kid except he likes boys. After a traumatic experience, his family discovers his sexual orientation, and as a family, they agree to try and cure him, but once he arrives at the program, he realizes that he made a terrible mistake and has to figure out how to escape its clutches and reforge a relationship with his parents without his sexuality becoming an issue that makes their love conditional.
Boy Erased is a great story because it is a true one. Some movies are riveting in spite of having a hack director, a dreadful editor and a tropey writer, but Edgerton’s efforts to sculpt the narrative does its best to take it off course, and Hedges, like many actors, does not have the range to play an older and younger version of his character without any physical enhancements. Toggling between different time periods did not work, especially since the rhythm of the flashbacks were off, and the story should have just been told chronologically. Comparing and contrasting his life before, during and after suffering through conversion therapy was unnecessary. Each individual scene properly conveyed the horror unfolding or around the corner that such artificial juxtaposition just detracted from our focus on the story as we had to stop feeling and question when we were. Stop getting in the way of my empathy. The story’s organic momentum is carrying me away.
I really want to read Boy Erased because the movie left me with some crucial unanswered questions about the traumatic conception point to this journey to Hell. Did he ever get help or treatment for what was done to him? Did the person who did this ever eventually get pegged as a sociopath who deliberately picks victims that he knows that he can silence with the complicit community? Did any adult in his life ever understand that a crime was committed and tried to make sure that he would get help, and the perpetrator would face justice? Why did not the perpetrator also not get forced into this hellscape? I would issue a rape trigger warning. I did not expect it to happen, was not prepared and while it was brief and not graphic, it is so well acted that it felt real, and I wanted to leap into my television screen and intervene. That feeling never quite goes away, and as a viewer, it is the dominant driving force behind our empathy. It is not just a story about someone being victimized because of their sexuality, but it is also victim blaming and the sense that the protagonist never had a moment to realize that he did nothing wrong and receive healing and comfort. It felt as if his coming out got conflated with an issue that had nothing to do with it, and it got brushed under the rug. It could be an accurate depiction, but I am uncertain considering the other narrative flaws in the story.
The best part of Boy Erased other than the honor of Conley sharing his story was Nicole Kidman. If you need an actor to believably shoot lasers of love at a stranger as if that unknown is the child that came out of her body or the person that she has always loved, hire Kidman. You do not know love until Kidman takes the screen. She makes it completely believable that the protagonist would still love his parents after they mentally tortured him. If you are ever in trouble and need someone to love and rescue you, but are not filming a movie, call her agent and see if she will hook you up at a discount rate. She will save you. She just gathers everyone up by shooting daggers with her eyes and deciding today is not the day. No man can stand in her way.
Boy Erased honorable mentions need to go to Britton Sear as Cameron, Troye Sivan as Gary and Cherry Jones as the protagonist’s doctor. They were like cool drinks of water in hell. While Edgerton always does a great job, all the evil characters are a bit been there, done that. I feel as if The Miseducation of Cameron Post did a better job of holding her villains up to the light and letting the light hit the prism of their souls so we could see the depths within them instead of a two-dimensional, mustache twirling vibe. It is one of the few times that Russell Crowe as the father did not give a memorable performance. He was probably directed to be a little shuffly and helpless so we did not hate him, but how can a car salesman, Bible thumper not be memorable?
Boy Erased is not a great sophomore entry for Edgerton, but if you are interested in the story, it is worth seeing even if it is a bit disappointing in its execution. The book is probably better. I am glad that I did not see it in the theater, but I still owe Edgerton some money.