BEFORE: Nicole Kidman carries over from "Destroyer" which allows me to get started on the slew of films from the past year that were all about teens going to rehab (be it drug rehab, alcohol rehab, or gay rehab, I'm assuming they're all working off the same theme...). There was also "Beautiful Boy", "The Miseducation of Cameron Post", and "Ben Is Back", which also starred Lucas Hedges, like today's film does. I don't have access to a copy of that one yet, or it might have made sense to link from this one to that one. I'll just have to circle back if that one becomes available. My point is, it was a big year for teen rehab dramas.
Ah, it's May 1, May Day - now I wish I'd worked it to watch something like "The Death of Stalin" today, that would have been a good fit. Something about Communism or the workers of the world - geez, even "Norma Rae" might have worked. Oh, well, I'm on this path now and I can't make too many alterations for every little holiday that comes along...
FOLLOW-UP TO: "I Am Michael" (Movie #3,165)
THE PLOT: The son of a Baptist preacher is forced to participate in a church-supported gay conversion program after being forcibly outed to his parents.
AFTER: So I don't pretend to understand all of the ins and outs on this topic, especially since it's so very controversial. But this is based on a 2016 book by Gerrard Conley, based on his real-life experiences after being sent to a conversion camp called Love in Action that was run by fundamentalist ministries in Arkansas - as if a gay teen in Arkansas didn't face enough problems as is...
Part of me feels that rejecting everything your parents stand for is a natural part of life, that it would be hard in today's world to become the adult you're supposed to be without rejecting your parents in some way, preferably in all ways. Does that make sense? Like, who doesn't go through some form of crises between 16 and 25 in some manner that puts them in conflict with their parents? Maybe there are a few people in their 20's who do everything their parents want, go to college close to home and then enter exactly the line of work that their parents want them to, but I suspect that those people are few and far between. Plus, are they really who they're meant to be at that point, or just who their parents WANTED them to be? It just sounds so weird.
That's what I remember about being 17 or 18 years old - wanting to get out of my hometown, move to someplace big like New York where I could both disappear and do anything I wanted to do, and most importantly, get away from organized religion. It's not like some priest in the Boston diocese got all handsy with me, but maybe that COULD have happened if I stayed. JK. It was more like I didn't agree with any of the teachings of the church, particularly with regards to how I should be spending my Sunday mornings - I would much rather spend them sleeping than getting up to go to church.
But I digress. A peek behind the curtain here at the gay conversion therapy process reveals that the teens sent to this religious camp were expected to complete "moral inventories" of themselves, basically a compilation of all of their gay feelings and actions, and then compile a family histories that looked like complex family trees, with parents, aunts and uncles labeled as alcoholics, drug users, homosexuals or even "gang members", as if assigning some kind of blame on relatives for each individual's sexuality - because of course they couldn't be "born that way". The sum total of this is to pitch the mistaken belief that gay people are somehow imperfect, or that their actions and feelings are standing between them and God, or preventing his holiness from entering their lives. Me, I wouldn't recommend any worship of a God whose love is conditional, anyway that's not what the Bible said at one point, so why this contradiction?
It's another case of "too many flashbacks" tonight, because after the lead character, Jared, enters the program, the film flashes back to his first gay encounter in college, which doesn't go well, and also leads to his first sex partner outing him to his parents in a roundabout way. Then we see scenes of his father (a Baptist minister) and mother making the hard decision to send him to conversion camp, which at this point seems like putting the cart before the horse, it's a strange editing decision that carries no dramatic tension, because we the audience already know that this is where he's going to go. Why put the scenes of him GOING to conversion therapy before the scene of the decision made to send him there? Oh, right, flashbacks are trendy now - but putting the scenes in the film in the proper order could have generated some suspense here, but as is, we know the result before it even happens.
Last night I counted up the films I've seen so far in 2019 that use the "timeline toggle" technique, but I also counted up the films that I've deemed to be "too flashbacky" and that number is much larger - like, well over 20. I just can't understand why so many directors seem to have forgotten how to start a story at the beginning and end with an ending. I maintain that all this time-jumping is probably easier, then there's a lot of storytelling in the middle that no longer needs to take place. Starting a film with the "most exciting" or "moment of greatest change" (here, that's checking into gay rehab) must make things easier, but let's call it what it is - a giant narrative cop-out.
NITPICK POINT: Why did every major adult role in this film have to be played by an Australian doing a Southern American accent? Did we run out of U.S. actors that can sound like they're from Arkansas?
NITPICK POINT #2: One of the negative things about gay conversion therapy that gets highlighted here is the fact that it has "no end point" - but that's ALL therapy. I don't think any therapy has a set ending point, unless the exact results desired are achieved. I went through a version of psychotherapy while getting divorced, and there was no clear set goal of the therapy, which made it very hard to determine whether the required progress had been made. Finally I think I just ran out of things to talk about, and felt good enough about myself and my place in the universe that I chose to end it - also, I realized that my therapist was never going to end it, because it didn't financially benefit him to do so. Therefore, therapists would be out of work if their therapy methods were completely successful, and that itself sort of calls the whole process into question, doesn't it?
NITPICK POINT #3: Who lives in NYC and drives back to Arkansas? That's an 18-hour trip, but if you don't have a driving buddy, it's probably a 2-day trip, at least. Geez, I used to drive overnight from NYC to Cleveland, but that would wear me out for the whole next day. Maybe I'm spoiled by taking the train up to visit my parents in Massachusetts if needed, but I can't imagine paying rent on a NYC apartment and also wasting a week of time driving to Arkansas and back. Like, did he sublet his place?
Also starring Lucas Hedges (last seen in "Lady Bird"), Russell Crowe (last seen in "The Mummy"), Joel Edgerton (last seen in "Red Sparrow"), Joe Alwyn, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan (last seen in "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"), Britton Sear, Theodore Pellerin, Cherry Jones (last seen in "The Beaver"), Flea (last heard in "Inside Out"), Madelyn Cline, Emily Hinkler (last seen in "Sandy Wexler"), Jesse LaTourette, David Joseph Craig, Matt Burke, David Ditmore, Tim Ware (last seen in "A Simple Twist of Fate")
RATING: 5 out of 10 confiscated cell phones
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