Boy Erased (2018)

We found this disturbing story about gay conversion therapy in the bible belt very good, with well-meaning yet wrong-headed adults trying to change their gay kids' orientation. Lucas Hedges (last blogged for Mid90s) is Golden-Globe nominated for playing Jared, a Texas teenager who truly believes he can "pray the gay away." Russell Crowe (most recently in these pages for The Nice Guys) is totally believable as Jared's Baptist minister father Marshall and Nicole Kidman (before we saw her cameo in How to Talk to Girls at Parties I wrote about her in The Beguiled) just wonderful as his loving, pious mother with the bouffant platinum 'do and ever-changing manicures. The boy Gary with the bleach-blond hair is played by singer and model Troye Sivan, who co-wrote and performed the song Revelation, the movie's other Golden Globe nomination.

Joel Edgerton (last blogged for Loving) directs, co-wrote, and stars as Mr. Sykes, the leader of the conversion camp, who is not depicted as a monster. It's Edgerton's second time directing and sixth time co-writing a feature. His co-writer this time was Garrard Conley, who wrote the 2016 memoir on which the movie is based. When we saw photos, at the end of the movie, of Conley and his parents, we thought how happy his mother must be to have Kidman play her in the movie.

Some time ago, I heard an NPR commentator who opined that the one good thing about gay conversion camps is to give these kids a community they didn't know existed. That happens in the comedy But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), too.

Edgerton, Kidman, and Crowe are all Australian and have not, I think, ever worked together before this. Kidman and Crowe were set to be in a 2005 project that fell through and had been hoping for another ever since. Their US southern accents are just fine, too.

The haunting music by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurrianns (most recently in these pages for scoring Complete Unknown), as well as Sivan's song, can be streamed on spotify, Apple Music, and more.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 81% and its audiences a respectable 77. With only a few local screenings now in this neck of the woods, the movie will be available for streaming January 15, 2019 and for sale two weeks later. It may make you angry but it's uplifting as well.