Page 116 - Time Magazine-November 05, 2018

TimeOff Reviews

MOVIES
A beating heart to be released this year: The Mis-
education of Cameron Post, directed
saves a dutiful film by Desiree Akhavan and starring
Chloë Grace Moretz, focused more
By Stephanie Zacharek on the absurdity of such programs
than on their cruelty.
We live in an age When movies ofTen seem more The best scenes in Boy Erased are
important for what they’re saying than for what they are. the most understated ones, flash-
When we go into a quiet film about a serious subject—like backs in which we see Jared navigat-
Boy Erased, directed by Joel Edgerton and adapted from ing basic teenage emotional stuff,
Garrard Conley’s 2016 memoir about enduring conversion like figuring out how to rebuff his
therapy—our automatic response is to approve of its aims, high school girlfriend’s sexual ad-
even if we can see its flaws. To criticize a well-intentioned vances without hurting her feelings.
film excessively feels churlish, maybe even a little danger- Hedges is such a terrific, sensitive
ous, especially in a social and political climate that seems to actor that he makes even these small
be backsliding in terms of progressiveness. No one wants to ‘The people moments wrenching. At this stage,
be on the wrong side of the argument. who really Jared isn’t yet sure that he is gay,
And yet, even though Boy Erased is well acted and need to see it and he can’t give himself permission
thoughtful, there’s something vaguely disappointing about to figure it out. Hedges’ eyes tell us
it. The bare bones of the story are horrifying, especially are the people everything about Jared: it’s as if he’s
when you consider that it’s based on real events, and on a who hold waiting for the world to reveal some
heinous practice that still hasn’t been totally eradicated: opinions that secret to him—he doesn’t see that
Lucas Hedges plays Jared, an Arkansas teenager who’s sent can really be the secret is inside himself, crying to
away by his ostensibly loving conservative Christian parents shifted.’ get out. And Hedges is stunning in a
(Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman) to be “cured” of homo- sequence in which a college friend,
JOEL EDGERTON,
sexuality. The costly facility they pack him off to—it goes to Deadline after the a seemingly nice guy Jared has a
by the creepy, benign-sounding name Love in Action—is film screened at the crush on (Joe Alwyn), commits an
run by an amateur therapist, Victor Sykes (played by Edger- Toronto Film Festival act of sexual brutality. Jared is so
ton). Sykes makes it look like he’s administering tough love, in September confused and anguished by what’s
when really he’s inflicting emotional sadism on his charges. happened to him that for a time
But the scenes set at the facility aren’t the most effective he drifts through the movie like a
ones in the movie—they may sicken us, but they don’t sur- ghost. Edgerton has a lot to say with
prise us much. That may be why Boy Erased sometimes feels Boy Erased; it’s a virtuous film. But
more like a sturdy dramatic exercise than a viscerally potent Hedges is the movie’s heartbeat.
work. It’s also the second movie about conversion therapy He’s perfect just the way he is. 

◁
Hedges, Crowe
and Kidman in
Boy Erased: all
of the movie’s
performances
are valiant,
but Hedges
outshines
the rest

90 Time November 5, 2018