‘Boy Erased’ Is No ‘Beautiful Boy,’ TBQH

I spent the latter part of 2018 alternately looking forward to the UK release of Boy Erased and Beautiful Boy, and getting them hopelessly mixed up. They were both released in the run-up to the Oscars (though by some Hollywood-insular fuckery neither was nominated for a single Academy award), both star a teen heartthrob and former Oscars golden boy (Lucas Hedges and Timothée Chalamet, respectively), and both are true stories of a deep family crisis involving the son, which crisis puts his relationship with his father on the line. But as far as caliber is concerned, I found Boy Erased to be no match for Beautiful Boy, and Hedges no match for Chalamet.

Boy Erased — the story of Jared, a preacher’s son who is sent to a hyper-Christian gay conversion therapy programme — is proficient, but God, surely nobody would want their film to be called that? It is shocking in all the right places, yes, and you’ll surely buy the story (after all, it actually did happen), but it also lacks the sensitivity and artistry of Beautiful Boy. Nicole Kidman as Jared’s mother carries one particularly stunning scene in a restaurant, but the rest of the offering narrowly misses the mark with its often dry acting, banal cinematography and pleasant enough soundtrack. It has all the affective potential of a news cast, which is to say not none, except I don’t know about you, but I don’t go to the cinema to feel the same way I would if I turned on the BBC.

Interestingly, critics seem to fundamentally disagree with me, with Boy Erased at 81% on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing and Beautiful Boy at 69 (nice). I haven’t read any reviews so as not to taint this one, but I have a couple of theories as to why this might be. Firstly, sensitivity isn’t typically valued among movie crowds, who often conflate it with excess sentimentality (incidentally, I take no issue with this particular shortcoming) and perhaps the extreme consequences of toxic masculinity and violent homophobia generated by religious fundamentalism in Boy Erased hit home harder for the majority male critique establishment than the love, care and understanding that underpin Beautiful Boy. Secondly, it is possible that anti-queer violence is considered a more mainstream and topical matter among liberal circles than is the reality of narcotic addiction, which remains a dirty and underrepresented subject. There is an urgent need for both of these conversations, as both are endemic societal problems that must be addressed, and I perhaps naively believe the depth of human compassion can extend to both. Then again, maybe they just didn’t like the movie. I’ll show myself out.

7/10