All Comments about...

My Friend Dahmer 2017

Tonally flawless, but narratively weak

Taking place over the course of Jeffrey Dahmer's last year in high school, and culminating with the fateful meeting between Dahmer (Ross Lynch) and Steven Hicks (Dave Sorboro), writer/director Marc Meyers's My Friend Dahmer is based on the 2012 graphic novel by Derf Backderf (played in the film by Alex Wolff), who attended the same school as Dahmer, and formed a pseudo-friendship with him. The film is tonally brilliant, coming across like The Breakfast Club (1985) directed by David Fincher, perfectly capturing 80s tackiness. Narratively, however, it's extremely plodding, and could easily have been trimmed by 20 minutes.

For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/sVDBh

loading replies

To the Jeffrey Dahmer in all of us, this is an incisive look at growing up and attending high school in the 70's!

Joking aside - Dahmer could have been any one of us, or at least the classmate we sat next to in Biology - this is a fascinating and ultimately chilling film about a young man who took the darkest of paths in life. "I'm just like everybody else" he says at one point in the film - well, yes he was, but only on the surface. Who knows what went on in his head, and who knows what went on in the head of those people we were friends with back in high school. Heck, who knows what's going on in your head right now! Shiver!!

loading replies

Intruiging to watch Dahmer’s in his teen years getting off rails.. The story is small but all details in here are true. Socially inept but oh so looking for true friendship (Derf doesn’t really count) he knows how to grab attention by acting weird which is cringeworthy and sad. A friendship comes out of it and this film is based on the comic made by this friend, John Backderf.
This is not comedy or nasty horror, just a tragic look at an anxious loser letting the dark feelings take over.. Recommended.

loading replies

[Prime Video] It approaches Jeffrey Dahmer's adolescence with a clarifying intention, but finally, aside from his strange relationship with the group of high school friends, it doesn't end up delving so deeply into the character's psychology. There's an obvious effort to reflect the protagonist's disturbing and macabre interests, but it doesn't ultimately feel like a movie that adds much to understanding a would-be killer.

loading replies

This movie is so boring.

loading replies

Went into this one without high hopes and ended up surprised at how good it was. Well worth a watch if you're into this sort of thing.

loading replies

"I think we should form a Dahmer fan club."

"My Friend Dahmer" takes a comedic turn on Jeffrey Dahmer's story. Focusing on the back story without the kills. Ross Lynch, best known for the Disney channel, which isn't a joke or an insult. Anywhere, through out the film Lynch pulls a pouty face and trying to look insane. Not saying he was bad, just needed to dial it back a bit. Other than that, decent effort.

Putting aside some terrible acting and awkward humor; we assume a film like this would fall completely flat on it's face, which didn't happen here. While not great, but it at least deserves some praise of making this come together. Marc Meyers focus on what Dahmer could've been if the darkness didn't take over him.

loading replies

A disturbing, well done coming of age drama. It's a haunting character study that doesn't try to explain anything to you, it just gives you a window into a future serial killer's days in high school. It's fascinating to see how such a twisted mind spent their youth, and how mundane it really was...

loading replies
6

Shout by Deleted

LIFF31 2017 #3

"I think we should form a Dahmer fan club."

"My Friend Dahmer" takes a comedic turn on Jeffrey Dahmer's story. Focusing on the back story without the kills. Ross Lynch, best known for the Disney channel, which isn't a joke or an insult. Anywhere, through out the film Lynch pulls a pouty face and trying to look insane. Not saying he was bad, just needed to dial it back a bit. Other than that, decent effort.

Putting aside some terrible acting and awkward humor; we assume a film like this would fall completely flat on it's face, which didn't happen here. While not great, but it at least deserves some praise of making this come together. Marc Meyers focus on what Dahmer could've been if the darkness didn't take over him.

loading replies
Loading...