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★★★½☆
3 November 2017
A movie review of MY FRIEND DAHMER. |
“Friends are our connection with this world,” Lionel Dahmer (Dallas Roberts)
He killed 17 people from 1978-91. MY FRIEND DAHMER is a speculation on the last year of high school of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Like Netflix television show, MINDHUNTER, about the birth of criminal psychological profiling, one wonders how much of this film is factual. Either way, it is an upsetting portrait. Is there a 2017 trend to move away from these murderers as geniuses and instead portray them as disturbed individuals, who have been abused or neglected? They are not shown to be created in a vacuum (à la a demon from another dimension in horror fantasy, e.g. IT). Excuses are not on the agenda, but examination of cause and effect. They are de-glamorised, currently being moved away from Hannibal Lector and Dexter. HOUNDS OF LOVE released this year is sordid and depraved. No catharsis is offered. MY FRIEND DAHMER is similarly without relief.
He killed 17 people from 1978-91. MY FRIEND DAHMER is a speculation on the last year of high school of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Like Netflix television show, MINDHUNTER, about the birth of criminal psychological profiling, one wonders how much of this film is factual. Either way, it is an upsetting portrait. Is there a 2017 trend to move away from these murderers as geniuses and instead portray them as disturbed individuals, who have been abused or neglected? They are not shown to be created in a vacuum (à la a demon from another dimension in horror fantasy, e.g. IT). Excuses are not on the agenda, but examination of cause and effect. They are de-glamorised, currently being moved away from Hannibal Lector and Dexter. HOUNDS OF LOVE released this year is sordid and depraved. No catharsis is offered. MY FRIEND DAHMER is similarly without relief.
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Dahmer has fascinated many for decades since his arrest. Recently there was THE JEFFREY DAHMER FILES (2012) documentary doing the film festival circuit. For some it is likely he provides morbid curiosity. Others, as with the characters in MINDHUNTER, want insight to identify and prevent, and on academic intellectual grounds. MY FRIEND DAHMER does not analyse the seed, as the audience meets Jeff Dahmer (Ross Lynch) when the bones of roadkill already fascinate him - dissolving crushed carcasses in acid. From gross hobby, to picking up his first victim hitchhiker after high school graduation, are the film’s bookends.
He is not killing or torturing animals in a shed, but he is certainly maladjusted. Friendless and morose, Dahmer walks with arms pinned to his sides – as if he is attempting to take up as little physical space as possible. His mother, Joyce Dahmer (Anne Heche), is hyperactive, lacking impulse control. Unable to cope with her, father Lionel leaves Joyce. A messy, energy-consuming divorce distracts from parental concern and proper observation. The movie is not placing blame on their shoulders, just showing factors that may or may not have contributed. MY FRIEND DAHMER is not analysing with a conclusion at the end.
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Dahmer is fixated on a Dr Matthews (Vincent Kartheiser), tracking his running habits. Repressed sexually, not articulating his desires, seems to contribute to his personality pressure cooker. 1970s, non-city America, must hardly have been a place of open-mindedness.
Perhaps at the end of his tether, Dahmer suddenly mimics being disabled having a fit in the middle of a school corridor. It gets a laugh. Enjoying the positive feedback, he continues the shtick, and falls in with peers who are a trio of wannabe pranksters. Instead of normalising by having friends, they increase his isolation, his sense of being a sideshow attraction. That has to be hurtful, when people only enjoy your company when making a fool of yourself. It must be exhausting to be the class clown. We watch him increase his alcohol intake. Is it to drown out the self-loathing? One peer in particular is drawn to him, John ‘Derf’ Backderf (Alex Wolff), whose work is the source of the film.
Based on a graphic memoir, it unfolds like the creation of a super-villain, even to the point where the lead goes from being called “Jeff” to “Jeffrey” as if thus completing his transformation; a misstep in an otherwise sombre, sad project.
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