Mein Freund Dahmer

Curious biopic that can't quite decide whether it should be a coming-of-age tale or something more chilling. The confusion unfortunately makes this seem at times sympathetic to the serial killer.

Yes he is obsessed with dead animals and dissolving their remains in acid, but he seems little different from the awkward adolescents of countless other high school movies. Lynch is good and definitely creepy, but not that creepy....

If you're looking for explanations as to why Dahmer went on to murder, necrophilia and cannibalism; this will only partially satisfy you. We see hints that he is becoming isolated and morbidly inclined. He has a strange obsession with a neighbour jogger and is spending too long in the shed carrying out his infernal experiments. And the family background is troubled in the extreme. With a domineering but neurotic mother, and a weak-willed father.

Throughout the film, Lynch always seems to be fighting to keep his demons in check. At one stage it looks as if he is about to murder their pet Labrador, but he pulls himself back. The film constantly make us feel sorry for him. He's a loner trying to fit in, but his dark side eventually overwhelms him. Every time he reaches out to someone, he is rebuffed. As the rejections mount, his behaviour becomes only more erratic.

The film stops just as his murdering career kicks-off. The film lets us make up our own mind about where to place the blame.

Numerous serial killers have existed in the past 50+ years, yet the same names keep springing up over and over again as if they were some kind of rarity. I'm sure you know them: Ed Gein, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Edmund Kemper, Gary Leon Ridgway, Aileen Wuornos, etc. And, of course, Jeffrey Dahmer.

However, for some reason, the subject of Jeffrey Dahmer in particular is a constant in media productions, and also someone that tends to elicit strong responses from the audiences.

Maybe it is because his tragic story is an uncomfortable reminder that he was actually human-an incredibly damaged human being. How an awkward yet relatively normal man could have been driven to such total extremes, and when all was said and done, was able to recognize the moral gravity and consequences of his crimes, is quite a singularity. Yet it's simply easier to call him a "monster" so that we don't have to acknowledge his similarities with ourselves.

I watched "My Friend Dahmer" after the more recent take with Evan Peters, and I think I actually like Marc Meyers' work better. Based on a graphic novel by Derf Backderf, the film doesn't try to make a point or shoehorn any moral message; it simply sets out to ethereally capture Dahmer's profound sadness and growing descent into madness, maybe better than the actual comic book itself -- which I still recommend regardless.

The cinematography and setting is truly beautiful, and the pacing of the film is hypnotically slow. But, as others have pointed out, the highlight is Ross Lynch's performance. Lynch was really the first actor that effectively projected Dahmer's idiosyncratic body language.

Most of the negative reviews are reflective of what those viewers want the film to be. Unfortunately for them that isn't how art works. I see complaints of "disgustingly making him sympathetic" or it was boring. How exactly can the filmmaker make him a villain before he's a villain? The whole point of the film is what leads up to the very well documented atrocities he commuted. I don't think we are in any danger of forgiving him through the lens of history. People just want to be offended. As for it being boring, I would suggest folks taking ten seconds to see what a film is about before they watch it and rip it for being something else. Again, the viewers problem not the film's.

The acting is superb and it appears everything is pretty spot on to what we know about his teenage years leading up to his plunge into depravity.

Sorry it didn't make things up to entertain people or avoid other's indignation.

If you're a rational adult with a grasp on the concept it's a rather well-executed indie adaptation of an interesting graphic novel. Worth a watch, unless you want to see the exploitation of 17 innocent guys being murdered of course. That's not here.

Bubblegum Disney popstar Ross Lynch goes about as far from Austin&Ally as you can get in portraying a budding serial killer in My Friend Dahmer.

The film is based on a book written by one of his acquaintences from high school whose character is played by Alex Wolff. Dahmer in his small town high school kid is seen as a loner and a misfit who would do all kinds of attention gettng things to try and fit in.

He was also the child of a breaking and then broken home with pparents played by Dallas Roberts and Anne Heche. Both were wrapped in their own issues and hd time for him.

This film is a chronicle of observed events, it offers no explanations, no whys and wherefores. It is a well cast pieceof work though it doesn't seem to have led to Ross Lynch being offered more serious roles. It may yet happen for him.

Based on true events, this film tells the story of Jeffrey Dahmer's youth. Played by Ross Lynch, this is the awkward, mostly unknown, events that shaped the Minnesota Monster. Going through an education system where he didn't quite fit it, surrounded by a turbulent home life that didn't seem to give him much love. Dahmer decides to change the way he is perceived and manages to get in with some friends. They hero-worship him, considering him to be an untapped talent that they could vicariously live through - basically they use him to get their kicks. The pace of the film is purposely slow, and despite it, you always feel that an explosion is about to happen. Ross Lynch does a great job in convincing the audience that he's a push away from pushing back. Most people will be aware of what Dahmer goes on to do, but it's the exploits documented here that shape that monster. The film, thankfully, doesn't glorify the serial killer, it just biographs a time not many people know about. The cast is strangely authentic, everybody comes across as average, and the kind of people you might have met or still could meet. The screenplay and framing of it is hauntingly chilling. It's more of a drama film than a horror. It's definitely not what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it all the same. 6 out of 10.