Closet Monster

This is an interesting coming of age/coming out film, anchored by a charismatic lead, Connor Jessup, about a lonely young man with an imaginary voice coming from an unlikely source assisting him through the separation of his parents and witnessing a violent event against a young gay person that haunts him. The metaphor for his coming out is a little much, but it is original. The ending is nice, but it's a bit of a mystery to me. Where is he?! Nevertheless, this is an appealing and well acted film. While the film belongs to Jessup. Aaron Abrahms is also good as the father who is a mixture of things, good and bad. That imaginary voice comes from a hamster, which is strange, but on a second viewing, is quite funny as well. This young man's first kiss with another male is one to remember.

Excellent author/director. He got it right. As a gay in this heterosexual world I have been targeted many times, I am now over 50 and still lives this heterosexual segregation daily, especially at work.

The situations you see in this film are REAL daily struggle that ANY gay person live, man or woman. If you are not lucky you get parents that are stupidly heterosexual.

If you want to see and feel what it is like to be born differently, watch this movie. If you are an heterosexual moron, like a lot of ugly people, then don't watch this, you'll get angrier in your moronic mind.

Thank you Stephen Dunn for showing some reality to the world instead of those FALSE Hollywood movies that PRETEND to show you the truth. Most Hollywood movies I've seen about the subject are hilariously schemed and false. It's like they never even spoke with a gay.

Anyway, very sensitive movie, well directed, well written, well acted, this Dunn character amazes me. Good work and don't give up, to me you are a REAL author.

PROS: The first thing that you need to mention with this movie is the acting. With a whole bunch of new faces you tend to assume the worst, and this was not the case here. This movie was filled with good actors, from small roles to big ones such as the main character Oscar played by Conner Jessup. Although this movie was not a horror, the strong message that the movie had was delivered in a horrific way. You really got to see the dark the scary side of being a gay kid in the closet. This was shown in a very poetic way as well. With every scene being a metaphor for something greater and all the metaphors added up to sending a strong message at the end. The final thing that I really appreciated was the transitions in the film. Each transition did more than go from one scene to the next, the transitions acted sort of like chapters in the main characters life. This gave the movie that lit bit of an extra touch.

CONS: For me the few cons are greatly overshadowed by the film as a whole, but it doesn't mean they aren't there. The first problem I had was the one scene with the nuts and bolts. I won't give anything away, but this seen, although very deep and spine chilling, was very confusing. It was very brief and held no further context to the film. The other thing that bothered me was the ending. I completely understand that the ending needed to be simple to cope with the intense climax, but there is a difference between simple and boring. This movie forgot that.

www.chorror.com

Closet Monster is that rare first feature coming from an auteur with vision, clarity of thought and a voice unique enough to rise above the noise. Chances are few will see it; its limited appeal, not to mention limited release isn't likely to turn many heads. Yet for those who seek it, and more importantly, those who stumble on it years in the future, this movie is just enough to maybe fall in love with.

Even at a young age, Oscar (Jessup) didn't exactly have it easy. His parents divorced early on in a scene depicted as both turbulent and petulant. He boards largely with his father (Abrams), in a living situation that highly suggests some serious transgressions on the mother's (Kelly) part. What's worse is somewhere amid the memories of tree house building and playing vampire hunter, Oscar vividly remembers the beating and paralysis of a gay teenager from his school. Years later Oscar's worst kept secret is hidden from his father by his presumed interest in his photography model Gemma (Banzhaf) and a macabre fascination with monster makeup. That of course all changes and threatens to unravel with the arrival of Wilder (Schneider), whose wavy blonde hair and exotic accent appeals to the tortured Oscar.

Oscar's story might as well be an analog to every closeted teen, suffocating under the provincialism of their hometown, longing for an escape to the assumed gay utopias of New York, San Francisco or Miami Beach. The universality of his story is further hammered home by a host of tried and true storytelling techniques literalizing his journey. Oscar infers his conscience via his pet guinea pig Buffy (Rossellini) in order to process his complex emotions. Key images and plot points are amplified by hyperbole and forays into body horror and intellectual montage. In many ways Closet Monster invites comparisons to other fanta-fablest films like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) and Swiss Army Man (2016) especially when it comes to exploring emotionally salient themes.

Yet just like those films, Closet Monster occasionally undermines its themes in the service of artistic flourish. Director Stephen Dunn indulges in one too many moments of ponderous slow-motion and euphoric whimsy with the same film-school pretension that sunk similar films like Before I Disappear (2014). Yet when the movie pivots into its groove, it really does have a lot to say through Oscar's unique, granular life. Connor Jessup does an incredible job balancing a role that requires layers of alienation, tension and longing while also conveying outward vulnerability and priggishness. While I personally wish his relationship with his father had more complexity and objectivity than the average emotional abuse cliché, the film does leave things open for reconciliation.

Closet Monster is certainly not the definitive coming-out movie; I'm pretty sure The Way He Looks (2014) took that spot away from My Own Private Idaho (1991) quite some time ago. Yet as a evocative drama and melancholic piece of entertainment, it has the seriousness and caprice to stand on its own merits. And if it gives young kids like Oscar the courage to be themselves then I say it's all worth it.

Yes! It's definitely one of your better coming of age stories.

Oscar is a kid dealing with his parents divorce living with his possessive father who manliness clashes with Oscars's artistic side and then there is the fact that he's allowing his sexually to approach the surface. He deals with it by having a close relationship with his hamster, Buffy.

It's a cliché seen in a lot of movies but done so naturally in this one that it does not seem like one at all.

Plus I was surprisingly entertained by the whole movie.

Wonderful character development. I just like all the supporting character's relationship with the main one.

I cant think of another great or greater example of a teen going through growing pains.

Take a look.