Il mio amico Dahmer: Le origini di un mostro

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 the graphic novel of the same name, My Friend Dahmer, attempts to take a new perspective on the 'serial killer' film. The source material, written by John (Derf) Backderf, provides an insight into the High School years of this his (then) friend, Jeffrey Dahmer, who is most infamous for his serial killing spree of his male lovers and also his cannibalistic tendencies. We follow Dahmer through his troubled home life, burgeoning deviant behaviour, as well as his relationships with his 'friends' (more like bullies), whom he gains through odd behaviours, such as faking fits in school.

Throughout the film there is a distinct struggle by the director (Marc Meyers) to reconcile his views of Dahmer as serial killer, with the sympathic portrayal of him by his former friend. Whether this is due to Backderf's guilt of his treatment of Dahmer, an emotion we glimpse in his character towards the end of the film, or if it is an attempt by Meyers to make a profound statement on human psychology and the latent murderer in any of us, is unclear. However, this is the film's greatest weakness in we can never be sure of its ultimate intention.

On the whole, Ross Lynch's performance of Dahmer is to be lauded; he doesn't become a stereotype at any point, unlike the rest of the cast. Alongside his performance, the ideas of objectification and identification with Dahmer are the best feature of this film. From the opening, the choice of framing of both Dahmer and others, leads to a fragmentation of the body, only giving us glimpses of eyes, legs, bodies; linking the intertwining of Dahmer's obsession of sexualisation and objectification of his future victims. The filmmaking itself is extremely interesting, with its contrasting use of shadow and light; focus and blurring of Dahmer and the choice of camera angles which often distance us from Dahmer, giving us the same predatory perspective he would later use himself.

By showing Dahmer through Backderf's perspective, it almost feels as though Backderf is trying to atone for his behaviour towards Jeff, leading to Meyers' confused direction. As a result, the film becomes dull, as events are repeated monotonously, to emphatically suggest that Dahmer's eventual behaviour was caused by his external circumstances. The film never dares to show Dahmer as murderer or explain his eventual behaviour, leaving the film on an unsatisfying conclusion. Whilst the film succeeds in examining how circumstances can affect psychology; by making Jeffrey Dahmer(!) the nicest person we encounter, the film doesn't fully demonstrate or explore the complexity and horrific, murderous nature of Dahmer.

An upcoming film that seems to be taking a similar approach to serial killer biopics is Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, a film about Ted Bundy, focusing on the serial killer from his girlfriend's perspective. Oddly enough, the film stars another Disney alumni, turned serial killer actor, Zac Efron, a trend it seems to try and escape their whiter than white image from the House of Mouse. Whether this film can succeed in balancing the killer's evil deeds with a psychological approach, which tries to rationalise or explain his behaviour, therefore presenting a serial killer, not as an 'Other', but as a human, remains to be seen.

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.

Not a comedy. I repeat, this is not a comedy.

Also of note for the squeamish set: no serial killing here, just the seemingly mundane life of a high school misfit. Jeffery Dahmer is a mopey, four-eyed moptop, shuffling through adolescence, dealing with a fractious household in the bland and brown seventies.

Of course we all know how this plays out, and that ominous shadow creates a vicious tension throughout this excellently unsettling film. Collecting and dissolving road kill in his makeshift shed lab, is certainly cause for concern, but it is Dahmer's awkward interactions with his peers, family, and authority figures, that bring the shivers. We know there is an explosion coming, but we just don't know how or when.

Based on a graphic novel by a high school chum, "My Friend Dahmer" focuses on the usual tribulations of teenagers searching to belong. Either bullied (nasty) or ignored (worse), Dahmer gains a strange semblance of attention by spazzing out in school. If fake epileptic convulsions means popularity, then so be it.

Former Disney star Ross Lynch brings a perfect blend of desperation and dread to the complicated lead. He has issues, but what outcast teen doesn't? Among his many quirks, Dahmer's seemingly innocuous interest in a neighbourhood jogger (a running theme throughout) is one hell of a creepy sequence, even though nothing comes of it. We see a series of small events that may point to the evolution of a monster, or to a weirdo biology major. There's a fork in this road!

This all foreplay movie succeeds brilliantly because it plays the audience, who for once, are itching to spoil the ending.

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.