Movie Review: "My Friend Dahmer"

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I had a very exciting and full weekend, MyLot. :-) As part of it I saw the movie "My Friend Dahmer" at the theater. Now this is quite lucky as the movie is independent and not being shown at many theaters, so fortunate am I to have it at a movie theater near me. Incase you didn't know the name - Jeffrey Dahmer was a real serial killer active from the 70s-90s in the midwest. He was especially noted for the gruesome things he did to his victims after they were killed. In the interviews I've managed to see about him - even he was confused as to why he did those things. Furthermore he was apologetic (not that it at all makes up for it, just that it makes it interesting), well spoken and well... didn't look like a monster like I expected him to. I had read the graphic novel by "Derf" Backderf of the same title. "Derf" had went to highschool with Dahmer and for a brief period of time was one of a very small group who had befriended Dahmer. The book was - Original. Haunting. Chilling. At times funny even, and at times a coming of age story. And the movie did not disappoint. It shows how a maladjusted kid slipped off into madness. While Dahmer wasn't abused as a child - he did suffer some neglect and strange behaviors from his mother who struggled with mental illness, and his dad later admitted in an autobiography that his dad had struggled with odd fantasies and nightmares of violence though hadn't acted on them. So perhaps Jeffrey Dahmer was doomed by his genetics and by the quasi-abandonment. Or perhaps something just went wrong in his head one day. Dahmer only found the small group of friends through acting strange at school - staging these weird prank "fits". A group of nerds thought he was funny and accepted him until his behaviors became too dark as Dahmer began drinking (possibly as a way to deal with the dark impulses and fantasies he had that later turned into the crimes he committed.) While the real Dahmer in an old interview once said that he didn't think there was anything that anyone could have done to stop him ... I think this movie serves as a cautionary tale. Adults should take notice if a kid isn't behaving right or is drinking to excess - instead of sweeping them under a rug. Technically - they did stray from the book several times, which part of it was to tell the story more efficiently. Some reservations that people have had is that the movie may glorify a monster and that it may be ultra violent. I don't think the movie glorifies Jeffrey Dahmer. Instead it tells a real perspective from someone who personally knew him. Of course there is no excuse for the terrible things he did in his life and he was a monster. But before he was a monster he was a kid, with some dark thoughts that might have been helped. Additionally the movie itself is not gory or extraordinarily violent. The bulk of the story takes place before Dahmer's first murder which is only hinted at. That said - I do wish there would have been somewhere a thank you or sorry, or special note to the victims families and survivors of Dahmer out there. Further interesting notes: The movie was filmed at the real Dahmer's boyhood home. (nice looking mid-century home) Excellent acting by Ann Heche and Ross Lynch. The later of which I hadn't heard of, but apparently he is a big Disney channel star he did excellent in this what was likely a big departure from his usual roles. Excellent soundtrack Here's the trailer: