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Craig wrote on 09/20/2007:

Yes, he did. Yawnmower's review misses the point. He grew up just as scared as the mudge boy but forgot that he's different because he now probably looks like everyone else. This is a gorgeous movie with a lot of clout behind it. It's a Sundance film and even if you hate how they sold out, you know that didn't on this one. It's a wonderful film about growing up without a mother in a world of boys and men who can smell your fear.

JJ-99202 wrote on 07/29/2007:

The picture was different from the start. And I agree with the other review. the ending ruined it and made him look crazy. A few good scenes of the 2 of them together non-sexual. Just 2 guys together. in their boxers. So I will say like 1.5 stars. would like to have seen a more secret relationship throught the film but it was an ok picture.

avid e o wrote on 02/13/2007:

The Mudge Boy is an ultimately disturbing movie which had potential to be a much better film than the final act allows. In one pivitol scene at the end, the main character does something that erased any sympathy I felt for him up to that point.

just a reviewer wrote on 07/24/2006:

.................is Falling, The Sky is Falling (on the director's head, we can only hope). ((A)) The synopses ((synopsis?........oasis.....oases.......you say tomato, I say to-mah-to.......you say banana, I say ba-nah-na........oh, never mind, please excuse the foolishness)) of two or three of the reviewers already here are good. I can add nothing much to them, but would like to stick in the following few observations for your consideration. ((B)) Only 3* actors are really deserving of truly big acknowledgement in this film (Hirsch for Duncan, Guiry for Perry and Jenkins for 'Chicken Boy's Dad (who IS distant, as described by one reviewer, but certainly not emotionless, as described by another, for he gives us at film's end an unexpected and utterly amazing emotional moment). Oh, wait, there is also the sweet teen-girl (Handerhan's Tonya) who becomes Chicken Boy's benefactress/protectress during the film). Well, gee, stupid me, slow down, almost completely forgot there is, indeed, a fifth notable character: "Chicken," the little lady who gives her all (and more) to the making of this film. ((C)) We've been given a couple of very brave young stars (respectively, about 17 and 21 years at time of filming). Not every rising young actor, particularly one with the level of sensitivity displayed by Hirsch, and also Guiry (under a 'tough guy' veneer), is going to accept a role which requires him to give fellatio, or play the part of the one forcing it. Even more difficult might be agreeing to play a character who is going to be so obviously "taking it up the bum" or, again, play the part of the one forcing it (sorry for the unintended play on words). To compound the difficulty, not only must a young Hirsch, playing Duncan, face his screen Dad following such behavior, but a young Hirsch playing this scene must face his real-life Father, who, according to the director's DVD commentary, accompanied Emile on his casting call (and, I would suspect, due to young age, to the shooting as well). What a great open and understanding relationship we must have between these two, eh? To close out my thoughts, the following is a must-mention. ((D)) Beyond stunned(!) has to be this reviewer's reaction to a statement made by the director (dare I even afford him that title----notice the small 'd') in his voice-over commentary as the DVD plays out. It's at the near-end-of-film scene in which we find our young teens, well after dark, huddled in an old truck cab. Duncan, in the very depths of his despair, at his very lowest emotional level to this point in the film, has made his way to Perry's house and awakened him in an effort to find even some slight display of comfort and affection. The scene that plays out is the film's most emotional to that point (the earlier barn rape being the most shocking). Yet, astoundingly, rather than discuss the emotional difficulties likely faced by both young actors in playing out this difficult scene and how he might have facilitated their doing so, the director, instead, spends the entire time commenting over and over why the scene was (apparently) shot in black and white. If possible, even more thoughtless are statements he then makes, quoted here pretty much verbatim: "What we were going for....to sort of undercut the, uh, you know, uh, mushy love story, you know, part of it, to make a real coolness that, you know, uh, to give the scene this other sort of color......". ((E)) Being, I hope, a perceptive viewer, I was just floored. I can't imagine how hard it must be for an actor to have gone through what Hirsch apparently did to reach the point of shyly and almost inaudibly asking Perry: "Did ya ever think about kissing me?" Then, to later learn, in viewing the DVD, that your director's apparent take on the scene was that it's "mushy." OH, MY! ((F)) PS--Well, can't stay mad forever. Thank you, Mr. Director, for giving us a very well written and well-brought-to-the-screen production.

yawnmower (yawnmower1@juno.com) wrote on 05/30/2006:

If cruelty, sadism, and abuse are to your taste, then this is the film for you. It is a full-length feature expanded from the bucolic short film, 'Fishbelly White', but which contains none of its lyricism and rural poetry.

Duncan is a 14-year-old misfit known for the chickens that he cares for like pets. He is isolated and lonely because his mother has just died, and his mono-syllabic father ignores him. And, in keeping with a time-honored cinematic cliche (starting with ‘Tea and Sympathy'), he is teased, tortured, and threatened by his macho peers for being 'different'. It seems that he may have a friend in leader-of-the-pack Perry but this is where the two versions part company. In the short, they develop a lovely, understated homoerotic romance. Here, Perry is violent and brutal, like his abusive father, ultimately instigating Duncan's final humiliation.

There is not one moment of tenderness in the entire film until the final 'reconciliation' between Duncan and his father but, considering the unrelenting nastiness which has come before, it feels highly contrived. Duncan is such a willing, unquestioning ‘victim' throughout the film, any resolution-of-conflict which might have raised this to a true coming-of-age story is lost.

This is a surprising entry from the usually gay-friendly Showtime Network. There is nothing friendly about this one.