Review by Amos Lassen
By: Amos Lassen
"Closet Monster"
Escaping the Past and Gaining Independence
Amos Lassen
I remember reviewing Steven Dunn's "Closet Monster" a couple of years but then I did not hear anymore about it. I am glad to see that it is still...
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"Closet Monster"
Escaping the Past and Gaining Independence
Amos Lassen
I remember reviewing Steven Dunn's "Closet Monster" a couple of years but then I did not hear anymore about it. I am glad to see that it is still around and that people are getting a chance to see it. (Connor Jessup) is "a creative and driven teenager who is desperate to escape his hometown and the haunting memories of his turbulent childhood" in "Closet Monster". We first meet him as a 5-year-old and then as a teenager when he steals our hearts. His mother left when he was a youngster and as a young man he saw bullies wielding a steel pipe and a young man. This traumatized him as it would any of us.
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Connor eventually became a make-up but really has no one to talk to so he shares his life with his pet hamster, Buffy (the voice of Isabella Rossellini). Connor is gay and lives within a deep closet (and in fact, his mother's clothing is in the same closet). His father (Aaron Abrams) is a homophobe and has emotional problems and this, of course, pushes him deeper into the closet.
However, things turn bright what Oscar meets Wilder (Aliocha Schneider), a handsome and somewhat rebellious writer. It is then that he finds adventure, self-discovery, pain and acceptance.
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The film opens with Oscar witnessing a brutal gay bashing when he was a small child just at the same time his parents get divorced. We move forward ten years and meet Oscar, this time as a sexually confused teen, living with his father who was often violent and his hamster Buffy (who has the biggest laugh lines of the film). We see the familiar coming-out ideas like running away to the big city and the sudden appearance of a stranger. But there are surprises here and this becomes a story about coming back together and claiming one's place instead of running away. It is important to understand that this is not a movie about escape or running away-it is about gaining independence and creating one's own world.
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With this mother's absence, his father becomes distant, drinking away his pain, bitter at his reality When Oscar finished high school all he could think about was how to escape his home town of St. John's Newfoundland, and applied to school in New York City. As he prepares to leave St. John's, and also his father, with whom his relationship is now fractured, he gets a job at a local hardware store and there meets Wilder a new kid in town, and a young man to whom he discovers an attraction. But he is also reminded of the horrible crime that he saw and this come to represent his sexual confusion and awakening. as he tries to grapple with the realization that he is gay.
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"Closet Monster" is certainly not a new story but it has originality and imagination. It is a heart-wrenching experience unlike any I have had lately and I understand that part of what we see here actually happened to the director.
As Oscar is terrified to discover that he himself may be gay, every sexual impulse triggers graphic flashbacks of the incident. His crisis comes to a head when a cute guy from Montreal shows up in town for the summer. I must say that this is quite a debut for director Dunn and while his film is not perfect (because it is a first film), Dunn is someone to watch.
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Oscar's anxiety about being true to himself is beautifully depicted, both through conventional drama and surreal fantasy sequences. Connor Jessup is impressive as Oscar. This is quite basically a gay man's coming of age story and it is fascinating to see. Oscar has a job at a large DIY store for which he shows no talent for at all. Wilder is one of his co-workers about Oscar's age and who is not particularly nice but is so very hot looking that Oscar can hardly stop starring at him. There is obviously some sort of connection between the two young men but Oscar is too unsure about his sexuality and feelings to ever want to try and find out more. They when are both laid-off from the store, Wilder announces that as he is leaving to go to Berlin for a few months the next day. His roommates are throwing a farewell/Friday the 13th party for him. Oscar accepts an invitation and tries to pick out a costume from his closet which still has all his mothers' old clothes because his father had refused to give them to her. He is caught in trying on her clothes by his slightly father who suspects Oscar may be gay and starts a fight which ends badly when Oscar pushes him over into the closet.
After the party, Oscar is in no fit state to go home, so he and Wilder end up in his childhood tree house that he still escapes too especially when his father has one of his temper rages. Together in bed and half naked, their conversation soon turns to sex with Wilder urging Oscar to just accept who he really is.
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Asides from the main thrust of the story of this very likable young man trying to get beyond his dysfunctional parents as he matures, Dunn adds some unexpected plot twists that not only serve to keep us on edge until the very end, but help make Oscar's journey of self-discovery compelling.