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As a parent of a gay man, I believe that this is a must-see film for all parents. It's a stark reminder of what was once widely believed (and sadly still is by too many) about homosexuality. It is said that when a person come out about their sexuality, they risk losing everything they have - their families, their friends, their homes... When I learned this, I realized that my son went through the same horrific fears a he prepared to come out. No one should have to endure that kind of suffering. I hope this film helps people realize that we have to continue to banish the old, harmful, and false beliefs that our society held. Amazing accomplishment by Joel Edgerton.

As a gay man myself, this movie made me sooooo angry. Not because it wasn't made well, but it brought everything back up to the surface that I thought I was past. From growing up religious and believing that there was something wrong with him to the conversations he has with his father... It was like watching my life in a movie. Anyways, I highly recommend this movie, it's difficult to watch but it shows the reality that so many of us go through and are afraid to tell anyone.

The son of an Arkansas preacher goes to gay conversion therapy, first willingly, then reluctantly. Therapy includes religious (casting out demons), pop-psychoanalytical (family tree, family anger), and behavioral (learning stereotypical male mannerisms). While demanding truth, the conversion leader insists that what his subjects claim to have experienced is insufficient to be truthful.

I have seen movies on this theme before, the most recent being The Miseducation of Cameron Post. However, this hews closely to an autobiography, and at the Toronto International Film Festival, the actual mother and son showed up at the Q+A.

Lucas Hedges and director Joel Edgerton are wonderful as the main protagonists - the son and the therapy leader. Nicole Kidman only plays a supporting role as the mother, still a role bigger than Russell Crowe as the loving but misguided father. This is very much an advocacy film against gay conversion, and has the star power to get to a general audience.

Boy Erased is the adaptation of Garrard Conley's memoirs published in 2016. Jared is nineteen years old when his parents learn about his homosexuality. He is then taken, more or less voluntarily, to a conversion center as part of a therapy called 'Source' during which he is subjected to a veritable mental torture to force him to change and correct his alleged deviance, within a childish and humiliating environment.

It is overall excellent, with a small damper: throughout the movie, all adult men are systematically as religious as obtuse. Jared will be accepted and understood by only one person: his mother. This context is excessively negative and the movie probably loses some credibility. Unless it's unfortunately the reality ... That being said, it's clearly a good movie.

Moreover, the author Garrard Conley is 34 in 2019, we can legitimately deduce that the film takes place in 2004. So, very recently, almost yesterday. Personally, I was absolutely unaware of such practices. Incredible and appalling!

I enjoy horror films. I have watched hundreds of them, everything from the classic 1930s Universal titles like Dracula and Frankenstein, to some of the more modern high-tech efforts. In general they don't scare me. This film does. The amount of ignorance and cruelty portrayed in this film should warrant it an X rating. The truth is, I wasn't even sure at the beginning whether it was for or against its subject matter. You'd think in the 21st century that there would be more members of The Flat Earth Society than people who truly believe you can "pray away the gay." Obviously I'm wrong. In fact, the VP candidate of a major party is a strong advocate for that belief. So I'm not sure what this film really is. Is it a documentary? Is it a melodrama? Is it just a flat-out horror film? Whatever it is, it put me squarely in touch with the amount of ignorance and cruelty that exist in my fellow humans. We criticize other cultures who practice female genital mutilation, yet we - decent Christian folks - do this? If I go see a film about some shape-shifting mutant who eats human brains for dessert, I wouldn't be particularly troubled by it (other than the graphic FX). At the least, I know that there were no shape-shifting mutants in the theatre audience with me. I wish I I had the same confidence about who sat in the theatre with me watching this film on any given night. Folks like this are out there, and the unspeakable pain they subject others to in the name of their religious beliefs is truly frightening. This is a good film, competently cast and acted, and well written and directed. I hope it finds the audience it deserves. I hope it alleviates some pain and suffering somewhere, which is an odd mission for a horror film.