Boy Erased

Joel Edgerton wrote, directed and produced the film and plays Victor Sykes, who runs the programme. Distribution went to auction between Netflix, Annapurna, Amazon Studios and Focus Features; the last round came down to Netflix and Focus, and Focus won. The story sits in Arkansas and Memphis, but shooting began in Atlanta in September 2017, with reshoots the following April. Its harshest scenes are not in the book. The Garrard Conley memoir has nobody forced to his knees at a coffin and beaten with Bibles, no dunking, and no staff blocking the door; all three were written for the screen. The memoir describes a two week intensive stage, while the film gives Jared no end date and builds its pressure out of that. At the 8th AACTA Awards Edgerton won Best Adapted Screenplay and Nicole Kidman Best Supporting Actress. Two of the five supporting actor nominees, Russell Crowe and Edgerton, came from this film, and that category went elsewhere. A good fit if you want the parents tracked as closely as the son, with the mother’s change of mind as the real turn. Not for anyone unprepared for what the BBFC sets out in one line: a scene of sexual violence in which a teenager is raped, and a teenager struck repeatedly with a Bible in a public exorcism.