The Backstory in "Boy Erased"

https://people.com/human-interest/boy-erased-gay-conversion-therapy-gerrard-conley/

Gay Conversion Therapy Made Me Suicidal: The Powerful True Story Behind the Film Boy Erased

He survived gay conversion therapy, and now Garrard Conley is the subject of a powerful new film, Boy Erased, starring Nicole Kidman 

Mary Green

November 07, 2018 12:50 PM 

 

Garrard Conley had just been through 11 days of what he describes as “psychological torture” when his mom pulled the car over and asked him, “Are you going to kill yourself?” He replied, “Yes.” His mother Martha recalls, “I remember looking at him, and the look in his eyes, there was such sadness.” Conley adds, “I wasn’t the person she knew.”

Conley, then 19, had been subjected to intensely brutal all-day sessions as part of conversion therapy, a pseudoscientific practice employing techniques including therapy and physical punishment with the goal of changing a person’s sexual orientation. “You feel like it’s life and death at every moment,” he recalls. He turned his experience into a 2016 memoir, Boy Erased, which has been adapted into a powerful new movie starring Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Lucas Hedges, and directed by Joel Edgerton.

Roughly 700,000 people in the U.S. have been subjected to the controversial practice, which, though discredited by the medical community, is still promoted within a number of fundamentalist Christian churches.

“The idea that homosexuality needs to be cured or fixed in the first place is misrepresentation,” says Scott McCoy of the Southern Poverty Law Center. He added that groups including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association say “conversion therapy is nonsense and psychologically harmful.”

For Conley, now 33, going to conversion therapy meant trying to reverse something he’d known to be true since he was very young. “I had known since third grade that I had an attraction to men,” he says. “But I think because we were raised in the church (his father, Hershel, is a Baptist minister), you believe that life is full of temptation. So just having that thought or that feeling is just another temptation, and you ignore it.”

Things changed when Conley was at Lyon College, where he says a student raped him. “I told some of my friends,” he says. “When he found out I did that, he called my mom, and attempted to basically cover up what he’d done by telling her that I was gay.”

Martha picked up her son from school, and brought him home, where he knew he would have to face his father. “My dad took me inside his bedroom and asked me if I was gay, or what was going on,” he recalls. “He said, ‘Do you swear to god?'” Conley, who says, “I was terrified I would lose my family, faith, and the God I’d prayed to every day of my life,” told his father, “‘I can’t do that… I am having these feelings.'”

That night, Hershel consulted other ministers he respected, and they recommended a Memphis, Tennessee-based program called Love in Action, which was about 5-6 hours from their house in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Before beginning the two-week introduction to the program, called The Source, Conley underwent therapy with an affiliated therapist.

“He would ask me to tell him my sexual fantasies, and I would tell him everything. And then he would say, ‘Well, you know, that’s disgusting.’ And, ‘God doesn’t love that.'”

All three agreed Conley should give Love in Action a try. “I really thought this was a godsend at first,” says Martha. Her son adds, “These were leaders in the church, that my dad looked up to. It just felt like an inevitable step.” Now, he says, “It was complete snake oil, but because it was under this guise of a religious organization, and they were using the right Bible verses, we bought it.”

Once there, Conley says, “It was a lot of shaming. It was lots of fear. You had to really express things that you’d never expressed before. And then you were told, after you expressed them, ‘This is disgusting, this is vile.’

In the movie, patients are subjected to physical abuse, which Conley says is accurate, though it didn’t happen to him. “It felt like complete hopelessness.” Adding to that, the program was actually angling for a lengthy stay. Participants are generally enrolled for three months, then a year, in order to be “cured.” And the cost is prohibitive, as Conley recalls his parents paying $1,500 per week in 2004.

The final straw came when Conley was ordered to yell at an empty chair that was supposed to represent his dad, and tell him he hated him. He refused. “They were just so angry that I wouldn’t do it. I was thinking to myself, ‘This is a Christian institution, and they want me to say that I hate someone, in order to be cured.’ That seems like the opposite of what Christianity is supposed to be.”

Conley quit the exercise, fled to the room where they had his belongings, including his cell phone, and called his mother.

Once she arrived, she says, “I was horrified when I found out what was actually going on. I needed to get my son away from this.” On the way out, Martha furiously questioned, “What are your qualifications? Why are you doing this?”

After talking to her son, she says, “I remember calling Hershel and saying, ‘We’re coming home.’ He said, ‘It’s not over yet.’ I said, ‘Well, it’s over for Garrard.'”

While his relationship with his father “is always going to be a little bit complicated… We’ve found ways around it through the years,” says Conley, he remains very close to his mother.


If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “help” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go to suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

 

 

"Boy Erased" Trailer

Albert Finney, ‘Tom Jones’ Star Nominated for Five Oscars, Dies at 82

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/albert-finney-dead-dies-tom-jones-1203132491/

 

By Rick Schultz and Brent Lang

 

Albert Finney, one of the leading actors of the postwar period, died Thursday in London from a chest infection. He was 82 and had been battling cancer.

The robust British performer began as a stage actor before transitioning to film. With his gravely voice and rumbling stare he brought an intense realism to his work, rising to fame in such 1960s classics as “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” and “Tom Jones.” He later memorably played Agatha Christie’s legendary sleuth Hercule Poirot in “Murder on the Orient Express” and impressed critics and audiences with towering performances in “The Dresser” and “Under the Volcano.” Finney was nominated for five Oscars but never won the prize.

In 1963, Finney played the foundling hero in Tony Richardson’s Oscar best picture winner “Tom Jones.” The role made Finney an international movie star and earned him the first of four best actor Oscar nominations. A year earlier, Finney had turned down the title role in “Lawrence of Arabia” because he didn’t want to commit to a multi-picture deal and, he said, stardom frightened him.

Along with his contemporaries Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton, and Richard Harris, Finney helped define a period where the movie business’s cultural axis shifted in the direction of the U.K. He was part of a new wave of British talent that offered an enticing brand of hell-raising sex appeal. It was a movement that shook off the stuffier, stentorian approach to drama popularized by Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud and replaced it with something that was distinctly blue collar and smoldering.

Finney’s first major screen role was as Arthur Seaton, a machinist in 1960’s Karel Reisz-helmed “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.” Widely considered the most convincing of the British “angry young men” dramas, the film was seen as one of the first authentic portraits of working-class youth. With his restless charm and undeniable charisma, Finney seemed to be speaking for a generation when his character says: “All I’m out for is a good time. The rest is propaganda.”

Finney’s own rebelliousness would surface time and again throughout his long career. “I hate being committed — to a girl, or a film producer, or to being a certain kind of bigscreen image,” Finney told the Evening Standard at the time he declined the Lawrence role.

Finney, who began his career in the theater, made his screen debut in a small role as Olivier’s son in 1960’s “The Entertainer.” A few years later, Finney would reject Olivier’s offer to succeed him as head of Britain’s National Theater.

In a 1956 review of a now-forgotten play, “The Face of Love,” British critic Kenneth Tynan called Finney “a smoldering young Spencer Tracy…here is an actor who will soon disturb the dreams of Burton and Scofield.”

As his film career unfolded, Finney began portraying a variety of larger-than-life characters. He earned a second best actor Oscar nom for one of his most popular roles, as Poirot in 1974’s “Murder on the Orient Express.” Author Christie reportedly thought Finney’s the best portrayal of her detective hero, but the actor declined an invitation to continue the franchise as Poirot in “Death on the Nile” (Peter Ustinov donned the mustache and assumed the role).

In 1983’s “The Dresser,” adapted from Ronald Harwood’s play, Finney played an aging actor-manager of a small British touring company during WWII. The role was inspired by the great stage actor Donald Wolfit. Pauline Kael called Finney’s hilarious and touching performance “juicy” and cited his “thundering voice and wonderful false humility.” It brought the actor his third best actor Oscar nomination.

The next year Finney gave one of his most controlled performances as the alcoholic consul in John Huston’s adaptation of Malcolm Lowry’s “Under the Volcano.” “His words come out with a peculiar intensity of focus,” critic Roger Ebert wrote, “pulled out of the small hidden core of sobriety deep inside his confusion.” The part earned Finney a fourth Oscar nom as best actor. Nicolas Cage later studied the performance for his Oscar-winning role as an alcoholic in “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995).

Other roles displayed Finney’s range as a mature man fighting to stay afloat in deteriorating marriages. He teamed with Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen’s “Two for the Road” (1967), an uneven if ambitious attempt to show the vicissitudes of marriage at three different stages.

In one of his rawest performances, the actor played Diane Keaton’s husband in 1982’s “Shoot the Moon,” a blistering look at a disintegrating marriage. That same year, he shaved his head to play Daddy Warbucks in John Huston’s leaden “Annie,” modeling his manner of speech in affectionate imitation of Huston’s resonant voice. The film itself was an overstuffed bore and something of a commercial disappointment.

In 1968, Finney directed and acted in “Charlie Bubbles,” playing a famous married writer from a working-class background who has an affair. The film is notable for Liza Minnelli’s screen debut.

Finney chewed the scenery as the lead in 1970’s “Scrooge,” a musical version of “A Christmas Carol.” He also had a good time in 1971’s quirky “Gumshoe,” where he played a bingo tournament host who dreams of being Sam Spade. For his small part in Ridley Scott’s 1977 “The Duellists,” he was reportedly paid with a case of champagne.

Finney lent convincing authority to the beefy detective in 1981’s supernatural thriller “Wolfen” and was affecting as a closeted gay bus conductor in 1994’s comedy-drama “A Man of No Importance.”

Another career high point came in the Coen brothers’ 1990 “Miller’s Crossing,” where Finney portrays a stubborn, big-hearted crime boss. After assassins try to burn down his house, Finney’s character goes after them in spectacular fashion, jumping out a bedroom window, before unloading on them with his submachine gun. “Danny Boy” plays throughout the on-screen carnage.

In 2000, Finney earned a fifth and final Oscar nomination, this time for supporting actor for her performance as Julia Roberts’ boss, a gruff attorney, in “Erin Brockovich.” He was a no-show for the telecast because he said he would have had to take too many smoking breaks.
“I’d be in and out every half hour,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

Finney played a dying patriarch in 2004’s Tim Burton-helmed “Big Fish.” He had a miniscule part in the Bourne franchise, appearing as an unethical doctor in 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum” and very briefly in 2012’s “The Bourne Legacy.” Finney was more memorable in 2012’s “Skyfall,” playing a surrogate father to James Bond.

Finney also played larger-than-life characters on television, including Winston Churchill in the 2002 biopic “The Gathering Storm” (BBC-HBO), for which he won an Emmy as lead actor. Finney was previously nommed for the 1990 HBO telefilm “The Image,” where he played a TV anchorman.

In 1996-97, Finney was the lead in Dennis Potter’s last television plays, “Karaoke” and “Cold Lazarus.” In the latter, set in the 24th century, Finney appeared as a cryogenically frozen head. In 2001, he received good notices as the rascally uncle of a 10-year-old boy in “My Uncle Silas,” a British TV miniseries that premiered on PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre” in 2003.

Albert Finney was born in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, and was a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He made major Broadway successes of roles he created in John Osborne’s historical play “Luther” in 1964 and in Peter Nichols’ “A Day in the Life of Joe Egg” in 1968. Both earned him Tony noms as best actor. He also originated the lead in “Billy Liar.” Other actors took over these roles in later film adaptations.

Although much in demand on screen, Finney returned frequently to the stage. He won an Olivier award, the U.K. equivalent of the Tony, for “Orphans” and also appeared in Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape” and in the original London production of Yasmina Reza’s “Art.” Finney would reprise his role in “Orphans” in Alan J. Pakula’s 1987 film adaptation.

In his memoir “The Long-Distance Runner,” director Tony Richardson called “Luther” his most successful collaboration with Finney. “The architecture of his performance, from shivering epileptic novice to the resigned middle-aged sensualist, was monumental,” Richardson wrote.

Rebellious even in his later years, Finney reportedly declined a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1980 and a knighthood in 2000. “The Sir thing slightly perpetuates one of our diseases in England, which is snobbery,” he said.

Finney was married three times, the first time to British actress Jane Wenham, the second to French actress Anouk Aimee. Survivors include Finney’s third wife Pene Delmage, whom he married in 2006; and son Simon Finney, a film technician from his marriage to Wenham, as well as two grandchildren. A funeral will be a private family affair.

In a 1984 interview with the New York Times, Finney reflected on his role in “The Dresser.” He noted that performances, particularly those on stage, have an ephemeral quality, but he insisted that didn’t depress him.

“What a lot of people spend their lives doing may not add up to a hill of beans,” said Finney. “But their love, effort and devotion goes into doing it, and it becomes worthwhile.”

Tim Burton's "Big Fish"

"About Time"

• by Ben Kendrick – on Nov 08, 2013
• in Movie Reviews, 3.5 star movies
• https://screenrant.com/about-time-movie-reviews/ 

In About Time awkward and reluctant 21 year-old, Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson) gets life-changing news when his father (Bill Nighy) reveals that then men in their family have the ability to travel back between the present and past (but not the future). Whereas dear old Dad has used the gift in the pursuit of knowledge, by reading every book worth reading, Tim is quick to decide that his time-hopping story will be about finding true love.

After moving from his family’s seaside estate to big city London, it isn’t long before Tim finds his soul mate Mary (Rachel McAdams) in a chance dinner meeting. However, when he travels back in time to help save his playwright roommate from a career-ending show, Tim learns that, due to his time-meddling, the encounter with Mary no longer occurred – as every change he makes in the past can have minor (and sometimes major) consequences for the future. Armed with this knowledge, Tim sets out to find Mary (again) for the start of a life-long journey of love, loss, and living each day to the fullest (sometimes more than once).

 About Time was written and directed by Love Actually helmer Richard Curtis, who is no stranger to time-traveling protagonists, given that he penned the fan-favorite Doctor Who episode “Vincent and the Doctor." Unlike Doctor Who, About Time is free of extraterrestrial threats and mind-bending paradoxes, but that doesn't mean Curtis falls short in offering a compelling time-travel story mixed with an evocative and moving character drama. Science fiction fans will find some fun twists on traditional time-travel tropes (along with a lot of logic holes); but, while the time travel aspect is essential to the plot (as well as many of the jokes), About Time is first and foremost a tale about love and family.

The About Time marketing has focused heavily on Tim's pursuit of Mary but the larger storyline is significantly broader than the trailers suggest - as the Tim/Mary romance is actually established relatively early. Thankfully, the plot covers a lot more ground than a simple rom-com, as Tim uses his ability to help a troubled sister, raise children, improve his career, and (most importantly) face losses outside of his time-altering control. Curtis ensures that Tim explores the limitations and consequences of his power in a wide variety of scenes and unique situations but a few of the setups will be familiar to filmgoers who frequent indie family dramas. Nevertheless, the time-travel backdrop adds a layer of complexity that allows About Time to break out of any over-used tropes and present fresh insights - especially during interactions between Tim and his father.

Performances are strong across the board but the film's leading man Domhnall Gleeson (best known for his portrayal of Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter films) is a standout as the time-traveling Tim. Not only does Gleeson effortlessly present his character's growing confidence throughout the story, from a clumsy kid to a self-assured adult, watching Gleeson revisit key scenes over and over again (varying Tim's reactions each time around) is exceptionally entertaining. Yet, Curtis wasn't content to just pen a straightforward story about a man that can travel through time, and Gleeson is up to the task of ensuring that Tim is, first and foremost, a relatable protagonist charged with an immense gift (and subsequently responsibility). As a result, in addition to time-hopping hijinks, the actor sells a number of challenging and sentimental scenes that ground the film in uplifting (as well as heart-wrenching) drama.

The onscreen chemistry between Tim and Mary is also strong and authentic - making it easy to connect with the pair in times of joy and struggle without resorting to sappy rom-com melodrama. McAdams gets to dabble in a much more quirky and down-to-earth character than many of her prior romance genre roles - since Mary is not a glamorous girl in pursuit of a Prince Charming. Much like Tim, she's a fully realized dreamer with interesting eccentricities, which makes her a believable and captivating partner in love (instead of simply a coveted dream girl).

As mentioned, while Tim's search for true love is a central (and enjoyable) feature of About Time, the relationship between the film's time-traveling father and son pair is equally important and affecting. Unsurprisingly, Nighy is likable and charming as Tim's dad - unabashedly throwing himself into the role and presenting the senior Lake as a brilliant and enthusiastic person who has lived (and relived) his days to the fullest. The central cast is rounded-out with an equally competent set of performances from Lindsay Duncan and Lydia Wilson as Tim's mother and sister, respectively. Both characters are primarily relegated to supporting the father and son arc or exploring aspects of the time-travel plot device but Mrs. Lake and Kit Kat are still rounded - even if their screen time is slightly limited. 

 Sadly, while time-travel enables About Time to separate itself from other romance/family dramas, the actual logistics of the science fiction backdrop will be extremely problematic for some viewers. About Time spends a lot of its runtime explaining the rules of its particular take on time-travel - through a lot of heavy-handed exposition from father Lake as well as Tim's trial-and-error experimentation. Strangely, Curtis often breaks any established rules without consequence (or acknowledgment). The director is, for old reason, focused on telling the best possible character story but, sometimes, emotional moments come at the expense of major plot holes that go entirely unexplained. It's unlikely that any oversights (or cheats) will bother mainstream moviegoers who are engaged in Tim's storyline but moviegoers who (understandably) expect time-travel stories to respect their own rules will find several obvious contradictions and holes in About Time.

Overall, Curtis succeeds at telling an impactful and engaging character story about a man that can travel back in time. Solid performances from the entire cast ensure that About Time nails nearly every key moment - presenting smart and often humorous drama. That said, the writer/director benefits from his time-traveling premise without also spending the time (and effort) to ensure that About Time is also a proficient sci-fi tale. Clumsy (and downright broken) time-travel rules undercut the success of the project - as many moviegoers will, after the fact, have a difficult time piecing together the logistics and plugging-up plot holes. For that reason, science fiction fans, along with anyone who is especially intrigued by the time travel premise, should temper certain expectations and, instead, focus on About Time's endearing character moments - which were clearly priority number one for Curtis. 

Welcome to Spring 2019 Intro Film

This semester promises to be filled with quite an amazing roster of films and programming to whet your appetite. Hopefully, these will serve to inspire the discovery of both old and new films hitherto not seen.

Our journey has begun.

Enjoy the ride.