Closet Monster (2015)

• Year: 2015
• Released: 27 May 2016
• Country: Canada
• Adwords: 10 wins & 11 nominations
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3638396/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/closet_monster
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/closet-monster
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Not Rated
• Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
• Runtime: 90 min
• Writer: Stephen Dunn, Don McKellar
• Director: Stephen Dunn
• Cast: Aaron Abrams, Jack Fulton, Joanne Kelly
• Keywords: lgbt, coming of age, gay, bullying, lgbt teen,

	7.0/10
	81/100
	82% – Critics
	73% – Audience

Closet Monster Storyline

In St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Oscar Madly has just graduated from high school. He has solely applied for a special makeup effects program in New York City for the fall, and is planning on sharing an apartment with his friend, Gemma, an aspiring actress who allows Oscar to be his makeup canvass. Gemma secretly, or not so secretly, likes Oscar as boyfriend material, despite knowing that he is probably gay, something he hasn’t admitted to anyone, let alone himself. Many things have shaped not only Oscar’s life, but most specifically his sexual life, top of the list being his parents’ split ten years ago, his mother, Brin, who left with Oscar being collateral damage, being primarily raised by his adolescently-minded father Peter, that adolescent mindset most specifically in how he deals with Brin, Peter being homophobic himself, and Oscar, without telling anyone, having witnessed a severe gay bashing when he was nine. Within this situation, Oscar has only one true confidante in his life, his pet hamster Buffy who was a gift from his parents to lessen the blow when they split. Oscar may be able to admit to himself that he is gay when he is immediately attracted to Wilder, a colleague at the big box hardware store Oscar is working at for the summer, but he may not be able to act upon his feelings either for Wilder or any other male in his internalized homophobia stemming primarily from the specifics of that gay bashing. The question then becomes how Oscar will emerge into adulthood with this baggage he is carrying, much which only Buffy knows.

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Closet Monster Movie Reviews

Highly overrated movie about a boring subject.

Another highly overrated movie about a kid coming out of the closet. It’s all been done before and better. The whole story is boring from beginning till the end. I don’t know who rates this kind of movies with such a high score. It’s a mystery to me. I have absolutely nothing against gays, I couldn’t care less. The acting wasn’t bad, the story was. Being gay in these modern times is something nobody cares about so making another movie about this is just boring to watch. I’m curious when somebody is going to have the bad idea of making a movie about non binary people, the new modern freaks that is. I can’t wait to not watch that movie to be honest, like I should have done with this one.

Dunn’s heartfelt story is blasé but mercifully grafts its emotional charge with something fluctuating between hope and honest

Taking a leaf from Xavier Dolan’s book, Canadian filmmaker (born in 1989, the same year of Mr. Dolan) Stephen Dunn’s debut feature CLOSET MONSTER flourishes as a coruscating Bildungsroman of a young boy’s coming to terms with his homosexuality, against its own threadbare script mired in corny dialogue and workaday characterization.

An eight-year-old Oscar (Fulton) witnesses a horrific bullying of a gay boy which jolts him into building a carapace over his latent bent, things compound when his parents are getting a divorce, and he is mostly saddled with his homophobic father Peter (Abrams), who intends to chisel a macho man out of him (as if carpentry is the panacea). Ten years later, an adolescent Oscar (Jessup) spends most of his time creating special effects make-ups with his best friend Gemma (Banzhaf), and has his first crush on a new colleague Wilder (Schneider) in the hardware store where he works part-time (Oscar + Wilder, you don’t say!). Battling his internal conflict (a hormone-driven sensation versus the stigmatized horror of getting aroused by a boy), Oscar takes it out on Gemma and the tension between him and Peter strains, after being rejected by the make- up school he applies for, he desperately needs to get out of the clutches of his parents and face his pestering inner demon, one way or another.

Graphic visual effects are deployed to galvanize audience like a sub-Cronenberg’s body-horror, there is something visibly churning inside Oscar’s stomach whenever he is aroused, and later materializes itself as a metal pole perforating his belly, when he fumbles around his first sex attempt with a party boy, involuntarily he spews bolts, lots of bolts, of course, they are all figments of his heated imagination, including a talking pet hamster named Buffy (voiced by Isabella Rossellini), whom he cherishes more than anything else in the world since his childhood, because it is his only (imagined) friend knows his true colors. When Oscar finally takes the pole out of his body and is driven by a patricidal impulse, the slo-mo crescendo however, pans out like a bathetic bluff, the fear in his deadbeat father’s eyes can hardly justify all the damage he has done.

The psycho-sexual aspect bears down strongly on the story, but the rest is nothing but usual suspects, Connor Jessup makes for a passable lead and is at his best when the camera is floating around him rather than staring directly at him; both Aaron Abrams and Joanne Kelly appear too young to be parents of an 18-year-older, and the former fails miserably to even fake a fatherly affection when he is required. A solid start for an up-and-comer, but distinction is nevertheless a paucity in the end product, in the waves of a post-coming-out-of-closet fashion, Dunn’s heartfelt story is blasé but mercifully grafts its emotional charge with something fluctuating between hope and honest.

Influential of surroundings on one’s character development.

It was a bit surprise film, because I did not get the film plot in the beginning. I did not know it was about gay. Well, it was not entirely on that theme, but comes there after so many turns in the tale. So this is a coming-of-age and to discover sexuality theme. Also very neatly points out how a person develops his character by the influence of his surroundings. Even if it all begins with a small mistake or playful thing, in that small age, it all looks very serious, especially a character like in this film.

Despite it was a cinematic, that might be true in real life. The parents as well influence their kids to grow up in a better path. So parenting fail too was highlighted in here. It was unfortunate how the father character was turned out at the end. That is the moment I could not decide whom I’m rooting for. It was like, seemed nobody’s fault, but out of the guilt and frustration, emotion bursts out and things happen which is what this film focused on.

Good performances, a well shot film. One of the nice LGBT films I’ve seen. Only on the reality side, it worked, but not as an inspiration. Though one can consider it an awareness film. I feel it should be watched, but not as a must see. Because of so many issues it centres, like a boy growing up facing them, what he becomes was revealed in its message. I think it’s good for watching once.

6/10