My Friend Dahmer (2017) Review

As a High School Junior myself, at this moment in time, there we're several moments in My Friend Dahmer in which they nearly nailed the psychological depth of a anxiety filled teenager. At my school, there is a high ratio of depressed and mentally ill people around. Of course not in the same way as Jeffrey Dahmer, but real enough that I can definitely say that Ross Lynch's performance is one of the most unsettling and well preformed acting roles I have seen all year. However, what My Friend Dahmer does do wrong, is how teens usually speak. There's a certain pattern and coordination that teens speak at. It flows like a dance, in which different lingo's and terminology sink together into a conjoined mess. My Friend Dahmer misses the mark in that regard, with its more stylized pieces of dialogue. Even though, as stated at the start of the film, that the film takes place in the 1970's, the offtrack way each character's line is written makes the experience of witnessing the horrifying experiences less terrifying. This is honestly a shame. There could have been much more too this film if they tweaked that regard. Which is pretty much what My Friend Dahmer is. It's a film with great interesting ideas, with great directing and acting, but misses the mark in a few places when it comes to the common writing and staging of a film. With it's slow pace and sometimes unrealistic dialogue, it's safe to say that those kind of attributes don't belong in a film about the high school experiences of a guy who would later rape, kill, dismember, and eat sixteen different young men. My Friend Dahmer is a film with great ideas, but it's execution is lacking. I appreciate it for what it is, but overall, it's just a decent psychological horror character study.

Score:
6.8/10