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DEAR
PILLOW
6/10
USA
2004 : Bryan POYSER : 85 mins
 Shot
on DV, low-budget US indie Dear Pillow is the story of a puppy-fat,
introverted, horny suburban teenager learning about sex - ostensibly Larry
Clark-ish material, but debutant writer-director Poyser nimbly avoids
anything explicit or remotely exploitative. Indeed, no actual sex takes
place in the film - although the subject is constantly discussed and written
about by 18-year-old Wes (Rusty Kelley) and his neighbour Dusty (a Jack
Lemmonish Gary Chason), a fiftysomething writer who once directed porn
films, but now makes his living from publications such as the racy (and
fictional) 'Dear Pillow'.
When Wes shows
an interest in Dusty's work, the older man helps him develop his own fictional
scenarios - a valuable creative outlet for the teenager, whose cramped
home-life with his macho, divorced dad (Cory Criswell: Nolte/Stoltz/Sarsgaard)
is a source of ongoing discontent. Though gay, Dusty doesn't 'come on'
to Wes - indeed, he goads the youngster into a potential heterosexual
affair with the vivacious, assertive Lorna (Vivian Vives). Complications
ensue.
What emerges
is an agreeably low-key, non-melodramatic combination of Boogie
Nights (mixed-up lad finds new surrogate 'family' via the sex-business),
Finding Forrester
(established writer shows newcomer the ropes) and L.I.E.
(older gay man platonically aids disaffected broken-home teen). But
Poyser finds an intimate, warm tone all his own, plausibly dramatising
Wes's awkwardness and how it gradually breaks down under the benign guidance
of Dusty and Lorna.
For an hour
or so the film ambles quite nicely along as a series of observationally
matter-of-fact character-based comedy-drama vignettes. But eventually
Poyser (perhaps due to inexperience) feels the need to inject more in
the way of plot, and it's here that Dear Pillow loses focus - the
muddled final act is by far the weakest section. Ironic that an intelligent
film about sexual function and dysfunction should find such difficulty
reaching climax.
14th September,
2004
(seen 19th August : UGC Edinburgh : press show - Edinburgh
Film Festival)
click
HERE for our full coverage of the 2004 Edinburgh Film Festival
by Neil
Young
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