Writer/Director Joel Edgerton Manages To Find Humanity To Accompany On-Screen Torment In Boy Erased

After his directorial debut, The Gift, proved to be a surprise success, Joel Edgerton decided to follow that project up with a classic sophomore directorial effort move: it was time to get serious. It was time to deliver an "artsy" motion picture that proved to the world that Edgerton was no one-trick pony, no, this was a guy who was capable of creating powerful art in addition to fun genre fare. The result of this drive to deliver a more serious-minded feature is Boy Erased, which really aims for the full nine years in terms of dark storytelling material by covering the experience of a gay teenager going to a conversion camp designed to "correct" his sexuality.

The Gift Review

You may have only noticed it in passing, if it all, but Warrior is one of the most underrated motion pictures of the decade so far, no joke. It's the film that truly put Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy on the map for me, as well as giving the world as commanding performance from Nick Nolte. In the years since, the two leads of the film have gone on different paths, with Hardy being a Batman villain and the new Mad Max while Edgerton hasn't struggled per se, he just hasn't had a breakout leading man performance in the four years since Warrior.