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Boy Erased

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Boy Erased

Boy Erased is a 2018 biographical drama film based on Garrard Conley's 2016 memoir. It was written and directed by Joel Edgerton, who also produced with Kerry Kohansky Roberts and Steve Golin. The film stars Lucas Hedges as Jared Eamons, a fictionalized version of Conley, the closeted gay son of Baptist parents (portrayed by Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe), who is forced to take part in a conversion therapy program. Edgerton, Joe Alwyn, Xavier Dolan, Troye Sivan, Cherry Jones, and Flea also appear in supporting roles.

Boy Erased premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2018, and also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film was theatrically released in the United States on November 2, 2018, by Focus Features and grossed over $12 million worldwide. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who mostly praised the performances of the cast, and received various award nominations, including two Golden Globe Award nominations: Best Actor for Hedges and Best Original Song for "Revelation". The film won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Film – Limited Release at the 30th GLAAD Media Awards.

Jared Eamons is the son of Marshall Eamons, a car dealer and Baptist preacher in Arkansas, and Nancy Eamons, a hairdresser. He begins his first day at the Love in Action gay conversion therapy assessment program in Memphis, Tennessee.

Chief therapist Victor Sykes tells the group that their sexuality is a choice influenced by poor parenting. He instructs them to perform harsh "moral inventories" of themselves and their families and requires them not to tell anyone else about what occurs during the sessions. While performing his moral inventory, Jared thinks of his life prior to entering the program.

In high school, he was happy, though he broke up with his girlfriend upon starting college. There he became friends with another student, Henry. While staying the night in Jared's dorm room, Henry rapes Jared, apologizes, and confesses to doing the same to another young man. Traumatized, Jared returns home.

Henry calls the Eamon home and poses as a school counselor in order to out Jared and ensure his silence. Jared tells his parents this was another student who had told him things about his past and was afraid of Jared revealing his secrets. Jared later agrees that he is attracted to men. Marshall prays over his son and signs him up for conversion therapy, to which Jared reluctantly agrees.

Nancy rents a nearby motel room for her and Jared to stay in until he completes the assessment; however, Jared discovers that the therapy has no set end point if he fails to convince Sykes that he has become heterosexual. It appears that Jared will be at the institution for some time. After failing an exercise, attendee Cameron is humiliated by Sykes and intimidated with a fake funeral service. He is beaten with Bibles by the therapists and his family and is dunked in a bathtub as a horrified Jared looks on.

Returning to his moral inventory, Jared thinks of a brief encounter he had with an art student in college. He uses it when it is his time to confess, but Sykes pushes him to talk about Henry. He refuses, so Sykes attempts to make Jared "use his anger" and say he hates his father. Jared refuses, as it is Sykes that he is angry with.

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