Lucas Hedges

No pithy title.

Saw Boy Erased tonight--hard to find much fault with it, it's thoughtful and well acted and avoids cartoonishly drawing even the bad guys, although it does feel a little too controlled and careful. Actually, one silly moment, when Hedges gets mad at a billboard. Anyway, this is the fifth film I've seen him in, and he seems to be building a consequential body of work. I might have liked him best in his small, scary role in Mid90s (and I'll be honest: I don't remember him at all in Three Billboards, which is probably more a comment on how quickly the film evaporated for me). There's a really strong scene between him and Russell Crowe at the end of Boy Erased.

Wasn't aware of him in Moonrise Kingdom or The Grand Budapest Hotel, either (very small roles, I'm sure). I've seen him in seven films already, geez.

held his own in many scenes w/ Elaine May on Broadway

The first positive take I've heard of Boy Erased. After being disappointed by the film version of The Miseducation of Cameron Post, I'm kind of hoping I'll like this one better, even if a lot of the criticisms I've heard of it sound like the same ones I had towards Cameron Post (humourless, intimidated by its subject matter).

So far, I've only seen Hedges in Manchester by the Sea and Lady Bird and he's very good in both.

Boy Erased blew - gratuitously graphic rape scene, checks every Academy box (except it's all white), while still being completely bland & boring & pedestrian. though it was better than the ridiculous navel gazing of Beautiful Boy, which positioned itself as an opioid epidemic movie despite being about a methamphetamine addict. they misrepresented his experience - I think both of these movies are cheap & bad in a predictable way but seems like most people agree - haven't seen much good press for either. anyway, yes. Lucas Hedges is a great actor.

Cameron Post wasn't great but handled conversion therapy with a slightly lighter touch than Boy Erased, which felt like a fire blanket thrown on me.

I haven't figured out Hedges yet, probably a good thing.

Other than being a little slow (and humourless, yes), I thought Boy Erased was fine. I often link to David Edelstein, and will again.

http://www.vulture.com/2018/11/lucas-hedges-is-remarkable-in-boy-erased.html

The rape scene, examined as a discrete moment, is effectively shot, but it's the only sex in a movie that is deathly afraid of human contact.

I'd like to quickly pause for a PSA to remind everyone that Lucas Hedges is in Moonrise Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/22SbcEvYKQ

— Netflix Film (@NetflixFilm) June 29, 2018

I wanted to like Boy Erased, but it felt like a TV movie from the early 90s in its treatment, humourlessness and sexlessness. Even the film's most powerful scene, where a fellow inmate is literally thumped with bibles by his family, is shot and edited in such a way that it never feels as horrifying as it should be (the film is heavy on the slo-mo montage). Hedges is good, but Edgerton is so eager to check all the boxes of the story that its stifling: we never really get to know any of peers in the program (he has a few seconds of conversation with one or two of them), or his joy (or even anxiety) over his sexual discovery. Even his relationship with his parents is so underdeveloped in the early moments that the concluding confrontations/resolutions have little emotional impact.

otm

Such a joyless slog of a movie with no surprises or suspense at all

and I don't mean "...suspense!" it's just what you said, it's a TV movie from 25 years ago where you can predict every beat of the film from beginning to end, always at the same flatline pace, always lit like an execution scene

I prematurely exiled him in a Coen Brothers thread--found Let Them All Talk streaming cheaply, and, notwithstanding one scene I found awkward, he's very good. Still mulling over the movie (the Steven Soderbergh/Meryl Streep thing from two years ago), but I was reminded of why I started this thread.

He's wonderful as the closeted gay kid in Ladybird. That breakdown with Ronan behind the coffee shop!

I was picturing Lukas Gage when I clicked on this thread

i was picturing the kid from American Gothic

lucas hedges has been excellent more than a few times imo its no longer a question of benefit of the doubt

The thing that impressed me this time was how different his performance was from everything else I've seen him in; that, and how well he played off of famous actresses, one of them Meryl Streep.

Oops-missing one word: "three famous actresses..."

Manchester By The Sea was such a great film. I was amazed by everyone in it, including Lucas Hedges. Casey Affleck deserved the academy award, and Michelle Williams...oh my god, that was a performance for the ages