Search - Dear Pillow on DVD

Great Indie Film

Benjamin Combee | Brooklyn, NY | 10/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this film a couple of times, both at SXSW and later in it's theatrical run in Austin. The relationship that the three main characters have is really interesting, and it gets quite intense towards the end of the film. Bryan and Jake really made a special movie and it's well worth seeing. Rusty Kelly really does a great job as an awkward teenager who's trying to understand his sexuality while not having the best role models."

An Interesting Film About Porn

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 02/10/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Dear Pillow"

An Interesting Film About Porn

Amos Lassen

"Dear Pillow" is a film that examines our relation to pornography and our sexuality and what could have been a very "cheesy" film comes off as an entertaining film experience. It looks at porn subtlety, respects its characters, and does not fall back on the standard clichés that are usually used in films dealing with this subject. We have a funny and very touching film that looks at a delicate issue and does it well. The use of dark humor in dealing with porn works beautifully and there are no cheap laughs here. There is no preaching about morality and each viewer can take whatever message he chooses from the film.
"Dear Pillow" is about a young man who has an interest in writing pornographic stories but is unable to tell his father about his desires. Instead he becomes friends with an older gay man, Dusty, who is his neighbor. This is very convenient as Dusty is a writer in the gay porn industry (you, I am sure, are aware of those wonderful classic gay porn scripts that consist of a lot of grunts and cussin') and he is a mentor to his young protégé. Wes is on the edge of turning eighteen and he still is a virgin. This bothers him a great deal and he even considers letting Dusty rape him so he can get it over with. In reality, he much prefers Lorna, the landlady of his building but he realizes that this will not likely happen. Wes and Dusty have a love/hate relationship until Dusty becomes Wes' mentor.
This is not an easy movie to make because of the themes of porn, sex and a teenager and it could have easily become an exploitation movie. The director, Bryan Poyser, handles the sexual tension between the man and the boy beautifully and it would have been easier for him to male Dusty a creepy pedophile but the relationship between the two is more than that. He has taken a serious look at pornography and the effect it has on the lives of different people and did vilify or romanticize the porn industry. In making the movie the way that he did, he gives is a first rate character drama with a cast that turns in excellent performances. Here is a sincere look at porn and e can see where to draw the line between the sensual and the perverse. It peeks into the seedy world of porn with a well written and original screenplay.
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