Wonderful character development!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

WARNING, SPOILER ALERT.I read the book when it first came out almost 20 years ago, and I despised it because of the ending. I don't really care what psychobabble mumbo jumbo symbolic whatever the author was intending to convey by ending the book the way he did. To me it's nothing more and nothing less than the usual typical gay-themed book or film where the gay character has to die in the end. Yes, obviously real life isn't all gumdrops and rainbows but regardless of the author's intentions, did the world really need to see a movie where this kid gets brutally raped and murdered? Personally I think not.In any event, I had no intention of ever watching this movie, having read the book and strongly disliking it as I mentioned above. But then quite by accident I stumbled across this totally beautiful video http://tinyurl.com/la7w4mq which gave me the hope that perhaps the screenwriter re-wrote the book by getting rid of all the violence and death and ambiguity. Unfortunately that's not the case at all, but in fact if you watch the first 2/3 of the movie and then just shut it off, it's a really beautiful love story and you can pretend that the 2 boys live happily ever after.

I thought I would like this film based on the first half. Then the story goes downhill like a runaway pickup truck. I can't help but think of "The Mudge Boy" (and "Fishbelly White") which also starts out with a lot of potential but the writer puts in a story arch that ruins the tale and turns what could be a good experience into a downer.The two lead actors were very good in their roles and the photography is lovely. The music was often annoying. This may have made a better short than a feature-length film with a rewrite of the turn of events. If it's a tender love story you want, don't watch the second half of this film. And the title "Dream Boy" is completely misleading. The film is based on a novel which I haven't read but if the stories are the same, neither should be called "Dream Boy."

I'm a gay man so I can speak with some credibility about the portrayal of the main characters in this film. There is no chemistry portrayed here and although the leads are cute and the situations realistic, for the most part (teenagers take every moment for personal connections no matter how inappropriate or imprudent they may be) we are left with a coming-of-age story that while sweet and tender against all apparent odds is betrayed by a thin-as-paper, muddled plot that is formulaic and unsatisfying. The adults are cardboard and the parallelism with "Brokeback Mountain", hyped on the cover, are obvious and contrived. Nowhere do we get the deeply religious/conservative milieu of the 70's Deep South in which the primal and quite beautiful emotional drive of these two boys is cast, beyond episodic church scenes with flatulent pastoral murmurings. So much could've been made of the story but it's a wasted effort I'm afraid.

Dream Boy (2008) Rural dynamics can be tough… especially for those who have a hard time adapting to it. That's what happens with newcomer Nathan. And in the process or readjusting to this new environment he finds out there is one boy he can trust: Roy.Is Nathan just a harmless and defenseless kid that seeks out protection? Or is he a very troubled boy, haunted by traumatic events that he never dares to share? Two elements are made obvious in the movie. One: the devastating effects of father on son incest. Two: the even more catastrophic consequences of excessive passivity. Nathan, just like his mother, is of a very submissive nature.Some of the most classic psychoanalytic theories associate submissive-passive behavior with the figure of the abject. Abject is understood as the vilest and lowest position conceivable. It is of course imputed to male on male homosexual intercourse. What remains of interest about this theory, though, is that the abject works in terms of passivity. The male who allows himself to be penetrated is then the vilest and lowest; penetration is understood as the worst of the worst. But even these theories, in all their mighty psychological mumble jumble, seem to confuse the active position with the heterosexual identity. As a result, the straight guy who happens to "top" a gay guy can still brag about it, something he could never even disclose publicly if he had chosen to be the one in the passive position. This, of course, goes to all lengths, it can create hierarchies (for example, who penetrates who in jail), it can serve as an excuse for gay intercourse while maintaining a heterosexual façade, etc.Throughout the film problems are avoided as long as Roy remains in his active position. Roy is the leader of a group of boys and he messes around with a girl, up until this point he could still claim he is straight despite his sexual encounters with Nathan. But when he assumes a more passive position regarding Nathan everything crumbles to pieces and tragedy ensues. When his friends catch him off guard practicing oral sex to Nathan he loses all power and authority. And because of that, his friends are now enabled to partake in abuses they might have not considered before. Consequently, one of Roy's friends will feel encouraged to rape Nathan and then to attack him violently and brutally.There is also an important approach to Jacques Lacan's concept of symbolic death. There is an in-between place. There is an impasse between symbolic death and actual (real) death. Perhaps James Bolton correlates passivity with death. Or perhaps the film simply imbricates the repercussions of real death versus the significance and emotional strength involved in symbolic death."Dream Boy" has a very sad and touching end. It does give conclusion to the premises established since the opening shots. And moreover, it makes the viewer realize how deeply human and fragile the protagonists are. Bolton's bold narrative surpasses the novel's qualities and delivers a stunningly beautiful film.