The Mudge Boy (2003)

So much average

Simply A Masterpiece

Good movie but grossly overrated

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Y'know, I have found this film extremely sad. You feel so sorry for young Duncan because his old man didn't give him enough love after his mother suddenly passed. I honestly felt like hugging the pair of them because of both their loss. It's not easy being a teen nor minding one haha! Grief really messed up the father badly, including the fact, he just had to burn his late wife's clothes to forget about her loss and move on. He should've realised, it doesn't work out like that! He should've spent more time with his son and just sort out things to make sure their relationship is stable! I honestly didn't think Perry was the right guy for Duncan. The rape scene just gives you an uneasy feeling. If I was Duncan, I would call the police and arrest him! Also when those crowd of you know whats were killing that Chicken broke my heart, why on earth did they show this? They should've at least give respect to animal lovers, it was just wrong! I can't blab on anymore, the movie was good but my heart honestly aches after watching this!

I don't write a lot of reviews, but every once and a while a film will get stuck in my head, and writing about it is the only thing that seems to dislodge it from my daily thoughts. I really liked this film even though I found it disturbing, and hard to watch. Sometimes things are a little to real. This may be a fictional story, but it is something that could be, and that makes all the difference in an age of media that can produce anything. My worry for the main character,Duncan Mudge (played by Emile Hirsch),was palpable through the whole film. His interaction with Perry Foley (played by Tom Guiry) was tense and destined for disaster from the beginning. Both actors played great roles, but Hirsch's portrayal of Mudge was done especially well. It reminds me of DiCaprio's portrayal of Arnie Grape. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head to compare it to. A lot of people play misfits convincingly, but occasionally you will find a character like Duncan who really sticks out. I cannot give the credit entirely to the actors in this film. It would not be fair to ignore the writing and directing that the characters are dependent on for their existence. Michael Burke obviously had a vision in his head that he was able to carry from the writing to the screen as both the writer and director. He did a wonderful job creating a movie that made me uncomfortable as hell from beginning to end.

Having grown up in New York State, my "coming of age" and "out of the closet" was quite an experience. While my experience wasn't necessarily an easy one, after seeing this movie, it angers me to think that there are other gay men (and women) who are (or have) had to endure the pain, bigotry and humiliation that the main character did. This movie gave me a completely new perspective on how society has been a complete and utter failure to so many people. I wish I had the resources to help out everyone in need who is going through what "Duncan" is/has gone through. Life wasn't meant to be so painful, lonely and empty - and after watching this flick, I have no idea how the "Heartland" got its name... These so called "Church going" bigots and "good old boys" are more of an abomination than any of the worst sins that I can think of, and some day these bottom feeders will face their maker, for the hell they put so many innocent people through.Truly a heartbreaking film that will open your eyes, and one that you will never forget.

The sensitive hero, Duncan Mudge, beautifully played by Emile Hirsch, is victimized by a society characterized above all by fear and the cruelty this fear generates. In another lovely film with a similar theme, ("Get Real"), Steven, the main character asks, "What is everyone so afraid of?" Indeed that is the question that lurks at the core of this film. The answer is, of course, that everyone is afraid of being who he/she really is, thus earning the ridicule of everyone else who is suffering from a similar fear. Duncan seeks acceptance and affection, which he cannot get from his uncommunicative father, from a neighbor boy, Perry, whose instincts are in conflict, who is only half eaten by fear. Duncan tries to reach the better other half of Perry and crashed into Perry's ambivalence and is exploited in the process. Another reviewer here has said that Duncan is stupid. Can't Duncan see what is happening, why he is treated so cruelly by his peers? Why doesn't he give up his quest to be himself and conform? Isn't that what all of us do? I am put off by the question so often raised of whether this is a "gay film," or whether Duncan and/or Perry are gay. What bothers me about that is the need to categorize, to fix a label on a person, to commodify him. This provides an escape from seeing and relating to someone else as a complex person in his own right, not someone who fits in this box or that box. This need to classify, to objectify and to control is also a product of fear. I think it was H. L. Mencken who defined Puritanism as "that haunting fear what someone, somewhere, might be different." We are still in essence puritans.