Aaron Johnson Gallery: Dream Boy Stephan Bender Jim Grimsley

Here's a film I've been meaning to write about for a while , 'Dream Boy' directed by James Bolton based Jim Grimsley novel of the same name . I read the novel ages ago , I loved the first half , the 2nd part not so much , but I've always been intrigued by the ending . The story as I remember it has Nathan ( Stephen Bender ) a quiet shy teenager moving to the country with his religious parents . Nathan meets Randy ( Maximilian Roeg- Director Nic Roeg's son how cool is that!) from the farm next door and who also drives the school bus . They exchange glances and fall for each other . The story turns darker when Roy's friends suggest a camping trip into the woods . I wont spoil anything , but I was surprised by how much the newly released German trailer gives away in terms of the plot . The performances look to be pretty good and I love the score by Richard Buckner ( Imagine a more gravel voiced Bryan Ferry singing country )

I actally think this is a pretty brave choice of role for Stephen Bender whose only film before this was a small part young Clark Kent in Bryan Singers disappointing 'Superman Returns' .

The Film has been on the festival circuit since deputing at the Berlin Film Festival and the DVD is out in Germany in December . Peccadillo Pictures have picked up the distribution for the UK but no new on release dates . I hope this will become James Bolton's 'Mysterious Skin' , which by that I mean , I always felt Gregg Arakis film was the film he was talented enough to make , once he sort of filtered out all the wackiness of his previous films . With Dream Boy I'm hoping that James Bolton will merge his talent for diverting photography with a more coherent form of story telling .

James Bolton's other 2 films left a mixed impression with me, I found his debut film 'Eban and Charley' in which an older man befriends a younger man , pretty all over the place and the acting from Brent Fellows who played Eban was pretty bad . His next film 'The Graffiti Artist' I enjoyed much better and I felt really came together well .