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Wes is just like any other teenage boy. Working a shitty job in a supermarket, he is somewhat disillusioned with life and has only one thing on his mind, losing his virginity; something which becomes more and more urgent as his best friend keeps sending him letters detailing his sexual encounters. Wes’ neighbour Dusty is an old gay porn director, who also writes letters from women for a porn magazine, Dear Pillow. The two embark on a very close friendship and Dusty soon joins Wes in one of his favorite spare time activities, listening in to people’s telephone conversations, using a special handheld device. A regular caller is a woman, who phones up random men and initiates phone sex with them, then hangs up just as they begin to show an interest. Wes and Dusty soon figures out that the woman is their own landlady, Lorna, and through a serious of events they end up in a situation where Dusty is going to film Wes losing his virginity to Lorna, all for the benefit of Dusty’s old lover, Nick.

Sounds messed up? Well, it is a little, but so is life. This is not your usual safe teenage romance movie. Although the premise is somewhat surreal, it feels disturbingly real. Rusty Kelley certainly looks the part and turns in a very convincing performance as Wes, the disillusioned emo-teen. It makes you wonder, though. Is he really acting or is he just being himself? I guess it doesn’t really matter. What’s important is that he’s perfect for the part.

Wes has a somewhat confused attitude towards sex. With a father who’s into bondage, a friend who believes that “God put heaven in a girl’s ass” and a gay neighbour, who is also a porn director, it’s really no surprise that his first attempt at writing pornographic short story involves a soldier saving a starving Bosnian woman, by feeding her his cum.

In the end the film deals with the basic premise of sexuality, exploiting people for personal gain. Does Dusty really like Wes or is he just using him to resurrect his long-lost relationship with his gay man-turned straight ex-boyfriend? What does Lorna get out of it? Is she really interested in Wes or does she just want to put him straight and show him that just because the porno magazines tells him so, anal sex is not the preferred way for most women. Most importantly, it deals with the way pornography distort the way we look at sex, especially for people who have never experienced the real thing. For Wes, pornography leads to nothing but trouble. It’s what got him into the mess with Dusty and it jeopardises his relationship with his dad. In a scene which is guaranteed to make most men cringe, he even gets fired for reading porn in the toilet at work.

Shot on a high-end prosumer camcorder, Dear Pillow still looks great. It serves as an inspiration for young filmmakers everywhere, that if you have a great story, there is really no excuse not to do it anymore.

It’s funny, intelligent, disturbing and weird, but never loses its realistic feel. A fantastic debut from a filmmaker I’m sure we haven’t heard the last from.

link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=8486&reviewer=345
originally posted: 08/20/04 21:07:01
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