My Friend Dahmer
“My Friend Dahmer” focuses on Jeffrey Dahmer’s (Ross Lynch) high school years, when it might still have been possible to avoid a murderous, cannibalistic path. Based on ex-schoolmate John “Derf ” Backderf ’s 2012 graphic novel, this thoughtful, non-sensationalistic film focuses on the nurture-vs.-nature argument.
Yet filmmaker Marc Meyers does not come down strongly enough on either side — nature or nurture — to establish the film as particularly trenchant, or necessary. It’s not the most urgent subject matter (Dahmer was killed in prison in 1994), and 2002’s “Dahmer,” featuring a breakout performance by Jeremy Renner, already offered a powerful cinematic portrait.
His shoulders slumped, his walk halting, Lynch (Disney Channel’s “Austin & Ally”) nails an outsider’s bearing. But he does not impart an interior life the way Renner did. Instead of working against Dahmer’s infamously bland demeanor, Lynch leans into it.
In “My Friend,” loner Jeff spends his afternoons in a shed behind his family’s Ohio home, dissolving roadkill in jars of acid. At school, he tries to avoid the homophobic bullies who harass his only friend. Jeff confines his own sexual interest in men to the roadside foliage from which he spies on a handsome jogger.
Which came first, bullies or dead animals in jars? “Friend” does not say, nor is there a clear link between the discord in Jeff ’s home and his behavior. His unstable mother (Anne Heche, fragile and vivid) and nerdy but caring dad (Dallas Roberts) fight constantly. She wants a life outside the house; he wants peace. This heightened version of typical 1970s suburban malaise does not equal a breeding ground for serial killing.
Alex Wolff is sharp as Derf, an artistic nerd who sits a rung above Jeff on the high school social ladder. Senioryear boredom leads Derf and a few pals to befriend Jeff. They view him as a curiosity, and try to turn him into a jester. But their overtures go beyond simple amusement. Sometimes everyone just hangs out.
Here is more ambiguity, in a film that needs less of it.