Dear Pillow (2004)
9/10
An Excellent Film...
19 March 2004
...and I'm not just saying that because I'm the writer/director's sister. Given the subject matter, I was actually pretty nervous about seeing the movie for the first time; it's about a 17-year-old boy who's interested in writing about porn. I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be both a relief, and yet more intense than I had anticipated.

Wes (Rusty Kelley) is living with his divorced Dad (Cory Criswell) and working as a bag-boy at a local grocery store. He's a bit of a loner, and his main activities are listening to phone calls on a police scanner, and griping about still being a virgin in letters to a friend. He eventually meets up with an older man, Dusty (Gary Chason), who, he discovers, makes his living by writing fake letters for an adult magazine.

Like any hormone-driven teenager, Wes' interest is piqued, and he and Dusty form a strange mentor-like friendship, based on porn. When Wes tells Dusty about the police scanner and the obscene phone calls he's been overhearing on it, Dusty is determined to find out who's making them. And so into the picture comes Lorna, the apartment manager, whose assertive sexuality adds a new dimension to the relationship developing between the three.

While the fact that the movie is about porn -- and its dark humor -- have both been draws for audiences, it never takes the easy way out with cheap laughs or convenient answers. The film doesn't preach its own morality. Viewers can read into it what they will -- find their own lessons or message, without having it painted out for them.

Definitely keep an eye out for this film. I'm sure you'll be seeing more from the team who made it.
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