It's a hellish, numbing experience to watch, and it doesn't offer any insights that haven't been thoroughly debated in the media already, back in the Dahmer heyday of the mid-'90s.
Comment
08/09/02
Dahmer (2002)
69
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:27
Rotten:12
Average Rating:6.5/10
Theatrical Release:Jun 21, 2002 Limited
Synopsis: One of the most notorious serial killers in America was Wisconsin's Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer's exploits included killing 15 boys and resorting to cannibalism on their corpses. This biographical drama... [More]
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Bruce Davison, Artel Kayaru, Dion Basco
Director: David Jacobson
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Reviews for Dahmer
In Dahmer's pillow game the atrocity is all about existential tragedy.
08/08/02
Renner's performance as Dahmer is unforgettable, deeply absorbing.
08/08/02
A subtly creepy, gently disturbing portrait of a genuinely disturbed man...The point of the exercise might not be apparent, but its artistry certainly is.
08/05/02
Less the sensational true-crime hell-jaunt purists might like and more experimental in its storytelling (though no less horrifying for it).
07/28/02
Baby-faced Renner is eerily convincing as this bland blank of a man with unimaginable demons within.
07/27/02
This film was made by and for those folks who collect the serial killer cards and are fascinated by the mere suggestion of serial killers. For the rest of us, sitting through Dahmer's two hours amounts to little more than punishment.
07/12/02
The movie should be credited with remembering his victims.
07/12/02
Top CriticThe movie makes for watchable and interesting fare about the darkest side of human nature.
07/12/02
It lets you brush up against the humanity of a psycho, without making him any less psycho.
07/11/02
Top CriticIt's difficult to feel anything much while watching this movie, beyond mild disturbance or detached pleasure at the acting.
07/11/02
Top CriticRenner ... is extraordinary.
07/10/02
Ambitious, unsettling psychodrama that takes full, chilling advantage of its rough-around-the-edges, low-budget constraints.
06/24/02
Top CriticRenner's performance as Dahmer is unimpeachable, fascinating without being charismatic.
06/21/02
Suffers from a lack of clarity and audacity that a subject as monstrous and pathetic as Dahmer demands.
06/21/02
Top CriticWhile Jacobson doesn't excuse Dahmer's horrific actions ... he always goes for empathy with the character, and sometimes comes unforgivably close to presenting Dahmer as a kind of gay transgressive icon.
06/21/02
As gamely as the movie tries to make sense of its title character, there remains a huge gap between the film's creepy, clean-cut Dahmer (Jeremy Renner) and fiendish acts that no amount of earnest textbook psychologizing can bridge.
06/21/02
Top CriticAll the more disquieting for its relatively gore-free allusions to the serial murders, but it falls down in its attempts to humanize its subject.
06/21/02
Jacobson produces a remarkably creepy piece of cinema that disturbs by suggestion, nuance and ambiguity.
06/19/02
Top CriticLatest News for Dahmer
January 17, 2006:
ThinkFilm Gets "Down" with New Norton/Wood Indie
ThinkFilm has acquired the rights to distribute a new indie flick starring Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood. It's called "Down in the Valley," and it sounds like... More...
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