Review of Guys Reading Poems (2016) by James P — 25 Feb 2018

At once a dream, a mystery thriller, a tail of crushing abuse and human resilience, the beguiling film "Guys Reading Poems" defies easy classification. Rendered in sumptuous black and white, Hunter Lee Hughes' film weaves together poetry from Blake and Wordsworth to contemporary poets with engrossing cinematography to tell the story of young boy who experiences first the breakup of his parents' marriage and then the trauma of being locked in a box as part of his mother's avant-garde art performance.

While the boy is the victim of one artist, Hughes' artistry gives us hope that art can be a path to survival and redemption that often seems absent in a cruel world.