Pray Away

Love the subject matter, think it is incredibly important. This documentary felt so slow. I unfortunately was bored (probably because the conversion nuts are hard a chore to listen to) and almost cut it off multiple times. Worth the watch if you need a background doc, but I recommend reading up on conversion and its horrors to get a better picture.

I think Ryan Murphy is the president of Netflix gay series producing department.. First of all when I saw trailer, i thought this is an eye opening, promising documentary but it is super slow and we are watching old discussions about homosexuality. Unfortunately it doesn't give anything new. Boring for me.

The documentary was less about conversion therapy and more of a "where are they now" for truly awful people. I felt that only one or two of them even began to grasp the reality of the damage they've done and it's going to take much more than a "My bad. By the way, meet my new life partner. We're so happy!" to make me forgive them. I'm not saying that they're beyond forgiveness but it's going to take much more time and action from each of them to even start to repair the horrible things they've done and this movie doesn't even begin to accomplish that. These former cult leaders only wanted attention and fame in the first place and that's why they sold-out their entire community; now we put the spotlight back on them so they can give a half-assed apology? My own parents still quote their lies about "lifestyle" and "choice" to this day.

Also, showing the current Exodus replacement was confusing. Yes, we know there are awful people out there but why are we giving them even more attention?! If they focused instead on the people that have escaped these cults and how they've thrived in spite of the trauma they experienced then there might have been more of a point to this film. But instead the filmmakers seemed to want to offer "equal time" to the proven false and hateful practice of conversion therapy.

Overall well made, edited and the stories are compelling. I do not share other people's views that it should have been "trauma porn" as these things can often be. My real critique is that the filmmaker seemed unwilling to offend in the presentation. It didn't feel raw but sterile and too polished. An example of this is the unwillingness of this film to use the word "cult" when referring to these ministries.

I was expecting many stories from those who had to experience "conversion therapy" and what they went through. This played more like buyer's remorse from "ex-ex gays", with some random storyline thrown in about a maybe former Trans person who hosts parades for ex trans people...or something (I do not understand why that was thrown in here. It played out like filler.)

Conversion therapy stories are important to tell, but the way this was presented did not capture the damage that's done when this whole "pray it away" philosophy is crammed down people's throats and forced upon the young. I'd say watch it just so you know this was and still is a thing. But it's not giving the whole story.