Aahana Swrup
Directed by Stefan Brogren, Lifetime’s ‘Dateless to Dangerous: My Son’s Secret Life’ follows an unnerving story about a young boy’s descent into something dark and dangerous. Miles Miller is a 14-year-old who takes a chance at romance only to spectacularly crash and burn. Worse yet, his failed public attempt at asking a classmate to the homecoming goes viral, adding insult to injury. As a result, the teenager isolates himself, spiraling drastically into incel circles online. Naturally, the alarming change in his behavior raises a red flag for his mother, Noelle, a recent divorcee who is still finding her footing as a single mother.
Consequently, it’s up to Noelle to save her son from going down a doomed path. The thrilling crime film touches upon the socially relevant topics of incel culture and the manosphere and its adverse effect on the younger generation. Furthermore, the plight of the Millers retains an innate resonance by examining these issues through a complicated yet universally relatable mother-son relationship. As such, given the realistic themes and narratives of the story, its genesis and possible connection to reality remain worth exploring.
Dateless to Dangerous: My Son’s Secret Life Delves Into the Pitfalls of Incel Culture
For the most part, ‘Dateless to Dangerous: My Son’s Secret Life’ is a work of fiction penned by screenwriters Edmund Entin and Gary Entin. The film doesn’t take biographical inspiration from any specific real-life individuals or incidents to build the foundation for its premise. Therefore, Miles, Noelle, and their storyline are ultimately fictitious. Even so, some level of realism remains attached to their fictional narratives. The center of the conflict between Noelle and Miles emerges from the latter’s drastic indoctrination into harmful online circles. Several social factors, including isolation, insecurities, and targeted propaganda, radicalize the young boy to become an “incel,” a social subculture that reportedly teaches men to hate women and blame them for their own lack of romantic and sexual sucess.
Over time, this heightened exposure to the hateful subculture ignites a concerning level of violence in Miles, which quickly gets out of hand. Although the film casts this situation in a fictional light, incel culture poses a tangible real-life threat in society. Over the years, we have seen multiple cases of violent attacks and shootings carried out by young men who either identified as incels or ran in similar groups. In February 2023, Jake Davison killed five individuals, including his own mother, in England’s Keyham, Plymouth. The perpetrator shot himself shortly after these killings. In the aftermath, an investigation into Davison’s past revealed his involvement in incel groups. A similar case unraveled in the States a few months later.
On May 6, 2023, Mauricio Martinez Garcia, a 33-year-old man far-right, neo-nazi, and incel extremist conducted a mass shooting at Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, Texas. In the attack, he killed eight people before the police shot him dead at the crime scene. These instances of real-life violence instigated by men with connections to the “manosphere” offer extreme but realistic examples of the same social issues examined in ‘Dateless to Dangerous: My Son’s Secret Life.’ Even though neither Davison’s nor Garcia’s real-life attacks provide direct parallels to Miles’ tale, they’re helpful in contextualizing the on-screen narrative through a realistic lens. Thus, the film’s intense emphasis on the dangers of contemporary incel groups retains significant relevance to reality.
Miles’ Story Highlights the Social Dangers That Pertain to the Modern Youth
‘Dateless to Dangerous: My Son’s Secret Life’ picks up an important conversation about a pressing social issue that circles today’s younger generation. Studies have shown that young boys and men who identify as incels tend to have a higher level of experience with romantic rejection, as well insecurity, depression, and lonliness. Therefore, Miles’ narrative remains authentically in line with the reality of such issues. Earlier in the year, Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne’s Netflix show ‘Adolescence’ brought attention to the same problem, albeit from a darker, more intense perspective. In a conversation with The Mirror, lead actress Jodie Sweetin discussed the similarities and distinctions between the two projects.
Sweetin said, “(But) This was sort of in that same vein (as ‘Adolescence’) where we’re talking about a new generation of kids that are involved in things that we weren’t as kids. We don’t have the awareness and the savvy and the technology interests.” As a mother of two teenagers, the actress is intimately familiar with the relevance of the danger posed by incel culture. Speaking about the same, she added, “Young men right now are being fed this constant stream of misogynistic, racist, homophobic ideas that sort of are trying to create groups or community or something around things that they hate. And I think as parents, we see these kids and we’re like, this is not how I grew up. I want something different for you.”
Read More: Dateless to Dangerous: My Son’s Secret Life Filming Locations and Cast Details
