What was the real point of the "Oliver" subplot?
Oliver Zlatka
◊ (apparently not named in-movie) is that odd kid that Jeff is acquainted with early in the movie. He's the kid with the Neil Sedaka tickets. While this troper has presented theories concerning his inclusion in the movie (since he's not in the Graphic Novel) he still comes off as relatively pointless (since there's no payoff or any resolution). We know Jeffrey is gay and we know homophobia was rife back then (even among otherwise non-bigoted Progressive-leaning people) but it's not even clear if these two were lovers or even if they were bona-fide friends. All I can see as a factor is that it's an Inside Joke about teenage Jeffrey Dahmer's love of Neil Sedaka's brand of schmaltz note .
◊ (apparently not named in-movie) is that odd kid that Jeff is acquainted with early in the movie. He's the kid with the Neil Sedaka tickets. While this troper has presented theories concerning his inclusion in the movie (since he's not in the Graphic Novel) he still comes off as relatively pointless (since there's no payoff or any resolution). We know Jeffrey is gay and we know homophobia was rife back then (even among otherwise non-bigoted Progressive-leaning people) but it's not even clear if these two were lovers or even if they were bona-fide friends. All I can see as a factor is that it's an Inside Joke about teenage Jeffrey Dahmer's love of Neil Sedaka's brand of schmaltz note .- It was said Jeff possibility had a secret romantic relationship with a boy during either his late middle school or early high school years, likely before he met his fan club and Oliver could have been based on that boy. It’s possible Jeff and Oliver were going to be given a few more shippy/romantic moments together in the movie before the writers realized that people would see it as a gay romance film, instead of a movie about a real serial killer and his friends.
