Beautiful Boy
Reviews
cityguide
Inspired by a father and son’s dual memoirs (Beatiful Boy and Tweak, respectively), Felix Van Groeningen’s heartfelt adaptation portrays the relationship between David (Steve Carell) and Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet), as both struggle through the latter’s drug addiction. There are about a billion reasons to see this movie: 1) Basically everyone in the cast has been nominated for an Oscar (save for Maura Tierney, who has a Golden Globe and two Emmy noms); 2) Timothée Chalamet; 3) The memoirs are incredible (and not super expensive on Amazon, so you can catch up before the movie comes out); 4) It sets the scene for a quasi Office reunion between Carell and Amy Ryan (who played Holly Flax). But perhaps the most significant — and overlooked — reason is this: director Felix Van Groeningen’s 2012 film The Broken Circle Breakdown is, in my humble opinion, one of the best movies of all time (and available to stream on Amazon, who I promise I don’t work for). Stakes are high
Stephen Campbell
_**Earnest and heartfelt, but narratively awkward, and emotionally unengaging**_ > _They say suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. The problem with being human isn't really so temporary._ - Nic Sheff; _Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines_ (2008) > _Anyone who has lived through it, or those who are now living through it, knows that caring about an addict is as complex and fraught and debilitating as addiction itself._ - David Sheff; _Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction_ (2008) Based on the memoirs _Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Th__rough His Son's Addiction_ by David Sheff and _Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines_ by Nic Sheff, written for the screen by Luke Davies (_Life_; _Lion_) and Felix van Groeningen (_The Broken Circle Breakdown_), and directed by van Groeningen in his English language debut, _Beautiful Boy_ is a film about the horrors of addiction, told from the perspective of both an addict and his father. Focusing primarily on David's attempts to understand and fight against his son's addiction to crystal meth, the film aims for a no frills _sans_-sentimental authenticity (Davies is himself a former heroin addict, who based _Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction_ (1997) on his experiences; he also co-wrote the script for the 2006 film adaptation, _Candy_, directed by Neil Armfield). Serving as something of a showcase for the two lead actors (Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet, both of whom are exceptional), there's little in the way of plot, with the film instead adopting a non-linear cyclical structure designed to mirror the repetitive nature of addiction-rehab-relapse-addiction-rehab etc. And whilst it is certainly heartfelt and respectfully told, there's little in the way of emotional engagement. The structure is also problematic insofar as because there's no real cohesive plot providing forward momentum, the highs and lows are undifferentiated, becoming repetitive. Van Groeningen also overuses flash-backs. So although the film may have an inherent degree of authenticity that's to be applauded, as drama, it isn't especially compelling, with the structure tending to work against the actors, blunting any emotional impact, and keeping the characters always at one step removed. Living in Marin County, Nic Sheff (Chalamet) is an intelligent, popular, and kind teenager, who has a close relationship with his father, David (Carell), his stepmother Karen (Maura Tierney), and his two younger half-siblings, Jasper (Christian Convery) and Daisy (Oakley Bull). He is less close to his birthmother Vicki (Amy Ryan), who moved to LA after she and David divorced. David is a journalist for the _New York Times_, and Karen is a painter, with the family enjoying a comfortable bohemian middle-class existence. The film begins as David attends the offices of a drug counsellor and psychologist, Dr. Brown (Timothy Hutton). Explaining that Nic has become addicted to crystal meth, he wants to learn everything he can about the drug in order to best help his son. The story then cuts to a year previously. Nic has been missing for two days, and when he nonchalantly re-appears, David insists on taking him to rehab. He initially responds well, and soon requests to be transferred to a halfway-house, to which David agrees. A few days later, however, he flees the facility, and David later finds him strung-out in an alley. Taking him to hospital, Nic reveals he has been abusing not only marijuana and alcohol, but cocaine, ecstasy, and, especially, crystal meth. Back in rehab, Nic makes a full recovery, and heads to college to study as a writer, beginning a relationship with a fellow student, Julia (Stefanie Scott). However, having dinner in her house one evening, Nic finds a bottle of painkillers in the bathroom, and once more relapses, except this time he turns to heroin. With David still determined to help him overcome his demons, Karen tells David that he is neglecting his two younger children, and that Nic might be beyond a father's ability to help. Heartbroken, David agrees she is probably correct. The most notable aspect of _Beautiful Boy_ is the structure, which is both cyclical and non-linear – the film is made up of a series of high and lows following Nic and David through relapse and recovery, whilst at the same time, there are multiple flashbacks, with scenes in the present giving characters occasion to think about moments from the past. For example, as David sits in a diner waiting for Nic to arrive, he thinks back to a much happier meal he had with his son in that same diner many years previously. This technique is used throughout the film, often flashing back to happier memories of Nic's childhood. The problem with this non-linear structure is that it's overused; there's barely a scene that doesn't have some kind of temporal cutaway. This overuse also dulls the impact of such editing, as after 45 minutes, you're just yearning for the film to stay put for a while. Sometimes the flashbacks do work, revealing something interesting, juxtaposing the past and present evocatively, or changing how we view the present, but a lot of the time, it feels like an unjustified piece of trickery, an end unto itself, insofar as there often isn't a great deal of establishing context. This leaves the viewer wondering, "how did we get from that scene to this one. Why did what happened there make David think of this?" This is pretty much the last thing you should be thinking about in a narrative of this nature, and it completely pulls you out of the film. Indeed, there are parts of the movie that so overuse the technique as to seem like a montage rather than a collection of actual scenes. Additionally, the timeline itself becomes confused within all of this, especially in the sense of where the movie's present is supposed to be. For example, there's a scene where we see David dropping Nic off to college, and the two of them enjoy a joint. As I understood it, this scene came after Nic had owned up to his meth addiction and gotten clean, but before he had met Julia and relapsed. Which obviously makes no sense, as the scene gives the impression David has no idea that Nic has been using drugs, surprised he even knows how to smoke a joint. So is his trip to college much earlier in the narrative? But if so, when, as it doesn't seem to fit anywhere else in the timeline? Again, these are not the kinds of things you should be concentrating on when watching what is supposed to be an emotive story, but more often than not, the editing foregrounds itself (the film is cut by van Groeningen's regular editor, Nico Leunen), pulling you out of the narrative. As regards the repetitive nature of the story, I understand what van Groeningen was going for – it is supposed to mirror the back and forth nature of addiction ("_relapse is part of rehab_" as David is told), a two steps forward, one step back staccato motion. However, the film falls into a pattern of Nic showing up looking a little more dishevelled than he did before, followed by David doing everything he can to help, followed by his failure to get through to Nic, followed by Nic disappearing, followed by Nic showing up looking a little more dishevelled than he did before, etc. And whilst this may lend itself to a certain authenticity, it doesn't make for very effective drama. In any case, other filmmakers have found ways to depict the repetitive nature of addiction without compromising the story, not the least of whom would be Darren Aronofsky in _Requiem for a Dream_ (2000), who constantly uses a quick montage of the characters doing drugs to suggest the habitual nature of addiction. Obviously enough, the main theme of the film is addiction, and in this sense, it gets a lot right. For example, in his journal, Nic outlines the vicious-circle that addicts fall into; he needs drugs so he does things of which he's ashamed to get money with which to buy them, but then because he feels so guilty about what he's done, he needs more drugs to cover the shame, so he does things of which he's ashamed to get money with which to buy them, and so on. He's also especially clear when describing the fact that after you've done crystal meth a few times, you don't get the same high from it, and so the addiction becomes all about attempting to recreate that first high (which Nic describes as making a black-and-white world appear in Technicolour). Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the movie is that Nic is a prosperous and intelligent middle-class young man with a strong support system. He is a child of divorce, yes, but he has a good relationship with both of his parents. This is a far cry from the typical addict we see in film and TV, who are usually at the extreme ends of the monetary spectrum, either poverty-stricken and destitute (such as, say, Bubbles (Andre Royo) in _The Wire_) or extremely wealthy and high-functioning (such as Caspar (Geoffrey Rush) in _Candy_). Additionally, as he explains himself, he first tried drugs to see what they were like, and when he liked how they made him feel, he kept on doing them. As he says at one point, the first time he did hard drugs was the best feeling he'd ever had. During the aforementioned scene where Nic and David share a joint, Nic summates this, telling David that marijuana "_takes the edge off the stupid all day stuff_". There was no precipitating event, no great emotional trauma which made him turn to narcotics; his addiction is just something that happened, a disease to which anyone could succumb The other main theme is that of the father-son relationship, and this too is well-presented. With both actors giving superb performances, one really sees the bond between the two, and how much Nic's addiction is destroying both of them. In this sense, the real tragedy of Nic's situation isn't the rehabs and relapses, it's seeing him drift further and further away from a man who would literally die to protect him. Given the source material, one does wonder a little if the relationship is idealised somewhat, but irrespective of that, Carell and Chalamet give a masterclass in acting, and I was genuinely shocked neither of them was nominated at the 2019 Oscars. With lesser performances, the film would crumble under the weight of van Groeningen's heavy-handed direction. Thankfully the performances are strong enough that the style distracts rather than undermines. That said, the benefit of the non-linear storytelling is that it allows Chalamet and Carell to really drive home how much their relationship changes, with their playful and happy earlier scenes contrasting heart-breakingly with the fraught and destructive times of later years. Chalamet's is the more physical of the two performances, conveying so much via his body language. It's a world apart from his work in Luca Guadagnino's _Call Me by Your Name_, Elijah Bynum's _Hot Summer Nights_, or Greta Grewig's _Lady Bird_ (all 2017), as he completely inhabits the character, alternating between playing Nic as a sweet, loving, almost immature teenager, and a stressed addict, old before his years, and capable of anything to get money for his next hit. When he is rehabbing, there's a regret and humility in his performance that is nowhere to be seen when he relapses, as he becomes more manic and unpredictable, and much less self-aware. Carell, for his part, does most of his best work with his eyes, conveying the sadness and desperation he feels. His helplessness is written across his face, conveying how little he can actually do for his son. He initially approaches the problem in a logical manner (he does methodical pseudo-journalistic research on crystal meth to better understand it, he snorts cocaine to try to put himself in Nic's shoes), before eventually realising there is no logic at play here, and tackling the subject as he would an article for the _New York Times_ is not going to work. Carell plays David as confused, haunted, and desperate, with Nic's addiction, specifically his inability to break it, having as profound a psychological effect on David as it has a physical effect on Nic. Despite all of these positives, however, as indicated above, there are a number of problems. For one, van Groeningen chooses not to present some of the darker aspects of Nic's story. For example, he turned to prostitution at one point to fund his addiction. Additionally, as his hits from crystal meth continued to diminish over time, he started shooting it up, which is insanely dangerous. Leaving out aspects such as this gives the film a kind of sanitised feeling, as if we're looking at addiction through a gauze which the director refuses to pull back to let us see it directly. This kind of heart-breaking sordid detail would have helped the film immeasurably, especially in relation to its lack of emotional engagement. This lack is probably the most egregious problem. A film of this nature, detailing something like this, and based on a true story, should be an emotional rollercoaster, but the audience is always removed, the emotions are seen rather than experienced, as if we're looking at the rollercoaster instead of riding it. Because the film introduces us to the characters mid-crisis, and because there's literally not a single scene that isn't either related to Nic's addiction, or a flashback from a scene related to his addiction, we never really get to know David or Nic outside this situation, with the script never really moving beyond David as "dutiful father" and Nic as "desperate son". Any sense we have of these two people comes almost entirely from the acting, and even then, although you certainly feel empathy and sympathy for them, you don't feel a huge amount else. The problem is that the plot (such as it is) never seems compelling, partly due to how narrowly focused the film is. It's also not a good sign that, for me, the most emotive part of the whole thing was hearing Nic himself reading a monologue from his book over the closing credits. This dearth of characterisation is even more pronounced in relation to the two women, who may as well not be there. Karen has nothing to do but wander around in the background painting trees, whilst Vicki doesn't even get that much – she's a disembodied voice on the phone most of the time, and although I know she appeared in a couple of scenes, by the next day, I'd forgotten what she did in either of them. It's a real waste of two extremely talented performers. There have been some truly great films made about addiction; Otto Preminger's _The Man With the Golden Arm_ (1955), Blake Edwards's _Days of Wine and Roses_ (1962), Jerry Schatzberg's _The Panic in Needle Park_ (1971), Gus Van Sant's _Drugstore Cowboy_ (1989), Danny Boyle's _Trainspotting_ (1996), Mike Figgis's _Leaving Las Vegas_ (1995), Scott Klalvert's _The Basketball Diaries_ (1995), Darren Aronofsky's _Requiem for a Dream_ (2000). Beautiful Boy is absolutely nowhere near anything of this calibre. In fact, it's probably more successful as a kind of instructional installation for relatives of people going through addiction than it is as a film evoking emotions. Told from the perspective of people living through this nightmare, the story is incredibly straightforward and forgettable, when it should be shocking, disturbing, and emotionally devastating. And whilst the film is definitely heartfelt, its lack of emotional engagement, its repetitiveness, its distracting structure, its lack of a plot, all serve to grate against the incredible performances.
Kali
> “Do you know how much I love you? If you could take all the words in the language, it still wouldn't describe how much I love you. And if you could gather all those words together, it still wouldn't describe what I feel for you. What I feel for you is everything. I love you more than everything.” \- David Sheff Beautiful Boy is a true, heart wrenching story of how a father attempts to care for his drug-addicted son. Told mostly, although not exclusively, from the perspective of David, the father, it shows how addiction can tear apart a family and how David Sheff dealt with it. This movie will make you cry and this movie will make you think, it's made incredibly well and is probably one of the best movies I've ever seen that everyone should watch.
Movie Recommendation
Hot Summer Nights2018-07-26In 1991, a sheltered teenager comes of age during a wild summer on Cape Cod, getting rich from selling pot to gangsters, falling in love for the first time, partying, and eventually realizing that he's in way over his head.More...
Call Me by Your Name2017-07-28In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.More...
Boy Erased2018-09-24Jared, the son of a Baptist pastor in a small American town, is outed to his parents at age 19. Jared is faced with an ultimatum: attend a gay conversion therapy program – or be permanently exiled and shunned by his family, friends, and faith.More...
Border2018-09-27When a border guard with a sixth sense for identifying smugglers encounters the first person she cannot prove is guilty, she is forced to confront terrifying revelations about herself and humankind.More...
A Rainy Day in New York2019-07-26Two young people arrive in New York to spend a weekend, but once they arrive they're met with bad weather and a series of adventures.More...
The Sea of Trees2016-04-27In Japan's Aokigahara Forest, a troubled teacher meets a mysterious lost stranger who takes him on a life-changing journey of love and redemption.More...
The King2019-10-11England, 15th century. Hal, a capricious prince who lives among the populace far from court, is forced by circumstances to reluctantly accept the throne and become Henry V.More...
Little Women2019-12-25Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.More...
The Golem2018-08-27A re-imagining of the old mystical folklore that follows a woman and a tight-knit Jewish community that is besieged by foreign invaders. She conjures a dangerous creature to protect them but it may be more evil than she ever imagined.More...
Colette2018-09-21After marrying a successful Parisian writer known commonly as Willy, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette is transplanted from her childhood home in rural France to the intellectual and artistic splendor of Paris. Soon after, Willy convinces Colette to ghostwrite for him. She pens a semi-autobiographical novel about a witty and brazen country girl named Claudine, sparking a bestseller and a cultural sensation. After its success, Colette and Willy become the talk of Paris and their adventures inspire additional Claudine novels.More...
The Wife2018-08-02A wife questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her husband, where he is slated to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.More...
Lady Bird2017-09-01Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her upbringing are questioned and tested as she plans to head off to college.More...
Destroyer2018-12-25When Erin Bell was a young cop, she was given an undercover assignment that ended badly and destroyed her life. Years later, she must face her demons in order to make peace with her past.More...
The Favourite2018-11-23England, early 18th century. The close relationship between Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill is threatened by the arrival of Sarah's cousin, Abigail Hill, resulting in a bitter rivalry between the two cousins to be the Queen's favourite.More...
Piranhas2019-02-14A gang of teenage boys stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and AK-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding – until they decide to be the bosses themselves.More...
Mary Queen of Scots2018-12-07In 1561, Mary Stuart, widow of the King of France, returns to Scotland, reclaims her rightful throne and menaces the future of Queen Elizabeth I as ruler of England, because she has a legitimate claim to the English throne. Betrayals, rebellions, conspiracies and their own life choices imperil both Queens. They experience the bitter cost of power, until their tragic fate is finally fulfilled.More...
mid90s2018-10-19In 1990s Los Angeles, a 13-year-old spends his summer navigating between a troubled home life and a crew of new friends he meets at a skate shop.More...
The Death & Life of John F. Donovan2019-03-13A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces about the written correspondence he once shared with the former, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.More...
Stan & Ollie2018-12-28With their golden era long behind them, comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy embark on a variety hall tour of Britain and Ireland. Despite the pressures of a hectic schedule, and with the support of their wives Lucille and Ida – a formidable double act in their own right – the pair's love of performing, as well as for each other, endures as they secure their place in the hearts of their adoring publicMore...
Detachment2011-04-24A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.More...
Similar Movies
Josh: Independence Th...
2013-08-09Fatima, a teacher living her elite life in Karachi, shattered, when her nanny Nusrat, inexplicably disappears. Fatima travels to investigate her disappearance and finds a dangerous truth about Nusrat and her village.When We Met
2024-06-06In the summer of 2012 in a small town in the south of China, divorced shopkeeper Peng Yun makes the acquaintance of Ji Qing Qing who sells meat skewers from her rickshaw.Cruel Train
1995-12-22In wartime England, railway official Ruben Roberts discovers that his wife was sexually abused as a child by the Chairman of the Line, also her godfather. With her assistance, Ruben plots murder on the Brighton Express.A-Hu
2019-05-03A-Hu, who is born into a small family during an economic crisis. His mother works at recycling with her son A-Hu and his brothers until A-Hu leaves home. Although he has left, he keeps an eye on his mother in order to protect her from a group of people who bully her. During a fight with the bullies, he accidentally kills one and goes to jail. After being released from prison Ahu and his brother join forces with their brother in a gang.I Fall in Love With Y...
No data for this movieSet in the year 2060, it follows a love story as Tokyo's third Olympics draws near. Takeru Oosawa, who works for the AI Robot Technology Research Lab, is chosen as a member of the national secret project using humanoid robots. With the help of childhood friend and co-worker Youichirou Amano and his sister Saki, Takeru tries his best to reach his objectives. However, the situation changes when Saki's office receives a warning note for terrorism.Outerlands
2025-11-15Cass juggles jobs as a nanny, restaurant server, and party drug dealer in order to make ends meet and pay for their tiny San Francisco apartment. After a one night stand with Kalli, a co-worker they have a crush on, Cass agrees to watch her 11-year-old daughter, Ari, while she goes out of town. But as days pass without word from Kalli, Cass and Ari form a bond that spirals Cass back to their own difficult childhood and the pain they’ve been running from.Back Home
1989-07-23During World War II, young Rusty was sent to America for safety. It's now five years later and the spunky redhead returns to her native England. From the family she hardly remembers to snobby classmates and rule-filled boarding schools, Rusty must adapt to a whole new way of life.The Hitler Gang
1944-04-26The Hitler Gang adopts the style of a gangster film as it charts Adolf Hitler’s rise from small-time politico to dictator of Germany.The Conscience
2021-06-15Petrograd, Soviet Union, 1920s. Boris Letush, devastated by a personal tragedy, feels the need to put his conscience and his principles before the demands of the cruel system he serves, where law and justice are systematically ignored.Stairway to Heaven
1967-02-06Under the USSR oppression a family breaks up and its members find themselves on opposite sides of the barricades. Based on the Mykolas Sluckis' novel, the film tells the story of a dramatic and painful reality of the post-war Lithuania.Sekigahara
2017-08-26The background to and depiction of a watershed battle in Japanese history, at Sekigahara in 1600, when Tokugawa Ieyasu's Army of the East defeated the Army of the West of Ishida Mitsunari. The story includes the intrigues and shifting loyalties of the various retainers, family members, and samurai.Jane's House
1994-01-02Paul Clark and his children are still heartbroken a year after the death of Jane, Paul's wife. When he unexpectedly falls in love with Mary, a former tennis-player, the couple decide to marry and live together. However, their lifestyles are completely different, and Mary is continuously reminded of the deceased Jane.Na startu je delfín
1975-06-06The teenage hero tries his best to meet the nomination limit for important races, but his coach's insensitive approach causes him to temporarily lose motivation and even give up on sports...Pavlínka
1974-10-11Albrechtice near Jablonec. Sixteen-year-old Pavlínka Linková lives with her grandmother Barbara, a local midwife who raised her after the death of the girl's parents. The charming girl experiences her first amorous outburst towards Pavel Žák, a young textile worker in nearby Svárovo. Her grandmother, however, prevents her from contacting Pavel in every possible way. Firstly, as a midwife, she knows well what can happen, and secondly, she remembers her old adventures well. Love, however, cannot be ordered around, especially not by a worried grandmother. But there are other obstacles. The textile workers of Svárovo are planning a strike and a demonstration against redundancies and wage cuts, and the factory director is preparing a vigorous response. The year is 1870 and the unsuspecting Pavlina finds herself in the middle of events that will go down in history...Poslední ples na rožn...
1975-02-14This story from the time of the occupation tells how the students of the teachers' institute decided to hold a traditional ball despite the ban. However, they had to cope with conditions more than threatening: the presence of Nazi thugs who intend to execute captured partisans as a warning...Gandhi
1982-12-01In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.Almost Famous
2000-09-15In 1973, 15-year-old William Miller's unabashed love of music and aspiration to become a rock journalist lands him an assignment from Rolling Stone magazine to interview and tour with the up-and-coming band, Stillwater.Mrs. Doubtfire
1993-11-24Loving but irresponsible dad Daniel Hillard, estranged from his exasperated spouse, is crushed by a court order allowing only weekly visits with his kids. When Daniel learns his ex needs a housekeeper, he gets the job -- disguised as a British nanny. Soon he becomes not only his children's best pal but the kind of parent he should have been from the start.Closely Watched Train...
1966-11-18At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot.Cruel Intentions
1999-03-05Slaking a thirst for dangerous games, Kathryn challenges her stepbrother, Sebastian, to deflower their headmaster's daughter before the summer ends. If he succeeds, the prize is the chance to bed Kathryn. But if he loses, Kathryn will claim his most prized possession.