Movie Review: Beautiful Boy

‘Beautiful Boy’ Provokes Thought, But Leaves Audience Lacking Satiation

Leaning on the prestige of its two leading actors Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet, ‘Beautiful Boy’ depicts the non-fictional story of David Sheff and his son Nic, and the strain their relationship is put through as the latter battles with drug addiction.

The film, written and directed by Felix Van Groeningen, comes 11 years after Nic Sheff’s novel “Tweak” and and 10 years after David Sheff’s book “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction.”

Beautifully acted, the raw scenes from Chalamet featuring drug preparation, injections, the violent/abusive behavior amidst a drug low and the suicidal thoughts are all painfully stirring, real and admonish the audience to reconsider what the mental state of a user is.

Inversely, Carell and Maura Tierney, who portrays David Sheff’s second wife Karen Barbour, skillfully demonstrate the toll that the actions of an addict have on the people around them, as well as how exhausting it is to continually try and support a user through the process of getting clean.

However, as great as the individual performances are and how intensely real many of the scenes get, as a cohesive unit, the film feels incomplete and highly repetitive.

Perhaps it is a commentary on how repetitive the drug addiction and cleansing cycle can be, but the plot oftentimes takes one step forward and two steps back, fails to advance as much as the audience would like it to and ultimately ends with little to no resolution.

Diehard fans of either Carell or Chalamet will enjoy the film due to the strength of their performances and the immensely large amount of screentime both receive, but more casual moviegoers who don’t list the stars of “Beautiful Boy” among their favorites will find the movie above decent, but likely not feel compelled to ever see it again.

Released over a month ago and still running a box office deficit, “Beautiful Boy” will probably be available on streaming platforms by the end of the year, meaning moviegoers may want to save their dollar and endure the anaerobic wait time until it is out of theaters to see this one.

—landont.stuart@gmail.com

@landos84