Beautiful Boy (2018)
Steve Carell is a father who watches his son (Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name) struggle with meth addiction in this drama based on the memoirs of David and Nic Sheff. Writer-director Felix Van Groenigen (The Broken Circle Breakdown) chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse, and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.
- Director:
- Felix Van Groeningen ('The Broken Circle Breakdown', 'The Misfortunates', 'Belgica')
- Writer:
- Felix Van GroeningenLuke Davies
- Cast:
- Steve CarellTimothée ChalametMaura TierneyChristian ConveryOakley BullKaitlyn DeverAmy RyanStefanie Scott
Reviews & comments
Flicks, Amanda Jane Robinson
flicksCarell and Chalamet Shine in Darkness
A tear-jerky true story exploring the collateral damage of drug addiction. Chalamet captures the angsty wasted youth who embarks on a drug addled odyssey while Carell serves as the soft-spoken landing pad father who constantly picks up the broken pieces. Beautiful Boy gives Carell one of his most career defining roles - proving how even the most minor...
Variety
pressEvery last thing the movie shows us about addiction, and the effect it can have upon those who are trying to save an addict from himself, is entirely authentic.
Time Out
pressParents will feel heard by this movie in a way that few other films have tried. Everyone else should go for the kid, who's a rocket taking off. You want to be able to say you were there when it happened.
The Guardian
pressA grim endurance test that's undeniably flawed but in doggedly aiming to portray this unbearable pain with rare authenticity, it has a raw, haunting power.
Stuff
pressBeautiful Boy is an attractive and always-watchable film. But considering the ugliness of its subject matter, I'm not sure that's a recommendation.
Screen Daily
pressStrong, committed performances and the upsetting ring of reality anchor a highly-personal film which cycles through addiction, relapse and rehab in an episodic way, each high as inevitable as the low which follows.
Los Angeles Times
pressThe detachment at work in "Beautiful Boy" suggests an attempt to speak clearly and truthfully, to resist the clichés of the addiction drama while acknowledging that those clichés can hardly be rewritten.
Hollywood Reporter
pressAs enacted here by unquestionably fine actors, this story does not emerge as compelling or convincing, and the film is aggravatingly narrow-minded in its interests.
Collider
pressWhile the film lacks narrative momentum, its heart is in the right place, and that's to show the havoc addiction wreaks on families and how those families have no answer for addiction.
Flicks, Amanda Jane Robinson
flicksVariety
pressEvery last thing the movie shows us about addiction, and the effect it can have upon those who are trying to save an addict from himself, is entirely authentic.
Time Out
pressParents will feel heard by this movie in a way that few other films have tried. Everyone else should go for the kid, who's a rocket taking off. You want to be able to say you were there when it happened.
The Guardian
pressA grim endurance test that's undeniably flawed but in doggedly aiming to portray this unbearable pain with rare authenticity, it has a raw, haunting power.
Stuff
pressBeautiful Boy is an attractive and always-watchable film. But considering the ugliness of its subject matter, I'm not sure that's a recommendation.
Screen Daily
pressStrong, committed performances and the upsetting ring of reality anchor a highly-personal film which cycles through addiction, relapse and rehab in an episodic way, each high as inevitable as the low which follows.
Los Angeles Times
pressThe detachment at work in "Beautiful Boy" suggests an attempt to speak clearly and truthfully, to resist the clichés of the addiction drama while acknowledging that those clichés can hardly be rewritten.
Hollywood Reporter
pressAs enacted here by unquestionably fine actors, this story does not emerge as compelling or convincing, and the film is aggravatingly narrow-minded in its interests.
Collider
pressWhile the film lacks narrative momentum, its heart is in the right place, and that's to show the havoc addiction wreaks on families and how those families have no answer for addiction.
Carell and Chalamet Shine in Darkness
A tear-jerky true story exploring the collateral damage of drug addiction. Chalamet captures the angsty wasted youth who embarks on a drug addled odyssey while Carell serves as the soft-spoken landing pad father who constantly picks up the broken pieces. Beautiful Boy gives Carell one of his most career defining roles - proving how even the most minor...
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