Beautiful Boy - Film Review

‘Beautiful Boy’ is directed by Felix van Groeningen and is based upon the memoirs from father and son David and Nic Sheff, which follows the heartbreaking experiences of a family coping with drug addiction over many years. ‘Beautiful Boy’ follows Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet as father David and son Nic. While Carell’s performance is good, Chalamet presents this unsettled, fazed and broken teenage boy. His performance leapt off the screen with a visceral power to it. His work here should not go unnoticed during award season. Maura Tierney also does a great job as Carell’s wife. Amy Ryan, playing Nic’s mother and David’s ex-wife, in the small amount of scenes she’s in exhales a beautiful, heartbroken mother. Groeningen’s directing invigorates the film with his own fresh vision, which works at times and doesn’t at others. The structure of the film in particular feels fairly wonky in areas, as at times it jumps a lot and confuses its own narrative. The music choices for scenes also feel very unorthodox, which could work well and is definitely ambitious, but just feels constantly out of place. The film just moves at a fairly monotonous pace, feeling like it’s spinning its own wheels at times. It is interesting enough, and extremely harrowing, but could have been filled out more. The performances are the biggest praises to the film, in particular Chalamet. Many of the scenes didn’t feel overblown or overly-elaborate. They were humble and quiet, but never feeling flat. The complexities of family trauma were presented with nuance and authenticity, being a major highlight of the film. What works well for the film work magnificently but it’s the little things and structure that pull the film down from being truly great. ‘Beautiful Boy’ awards itself with fantastic performances, complex family issues, and it’s down to earth feel. It’s held back though by its wonky structure, strange music choices and a slightly indirect pace. Overall, it’s a traumatic, heartbreaking and authentic depiction of the struggles of addiction. ‘Beautiful Boy’ - 72%