Honey Boy

I for one, am fascinated by Shia LaBeouf. I'm sure I'm not the only one. He is a polarizing figure in Hollywood and I was amazed that this guy marathoned all of his films in the cinema. I think he is a wonderful actor as well, see The Peanut Butter Falcon and American Honey for proof. When I heard he was writing a memoir of sorts about the tumultuous relationship with his father, I was definitely going to go see it. This film was pretty much what I expected it to be.

A semi-biographical picture about the life of Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy follows a young rising child actor and his bipolar relationship with his father. His father is a former rodeo clown and is a deadbeat, for a lack of a better word. The relationship is marred with verbal and physical abuse. The child actor grows up with post traumatic stress disorder because of his upbringing and must learn to come up with ways to cope with his past that effects him. The film stars Lucas Hedges and Shia LaBeouf in the father role.

The story feels authentic because it is. I think the child actor involved and Shia were very good and you just can't help but feel the toxicity involved in their relationship. Its something that pains the young kid much later into his life, which unfortunately in a common curse in a bad upbringing. I still feel like there were parts of the film that were left unrealized but for what we get its a worthy time watching this film about a relationship that has some ups but mostly a lot of downs.

You can feel that the film is a personal one which is why its just an entertaining watch. I'm here trying to look for parallels between the child actors works depicted and a corresponding work that Shia LaBeouf did, to see the similarities between the film and real life. Overall, this will be a painful watch for some and invigorating for others. I enjoyed it for what it was and want to see Shia do more writing for film.

7/10

To show others your life exsperiances, to be vulnerable its beautiful, and it connects us, which is what we all want in life, beautiful human connection. I'm grateful I was able to view this movie at the Sundance theater last night. I was too nervous to ask a question during the Q and A session after the movie but wanted to ask if they purposely chose to portray the modeling behavior between son and father. I recently went to a parenting class by @simplyonpurpose where they mentioned that 90% of the time a child is punished for repeating the same behaviors as their parents, only 10% of the time are children actually being disobedient. This movie did a wonderful job portraying that inevitably in a few very powerful scenes. Anyways parenting was obviously on my mind so perhaps I found what I wanted to see. We can't choose our parents or control their behaviors. We can only choose to be better, do better, love deeper and make an effort to model the type of behavior that will benefit our future generations. Love, empathy, healthy coping skills, how we treat others....Anyways I loved it! I found it very emotional and think it will connect with a wide range of audiences.

The performances are really raw and honest and they really go there. The movie had my attention the entire time and the cinematography and direction is wonderful too. I hadn't been a LaBeouf fan because I as an actor myself.. I am always disappointed because I work so hard and it's hard to get a paying acting job when other actors seem to get arrested and drink and do drugs and are constantly getting hired. However, his performance in Peanut Butter Falcon gave me a new window into his ability as an actor and this movie gave me newfound respect for him and hearing him speak of the film and the process really resonated with me as an actor. I never had a parent pushing me to do it and always felt alone in the business but the character of Otis has a father pushing him and he is as alone and broken as ever. If you want to see a film where the actors really listen to each other and take risks- this is it! Oh an Lucas was great too.

Most well acted movie I have seen in 2020. The direction, writing, and cinematography were all amazing. The fact that this is not nominated for a single Oscar is atrocious. How anyone could say Pitt or Hanks put in even close to the effort and performance Shia did is asinine.

Noah Jupe was excellent in this film. He is definitely growing as an actor and can no longer be dismissed as just a child actor.

The story was good and Lebeouf did a good job playing the father. I recommend it highly.