Genre: Drama
Related Titles; Call me by Your Name, Brain on Fire, Trainspotting
By Leanne Harragan
Nicolas Sheff lives the perfect live: good grades, actor, artist, athlete, but he soon begins to search for more. When his addiction to meth threatens to destroy his picture perfect life. His family do whatever they can to attempt to save him.
Based on the true lives of Nicolas and David Sheff, this film will almost definitely hit a nerve. Carrying the emotional punch packed in this film are Timothée Chalamet as Nicolas and Steve Carrell as David. This is potentially the best performance I've seen from Chalamet and that's certainly saying something with his career so far with titles like Ladybird, Call me by your Name and Interstellar being just a few to mention. Alongside Carrell, the two portrayed a father and son relationship put to the test beautifully, I'd be surprised if many people make it through this film without shedding a tear or two.
Just like other films portraying addiction, Beautiful Boy lingers between showing drug use as an exciting buzz and showing the devastating effect it can have on lives in more than one ways. The scenes where it kind of shows drugs use as exciting and cool, reminded me of a few scenes from the classic Trainspotting, while the after effects are really shown in the comedowns and the wobbles Nicolas has along the way.
There is more than one scene that stands out in this film as being quite harrowing but what really stands out in my mind is the scene when Nicolas is talking about his addiction in a rehab setting, it's one of those moments that will stick in your mind and really send home that this is a real problem that people face everyday. It's also really difficult to watch the bond between Nicolas and David fray throughout the relapses and the cycle he was trapped in. It's frustrating to watch each relapse and even more so when you consider all the people that are stuck in this cycle and don't have the support system around them, it makes everything so much more devastating. This really hits home when the film credits all the people that die from addiction every year and tells that Nicolas Shaff has been clean for eight years thanks to all the support he had from the people he had around him.
I absolutely loved that despite the addiction winning out and changing their son's behaviour on more than one occasion, nothing could stop his family wanting the best for him and doing everything in their power to help. This is such a beautiful story demonstrating the depths that love can go.
Rating: 8.5/10
By Rebecca Mannick
Beautiful Boy is a truly remarkable movie - this is a picture that shows that it leagues above everyone else in terms of story-telling, character development and most of all acting. I don't believe that this story could have been portrayed by anyone better than Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet. They pour their heart and soul into the roles of David and Nic Sheff - telling their heartbreaking story of how Nic got addicted to drugs and how his whole life was fuelled by getting the next hit.
This true story is based on memoirs written by David Sheff - who was a writer for the New York Times. His picturesque life outside San Francisco was turned upside down when his oldest son Nicholas started using drugs and alcohol to somehow fill this unexplained void in his life. The story takes you through Nic's dark story of being an addict - the choices he makes are all linked with drugs, every decision made is influenced by all these substances. David does everything in his power to help Nic but someone who doesn't want to be helped can't be.
Steve Carell plays one of his best roles to date as David Sheff - he is able to play David ever so elegantly. His character is full of grace but also desperation. He is always willing to help Nic but also makes that important decision of letting go - as a parent you can't fault him. When he meets with Nic you can always hear his hopefulness but he also realises that Nic can only get out of this situation on his own. Timothee Chalamet is slowly becoming one of my favourite actors, he's raw and emotional. Every single muscle in his body is dedicated to this role and its hard to think of him in a bad role or having a bad performance.
The shots were necessary and fairly simple - I particularly loved the colour grading, there was a slight grain to the picture and the colours were pretty mellow. On the whole Beautiful Boy was beautiful and a story which carries a very important message. They leave the movie with a message sharing some statistics on the drug addiction rates and deaths in America and its pretty eye opening and saddening to see that more and more people are getting addicted to dangerous substances. In no way is this an uplifting story or does it really leave the audience with a happy ending - but I feel thats the best way to show the story - raw and true.
Rating: 8.5/10
By Rebecca Mannick
Beautiful Boy is a truly remarkable movie - this is a picture that shows that it leagues above everyone else in terms of story-telling, character development and most of all acting. I don't believe that this story could have been portrayed by anyone better than Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet. They pour their heart and soul into the roles of David and Nic Sheff - telling their heartbreaking story of how Nic got addicted to drugs and how his whole life was fuelled by getting the next hit.
This true story is based on memoirs written by David Sheff - who was a writer for the New York Times. His picturesque life outside San Francisco was turned upside down when his oldest son Nicholas started using drugs and alcohol to somehow fill this unexplained void in his life. The story takes you through Nic's dark story of being an addict - the choices he makes are all linked with drugs, every decision made is influenced by all these substances. David does everything in his power to help Nic but someone who doesn't want to be helped can't be.
Steve Carell plays one of his best roles to date as David Sheff - he is able to play David ever so elegantly. His character is full of grace but also desperation. He is always willing to help Nic but also makes that important decision of letting go - as a parent you can't fault him. When he meets with Nic you can always hear his hopefulness but he also realises that Nic can only get out of this situation on his own. Timothee Chalamet is slowly becoming one of my favourite actors, he's raw and emotional. Every single muscle in his body is dedicated to this role and its hard to think of him in a bad role or having a bad performance.
The shots were necessary and fairly simple - I particularly loved the colour grading, there was a slight grain to the picture and the colours were pretty mellow. On the whole Beautiful Boy was beautiful and a story which carries a very important message. They leave the movie with a message sharing some statistics on the drug addiction rates and deaths in America and its pretty eye opening and saddening to see that more and more people are getting addicted to dangerous substances. In no way is this an uplifting story or does it really leave the audience with a happy ending - but I feel thats the best way to show the story - raw and true.
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