Directed by Alma Har’el
Starring Shia LaBeouf, Noah Jupe, FKA Twigs, Lucas Hedges
Based on the childhood life of Shia LaBeouf, and written by him during rehab, Honey Boy digs right into the pains of his childhood, detailing the domestic two-way between this child actor (Shia named in this film as Otis) and his father (played by Shia himself). Shia could be called one of the key actors of his generation, despite hardly having put in many great performances – but it seems that’s changing as he goes into this new stage of his career, delivering both his best performance so far, as well as opening up about himself and his dad in this screenplay of his.
Shia’s version of himself here is Otis – as a young adult (played by Lucas Hedges). He’s a party animal, who gets a DUI and is sentenced to a rehabilitation centre. It is there that he reflects on his turbulent childhood (his child self played by Noah Jupe) with his father James, a former rodeo clown who’s now unemployed and trying to make a living off his son’s success. This domestic drama hardly spends much time out of their home (a motel complex just off the freeway), and is made up of long scenes of father and son going at it – rehearsing, arguing, fighting – all of which adds up to an intimate intensity.
It feels like LaBeouf has not held back at all with this depiction of himself and his childhood, portraying his father as someone who instilled in him a deep inspiration, but it also came with a trauma that has since haunted him. The power of these two leading actors strengthens the on-screen relationship even further, both of whom wholly inhabit the joys and pains (though mostly pains) of their characters.
There are the moments that detract from the drama: the next-door neighbour (FKA Twigs) has hardly enough screen-time to really establish herself as a loving alternative to James (plus their age difference is hardly comfortable to watch at all), and the ending scene is so strange and implausible, it could’ve worked if only it was played out in a surrealistic way.
The painful basis for such a drama film makes this a searing watch, as if this is a voyeuristic portrayal of a fraught father-son argument that hardly ever ends. Despite such long and involving scenes of their fights, Honey Boy does get trapped into being reiterative, not quite managing a fully purposeful arc throughout its entirety for these two characters. The messiness of this film feels like a part of its therapeutic nature, and with such acting and writing skills by LaBeouf being not so much proven, but exorcised, it’s quite the striking portrait of a fame-chasing childhood to be an observer of.
DAVID MORGAN-BROWN
