Review of Beautiful Boy (2018) by Alan W — 25 Oct 2018

Family drama, based on a duo of memoirs written by father and son, David & Nic Sheff, about the effects of drugs addiction on both the user and the people around him, this is a film with good intentions that somewhat falls a little flat for me despite gallant efforts by a quietly powerful cast led by Steve Carrell and yet another Oscar-baiting turn from the young Timothee Chalamet.

(Also noteworthy support from Maura Tierney and a mini The Office (US) reunion with Amy Ryan as Carrell's ex-wife, Vicki.) Charting the ups and downs as Chalamet's Nic succumbs to drug addiction, the film depicts a seemingly endless cycle of relapses and recoveries, in a downward spiralling manner that sinks lower every go-around, as family members oscillate between hope and despair.

Belgian director Felix Van Groeningen pulls out every trick in the book to energize these depressing episodes on-screen, with fractured and out of sync narratives and visuals, hard cuts or a tense cafe meet shot only with a low angle camera; and admittedly, some of them work, but others border on showing-off and somewhat distracting.

The worse culprit for me is the relentless and overwhelming soundtrack and sound effects that often come across as manipulative and too on the nose, which certainly do not help the melodramatic tone of the film, leaving me feeling more numb than affected, and the film like a glossy 2hrs long Public Service Announcement.