Review of Beautiful Boy (2018) by The3Academysins — 19 Oct 2018

Beautiful Boy is an incredibly realistic journey through addiction. If you have ever dealt with addiction yourself, or had a family member or loved one go through addiction, then this will be a very hard movie to watch. There really wasn't a dry eye in the house by the time the credits rolled.

The father and son relationship between Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet is the core of the movie, and it really takes you through the peaks and valleys of that relationship. Timothee Chalamet gives a peerless performance. His description of what the meth does to him and how he is just so sad and "doesn't want to live in this reality anymore" really resonated with me. While Chalamet is the driving force of the story, Beautiful Boy is Steve Carrell's movie. He is a father who doesn't know how to help his son, and seeing his gradual degradation and enduring love is heartbreaking. The journey that these characters take together and alone is like watching a flowing, lucid river. Nothing feels unnatural. Something I appreciated about both of their performances and the movie itself was the use of silence. There is not a whole lot of dialogue in Beautiful Boy. If you saw "Call Me By Your Name" you will know Timothee Chalamet is a master of stillness and silence in acting, but Steve Carrell handles silence just as well, if not better.

My one flaw with the movie is that it definitely does start to drag. It's two hours long, and in my opinion it could have had the same impact and gotten the story across in 90 minutes. In spite of that, this is a must-see movie. I think it's going to be a contender for the Academy Awards this year. If I were to make a prediction, I think Steve Carrell will get a Best Actor nom, and Timothee Chalamet will get a Best Supporting Actor nom. If you do go see Beautiful Boy, bring tissues.