Review of Beautiful Boy (2018) by Bertaut1 — 29 Jan 2019

Earnest and heartfelt, but narratively awkward, and emotionally unengaging.

Based on the memoirs Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff (Steve Carell), and Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet), written for the screen by Luke Davies and Felix van Groeningen, and directed by van Groeningen, Beautiful Boy is a film about the horrors of addiction, told from the perspective of both an addict and his father. Focusing primarily on David's attempts to understand and fight against his son's addiction to crystal meth, the film aims for a no frills unsentimental authenticity, adopting a non-linear cyclical structure designed to mirror the repetitive nature of addiction-rehab-relapse-addiction etc. And whilst it's certainly heartfelt and respectfully told, there's little in the way of emotional engagement.

The most notable aspect of Beautiful Boy is the structure - the film is made up of a series of high and lows following Nic and David through relapse and recovery, whilst at the same time, there are multiple flashbacks, with scenes in the present giving characters occasion to think about moments from the past, often happier memories of Nic's childhood. The problem with this is that it's overused; there's barely a scene that doesn't have some kind of temporal cutaway, which dulls the impact of such editing, as after 45 minutes, you're just yearning for the film to stay put for a while.

As regards the repetitive nature of the story, I understand what van Groeningen was going for - it's supposed to mirror the two steps forward, one step back staccato motion of addiction. However, the film falls into a pattern of Nic showing up looking a little more dishevelled than he did before, followed by David doing everything he can to help, followed by his failure to get through to Nic, followed by Nic disappearing, followed by Nic showing up looking a little more dishevelled than he did before, etc. And whilst this may lend itself to a certain authenticity, it doesn't make for very effective drama.

On the plus side, with both actors giving superb performances, one really sees the bond between the two, and how much Nic's addiction is destroying both of them. In this sense, the real tragedy of his situation isn't the rehabs and relapses, it's seeing him drift further and further away from a man who would literally die to protect him.

With lesser performances, the film would have crumbled under the weight of van Groeningen's heavy-handed direction. Thankfully the performances are strong enough that the style merely distracts. Chalamet's is the more physical of the two performances, conveying so much via his body language as he alternates between playing Nic as a sweet, loving, almost immature teenager, and a stressed addict, old before his years, capable of anything to get money for his next hit. Carell, for his part, does most of his best work with his eyes, conveying the sadness and desperation he feels. His helplessness is written across his face, conveying how little he can actually do for his son.

Despite all of these positives, however, there are some significant problems. For one, van Groeningen chooses not to present some of the darker aspects of Nic's story. For example, he turned to prostitution at one point to fund his addiction. Additionally, as his hits from crystal meth continued to diminish over time, he started shooting it up, which is insanely dangerous. Leaving out aspects such as this gives the film a kind of sanitised feeling, as if we're looking at addiction through a gauze which the director refuses to pull back.

A film of this nature, detailing something like this, and based on a true story, should be an emotional rollercoaster, but the audience is always removed, the emotions are seen rather than experienced. Because the film introduces us to the characters mid-crisis, and because there's literally not a single scene that isn't either related to Nic's addiction, or a flashback from a scene related to his addiction, we never really get to know David or Nic outside this situation.

There have been some truly great films about addiction; The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Panic in Needle Park (1971), Drugstore Cowboy (1989), Trainspotting (1996), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), The Basketball Diaries (1995), Requiem for a Dream (2000). Beautiful Boy is absolutely nowhere near anything of this calibre. In fact, it's probably more successful as a kind of instructional installation for relatives of people going through addiction than it is as a film evoking emotions. And whilst it's definitely heartfelt, its lack of emotion, its repetitiveness, its distracting structure, all grate against the strong performances.