The story of a child star attempting to mend his relationship with his law-breaking, alcohol-abusing father over the course of a decade, loosely based on Shia LaBeouf’s life.
WHAT I LIKED: Alma Har'el and Shia LeBouf's 'Honey Boy,' is a brilliant exploration of the long-term affects of a troubled childhood. It flits between a violent, pent-up young man in therapy (Lucas Hedges), and flashbacks to his younger self (Noah Jupe) as a child-actor living with a chaotic and abusive father (Shia LeBouf). The story is based on LeBouf's own experience so is written with real naturalism and pathos, but aside from that the structure is the film's greatest move, as cutting the memories - which actually make up the bulk of the film - against the therapy sessions in which the older "honey boy" Otis is struggling to unlock his trauma means the long-term affects really hit home.
That only works though because both the childhood and adulthood are brought to life so well. On the one hand Lucas Hedges does a masterful job of playing an angry and emotionally-confused young man, and after we see him on a path to self-destruction at the beginning of the film in a masterful montage sequence, his therapy is truly grueling to watch. On the other hand though, Noah Jupe and LeBouf's father-son relationship is just as brilliantly portrayed, as it generally involves the camera watching from a distance as Otis' father bigs-up, belittles, fights and teases his son non-stop, from movie-sets to their skid-row apartment in LA.
Jupe's young Otis is a dreamy yet strong character who we rarely get to see deeply upset or in fear as he lets his tough adult-of-the-house facade take over around his troubled dad, and the dreaminess of the film's image and score show him clinging to individual moments of bliss between and within the many storms. The father himself gets some solicitous development of his own in the form of a few AA meetings (as well as his many breakdowns in front of Otis), and seeing all of that builds the picture of a very suffocating and confusing childhood where there's both cavernous emotional distance and overwhelming claustrophobia. As a result, it's clear why it's affected the central character so much years later, but what's also great is that the film never attempts to make contrived, therapised links to specific traumas, but instead gets you to feel how the overall experience has left its mark simply through the way the two halves of the film are portrayed.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The naturalism of the piece means we rarely get to feel the emotional affects of the troubled childhood directly on the young Otis. In other words, the camera never sees his emotion and trauma bubbling over his tough little exterior (we're more so left to feel the affects in adulthood rather than childhood), and even if that perhaps makes for a greater level of realism, it means it's harder to engage with the immediate situation on screen.
VERDICT: A brilliant exploration of how a troubled childhood affects adulthood, 'Honey Boy,' is brought to life by its great structure, incredible performances and naturalistic style.
