Honey Boy

I for one, am fascinated by Shia LaBeouf. I'm sure I'm not the only one. He is a polarizing figure in Hollywood and I was amazed that this guy marathoned all of his films in the cinema. I think he is a wonderful actor as well, see The Peanut Butter Falcon and American Honey for proof. When I heard he was writing a memoir of sorts about the tumultuous relationship with his father, I was definitely going to go see it. This film was pretty much what I expected it to be.

A semi-biographical picture about the life of Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy follows a young rising child actor and his bipolar relationship with his father. His father is a former rodeo clown and is a deadbeat, for a lack of a better word. The relationship is marred with verbal and physical abuse. The child actor grows up with post traumatic stress disorder because of his upbringing and must learn to come up with ways to cope with his past that effects him. The film stars Lucas Hedges and Shia LaBeouf in the father role.

The story feels authentic because it is. I think the child actor involved and Shia were very good and you just can't help but feel the toxicity involved in their relationship. Its something that pains the young kid much later into his life, which unfortunately in a common curse in a bad upbringing. I still feel like there were parts of the film that were left unrealized but for what we get its a worthy time watching this film about a relationship that has some ups but mostly a lot of downs.

You can feel that the film is a personal one which is why its just an entertaining watch. I'm here trying to look for parallels between the child actors works depicted and a corresponding work that Shia LaBeouf did, to see the similarities between the film and real life. Overall, this will be a painful watch for some and invigorating for others. I enjoyed it for what it was and want to see Shia do more writing for film.

7/10

He deserves an Oscar for writing it let alone for the acting. He truly is the most underrated actor out there now and the best of my generation. Noah Jupe is a tour de force. Lucas Hedges nails his portrayal of Shia LaBeouf.

D

I love Shia LaBeouf, I really do. I'll watch basically anything he puts his name to. The man blew up his own career by being too honest, and I respect him immensely for that. I didn't actually realise going in to 'Honey Boy' that it was him telling a very personal and true story abut the relationship he had with his father. I worked it out very quickly though that that was what was being portrayed. It can't be easy to write a film like this, but LaBeouf does a terrific job of presenting how he perceived things, without ever feeling like he's trying to ram a point down your throat.

The acting in this film is incredible. Firstly LaBeouf playing his father is truly mesmerising. Sure he knew the guy better than anyone, but that isn't enough to justify just how phenomenal he was in this film. I'm surprised he didn't get a lot more love during awards season. Lucas Hedges also really impressed me. Within 30 seconds of him being on screen I was able to say, "That guy is playing LaBeouf." He mimicked him perfectly in voice and actions. Finally Noah Jupe blew me away. What an incredibly difficult performance for a child actor to have to pull off. This is no ordinary kid he was playing. He was superb and also deserves every bit of recognition he gets.

This is clearly an extremely personal film for LaBeouf. He has laid his heart and soul out on the table. The result is a very good film that is well worth your time, whether you're a LaBeouf fan or not. I recommend checking this one out.

To show others your life exsperiances, to be vulnerable its beautiful, and it connects us, which is what we all want in life, beautiful human connection. I'm grateful I was able to view this movie at the Sundance theater last night. I was too nervous to ask a question during the Q and A session after the movie but wanted to ask if they purposely chose to portray the modeling behavior between son and father. I recently went to a parenting class by @simplyonpurpose where they mentioned that 90% of the time a child is punished for repeating the same behaviors as their parents, only 10% of the time are children actually being disobedient. This movie did a wonderful job portraying that inevitably in a few very powerful scenes. Anyways parenting was obviously on my mind so perhaps I found what I wanted to see. We can't choose our parents or control their behaviors. We can only choose to be better, do better, love deeper and make an effort to model the type of behavior that will benefit our future generations. Love, empathy, healthy coping skills, how we treat others....Anyways I loved it! I found it very emotional and think it will connect with a wide range of audiences.

Always figured Shia Lebeouf was a decent actor, but nothing special. I was wrong. It's one of the best performances I've seen in years, and not just from Shia, it's shocking how good the entire cast is. See it.