Honey Boy is Vulnerable.

Overview:

A young actor faces a turbulent childhood with his father, while trying to overcome his own mental health issues.

Initial Thoughts:

Honey Boy is written by Shia LaBeouf. This film acts as a pseudo biopic to LaBeouf’s childhood and early adulthood. The opening shot shows Lucas Hedges, who plays our main character, as a young adult on the set of an action movie. The name of the movie is never stated, but it’s obvious that it’s supposed to be Transformers. Our main character, Otis, crashes his car and gets into a drunken altercation with the police forcing him into a rehab center, further mirroring LaBeouf’s own life. This film is shot very intimately. Emotionally charged scenes take the “less is more” approach. The film’s story is told in flashbacks. This story structure is called a “frame tale” or “sandwich narrative.” A common problem with the sandwich narrative is that the past events are more interesting than the current events. Honey Boy is no exception to this. However, it makes sense that we cut back to Otis as a young adult. We see the toll that his father has taken on him and how hard it is for him to work through those problems.

Characters/Performances:

Lucas Hedges as Otis (young adult): Lucas Hedges plays the broken and damaged Otis as a 22 year old. Otis is in rehab at this point in his life and he’s belligerent and apprehensive. He’s rough around the edges, but there’s a soft spot in there somewhere. Hedges plays this role excellently. There’s a grey area where you can play that “bad boy” type with a soft side, without coming off as a massive douche. Hedges always has a tender presence to him.

Noah Jupe as Otis (child): In order to really understand Otis, we need to see his childhood. Jupe is an excellent child actor. It’s always a cop-out to have a child in a film act “grown” by having them do things like cursing, smoking, or having sexual encounters. In this film, it makes sense to have a child do this because of his unhinged father. Otis is a victim of his father. Jupe’s portrayal makes you really sympathize with the character. Young Otis wants his father in his life, even though he and everyone knows that it's not what's best for him. He also has an implied romantic relationship with his neighbor, who is much older than him. Otis wants nothing more than to have a genuine and normal relationship with his father. Although his dad seemingly wants nothing to do with him at times. This leaves Otis confused and alone. It’s really hard to see sometimes. It’s so clear that Otis’ damage and self destructive habits come from his childhood.

Shia LaBeouf as James Lort: Here we are, the meat and bones of this film. LaBeouf gives his best performances to date. He is so emotional here and everything he does from line delivery to dialect works. He really became his father for this film. I can’t imagine how that must have felt for him, to become the very thing that has caused him so much pain. James is, for lack of a better term, an asshole. Much like his son, there’s a soft spot in there somewhere. James is trying to be a good dad and is seen being jealous of people that he feels intimidated by. James struggles to find a balance between being a good father and an overall better person. James is the source of a lot of pain in this film but, there is a method to his madness.

Final Thoughts:

Honey Boy is sweet and vulnerable. Shia put his heart and soul into this film and it shows. There is a theme of forgiveness throughout this film and that’s the reason why James is a more fleshed out character than anyone here. Shia needed to make this in order to forgive his father. That's really touching. Oh yeah, FKA Twigs is in this for some reason. There’s a quote from this film that i want to share with you guys “A seed has to completely destroy itself in order to become a flower.”

Rate:

A-