So, I watched this film several days ago.
I usually post about the films I watch the same day or next after completion. There are other films I saw that I would like to write about, but I just cannot. This film is sitting on chest and I need to let it out.
This film has wrecked me.
Unbelievable. Powerful. Moving.
This film tore me to absolute pieces, I’m not kidding.
From the opening scene, until the end credits, I was in a constant state of tears and a tight chest.
This film struck me in the face in such a personal way that I’m not comfortable discussing, but I think that this should be a must-watch for everyone at some point in their lives.
Steve Carell, Timothèe Chalamet. Performances of a lifetime.
Great directing by Felix van Groeningen.
I don’t mean to harp on it, but I actually cannot bring myself to consume any movies, or media for a time because I am stuck in such an emotional trance from this film.
This has been a reflective time for me, and I appreciate the film, and this platform to allow me to vent these thoughts and feelings to people.
I will enjoy this state while I can. This is filmmaking at its peak form.
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About Community
Hello everyone! This subreddit mainly focuses on the movie - Beautiful Boy starring Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell. We also encourage discussions on the book ( of the same name ) written by David Scheff. The movie is a 2018 adaptation of David Scheff's work directed by the incredible Felix van Groeninge.
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I watched "Beautiful Boy" on Amazon Prime yesterday. It was near the top of my must-see list last year before the reviews came out. The concept of weaving two related memoirs about a father and son's experience with the son's drug addiction into one movie was interesting. I was stoked to see Steve Carrell and Timothee Chalamet (who gave my favorite performance of 2017 in "Call Me By Your Name") in these roles. with the consensus being that it was well-acted, but lacked emotional punch, the RT score was only around 67%, pretty bad for a potentially Oscar-caliber family drama that is an acting showcase for Chalamet and Carrell. Given how emotional the subject matter was, I was surprised to hear that it lacked emotional depth.
Now that it's on Prime, though, I gave it a whirl. There are a lot of things going really well for it. Timothee Chalamet is fantastic (and robbed of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination). Steve Carell, Maura Tierney, and Amy Ryan are also very good. The two memoirs pair well together and have a cohesive tone. The soundtrack is terrific. The perspective of the son's experiences were fascinating and seemed realistic.
Unfortunately, much of that is wasted because the editing is Razzie-worthy. Truly awful. Within minutes of the movie starting, I am not sure where the characters are or where we are in the timeline. Throughout the movie, I was unsure where we were in the timeline. They assume you can tell the difference between a rehab facility vs. a college dorm, though the settings look similar. The family house/bedroom settings look exactly the same for the entire timeline and the adult characters' physical appearance stay the same over the timeline, unless they're portraying Nic as a child. The scenes randomly jump from one current scene and are interspersed or interrupted with images from another point in Nic's life. Sometimes these earlier events are related to what's happening; other times, there appears to be no connection. Scenes just END abruptly.
The narrative is confusing and moves slowly because there isn't any tension built up. We'll see Nic sober for 4 days, then relapse, then sober for 400 days, then cut to him relapsing. We'll see the dad help him, then be sick of helping him, then help him again, but you never really FEEL how exhausted he is because the scenes are too abrupt. For example, one scene shows Nic promising his little brother that he will attend his swim meet. I assumed there would be a build-up where there's a swim meet, everyone's expecting Nic, but he doesn't show because he's high. But he promises, then later on there is a swim meet, but it's unclear if that was the one Nic promised to attend or even where in the timeline the swim meet is. If he was supposed to be there, no character seemed to miss him.
It was especially infuriating to see such great, emotional acting get interrupted or abruptly ended. You could tell Chalamet and Carrell were putting everything they had into some scenes, but then the scene ends (like when Steve sings "Beautiful Boy" to young Nic) or they cut away to some other unrelated scene (like when Steve is frantically searching for Nic in the rain, fearing he has relapsed) before the audience can react.
I read about the movie after watching it. I was not surprised to learn that, although shooting didn't take very long, the editing process took over 7 months, with the director firing the first editor part of the way through. It shows. Beautiful Boy is a textbook example of how bad editing can ruin a movie. Given the timely and important subject matter, dual perspective, and terrific performances (and, surprisingly to me, an A+ soundtrack), I would have expected multiple Oscar nominations and positive reviews, but audiences and critics couldn't connect with the movie, which I believe is due to the confusing editing.
Nevertheless, I would recommend watching with tampered expectations or if you are interested in Carell and/or Chalamet.