Beautiful Boy

Movie, 2018, R

Premise - Based on the combined autobiographies of real-life father and son, David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy tells the story of the son’s Nic Sheff’s fall into an addiction to methamphetamines, and the tumultuous effect this had on his relationship with his father as well as the rest of his family. Nic Sheff begins a long and horrific journey of rehab, relapse, and recovery, all the while having the unconditional love of his father.


Review - This is not a great film to watch on a plane, yet regrettably, I watched this on a plane. Twice – one on the way to Germany, and then kind of skipped around the film again on the way back. And actually, I don’t regret watching it on a plane because I had NO OTHER OPTIONS. I had been wanting to watch this film ever since the very first trailer came out, but it’s only been available on Amazon Prime which I do not have and was not willing to go through the effort of starting a trial.

I desperately needed to watch this movie, in whatever environment possible. The plane sucked because it was a tiny screen, difficult to hear, and definitely drowned out some of the more subtle dialogue or mood music. But many of the scenes were so visceral that even watching it on the tiniest of screens would have made a lasting impact.

Timothee Chalamet has become my new bae. I want to watch everything with him in it that he has acted in thus far and will in the future. The fact that we are literally the same age (born a few days apart) gives me the ever so precious hope, how ever small, that one day he could be my soulmate. I quite honestly believe that no other actor is as sensual as a performer. Every little thing he does is a turn on.

Of course, this film is not meant to be a turn on at all. It is one of the darkest films I have seen in a while, with explicit and visceral content. The film does not glamourize drug use in the slightest. Yet still, something in Timothee’s physicality is so enticing that it still manages to be a turn on.

Thirst aside, in all seriousness, this is a film of incredible importance. Drug addiction is one of the world’s worst and most lethal epidemics. I hate it with all my heart, and methamphetamines are a particularly dangerous and physically damaging class of drugs. The most valuable thing this film does is create a sense of empathy for those who end up with drug-related problems. There are physical, biochemical changes occurring in Nic’s body that literally make it impossible for him to stop. 

The reason why he starts taking drugs also evokes empathy. There is a line in the film that struck me more than any other, when he talks about the doctor asking him what his problem was. Nic responded that he was an addict, and the doctor says no, that’s how he’s trying to solve his problem. His reason for starting drugs runs much deeper into his temperament – his inability to satisfy himself, the “black hole” in his life. 

Nic is such a lovable character, and he is such a lovable person to listen to speak in real life. Not to lust over Timothee Chalamet YET AGAIN but if you listen to both men talk, they speak in such similar ways. It was perfect casting. When speaking of empathy, Nic is such an easy person to empathize for. But unfortunately, that is very much the case because he is an attractive, white man from a middle-class family that was led down an unfortunate path. He had loving parents who stood by him, and had the means to pay for rehabilitation.

This is not the case for many (if not most) drug addicts. They come from poor neighborhoods, or have parents who are addicts themselves, or whatever else. In interviews, Timothee talks a lot about how drug addiction as a disease/disorder does not discriminate and can affect people of all walks of life, which is true, but unfortunately people from certain walks of life can have a better chance of recovery.

The film doesn’t talk very much about money, but there is one scene where the father tries to call different residential care facilities and finds out how many thousands of dollars they cost per month. For a middle-class family, it was awful, but they would put aside everything they had to help their son. I’m sure my parents would do the same for me. But for many lower-class families, that is not even close to being an option, ESPECIALLY considering that rehabilitation for a meth addict is not a one-time deal.

Nic relapses multiple times in this film. He also has an epiphany that he needs to get his act together multiple times. There’s no clear “aha” moment where it all clicks into place and he starts his road to recovery. If anything, that moment happens a few times, but then he still ends up relapsing because he can’t help it. Most importantly, the ending of this film is no different than the rest. He’s in the hospital, full of self-hatred, and wanting to get better. But the film doesn’t end with any clear indication that this was the last time he would relapse. And, if I remember the interviews correctly, it wasn’t. Nic Sheff has been clean now for 8 years, but if you do the math, that means he would have still have used drugs after his autobiography was published. 

It's a fascinating film for me to watch, though probably a torturous one for parents. The unconditional love just fills your heart to its brim until it is nearly exploding.

The issues I had with it were organizational and structural, for the most part. I love playing with chronology, but I didn’t think it was effective in this film. Not only was it not in chronological order due to flashbacks, but even our “present” time setting was not well in order, and the transitions were weak. It made it even more difficult to follow considering I was on a loud plane. I first wanted to rank it in the 70’s but the film has stuck with me so much in the weeks following that now I can’t imagine why I first ranked it so low (I blame the plane). (87/100)

Quote - I'm paraphrasing, but it's when Nic is giving that speech about his experience in the hospital where one of the doctors asked, "What is your problem?" and Nic answered, "I'm an addict." The doctor responds, "No, that's how you're dealing with your problem." Something like that. But in essence, he was saying that the alcoholism and drug addiction were not the source of Nic's issues. There was something deeper with which he was using the drugs to cope. And nobody had said it that bluntly before.

What to watch for - TIMOTHEE CHALAMET

If you liked this movie, I'd recommend Requiem for a Dream!

Based on the memoirs by David and Nic Sheff
Directed by Felix Van Groeningen
Distributed by Amazon Studios