#1252 Beautiful Boy

[Kasi Mir]

"Beautiful Boy" - named after the John Lennon song - is another "true story" movie, but with a twist. The film which recounts the ordeal of a father and son (plus the rest of the family), as the latter falls deeper and deeper into patterns of substance abuse (thematically not far away from #1250 "Ben is Back"), is based not on one, but on two books. David Sheff published his memoirs "Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction" in 2008, practically at the same time as Nic Sheff release his side of things in "Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines". Screenwriter Luke Davies ("Lion", "Life"), together with director Felix van Groeningen, used both novels for the script, though judging from the finished product, the father's book was the primary source. The film is the english-language debut of director van Groeningen, who already has an Oscar nomination on his resumee. His film "The Broken Circle Breakdown" - which dealt with parents who had to cope with their child becoming severely ill - was one of the nominees for "Best foreign language film" back in 2014.

Here's the trailer for the film, which is not yet available on Amazon Prime Video in Germany, by the way:


What did you think of "Beautiful Boy", both in itself and in comparison to "Ben is Back"? How would you rate the performances, most notably by Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet as father and son, but also by Maura Tierney and Amy Ryan as David's wife and ex-wife, respectively? Please write down your thoughts about the movie in a reply to this post.

[rou]

Nicht gerade leichte Kost für den Feierabend. Aber ein guter Film. 2.

Schauspieler fand ich gut. Steve Carell funktioniert für mich auch in solchen Rollen.