Shia LaBeouf plays his own father in his film ‘Honey Boy’.
Directed by: Alma Har’el
Written by: Shia LaBeouf
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Lucas Hedges, Noah Jupe
I remember watching the Disney movie “Holes” on DVD in the late 90’s and the young actor at the center of the film, Shia LaBeouf was dramatically captivating. He went on to other roles, but his biggest performance has been his fall from Hollywood’s grace over the years.
His prophetic screenplay for “Honey Boy,” Alma Har’el’s directorial debut, serves as much of a release from his own internal pressures as much as it is an apology letter to his fans and his colleagues for his transgressions.
The story starts in present day as Otis Lort played by Lucas Hedges enters rehab following a DUI. He doesn’t believe he has a problem, but he does have Laura San Giacomo’s Dr. Moreno to talk about his challenges. The story is predicated on this DUI and his visit to a rehab facility as being his third strike.
The stakes for Lort have never been more serious and through Hedges’s expert performance, he simply doesn’t care. At the beginning.
Har’el takes us back to when Otis was a lad. Noah Jupe plays the younger Otis. In the opening scene, Jupe is set against a pitch black background and a cream pie just hits him perfectly square in the face – the joke’s on him. We quickly realize he’s a child actor and his father, James (LaBeouf) is his manager.
We can tell from James’s reaction to the production running later than scheduled, that there’s a lot of pent up anger. James teaches, or remind Otis to mind his manners and his place. We know that young Otis is a playful soul; one that is not being let out, so acting is his release.
Although we know that “Honey Boy” is autobiographical in nature, the way the film switches from young Otis to present day Otis doesn’t give the film an autobiographical feeling, allowing Hedges and Jupe to naturally progress through the opposite ends of one personality. Jupe is the standout here, showing a range of emotions, eventually taking control of his own life from his abusive father.
Adding a rich context to the characters is the court motel outside L.A. that James has them shacked up in; a home to prostitution and drugs and not exactly the best way to raise a son. LaBeouf’s performance as his own abuser is some of the most powerful acting I’ve seen this year – it is truly a release for him to finally acknowledge his own pain and to deal with, but it is Jupe that truly supports LaBeouf’s transformation.
Hedges, who is having yet another amazing year in 2019 stands out as the result of all the abuse. More importantly, the character realizes that his outlet is just an escape, something his father did to himself as well – life father, like son, until they both eventually become drifters; there is a lyricism about the way in which they drift, the powerful music from Alex Somers drives the characters toward their destinies.
As strong as the performances are, Natasha Braier’s cinematography must not go unnoticed: her work during the modern day settings with lots of natural sunlight flowing through the interior spaces, suggesting, in fact encouraging an open place in which to share our darkest fears contrasts with dingy, cramped surroundings of the motel young Otis and James lived in. Braier’s exterior shots are all about the gorgeous sunsets, the golden halo that permeates the Los Angeles Basin punctuating the dreams with which Otis has for his life, but his father can’t see.
LaBeouf has continued his acting career even through his recovery period and his performances get deeper and deeper; “The Peanut Butter Falcon” from earlier this year is a shining example.
As a screenwriter, even if he focuses on down and out recovery type characters, he has a future as a screenwriter. “Honey Boy” proves the exception to LaBeouf’s rule and I, for one, hope he continues to write as well as act.
3.75 out of 4
