Shia LaBeouf Faces The Trauma of His Past in Red-Band Trailer For His Autobiographical Drama HONEY BOY
I had a chance to see Shia LeBeouf’s Honey Boy at Sundance early this year and when all was said and done, it ended up being my favorite movie at the festival. It was certainly one of the best!
Labeouf wrote the film and it’s based on his own experiences growing up as a child actor and the struggles with his manipulative and alcoholic father as a child as well as his mental health as an adult. This is a heart-wrenching story as his father, who is played by LeBouf, was mentally and physically abusive toward his son.
Director Alma Har’el (Bombay Beach, LoveTrue) “brings to life a young actor’s stormy childhood and early adult years as he struggles to reconcile with his father and deal with his mental health. Fictionalizing his ascent to stardom, and subsequent crash-landing into rehab and recovery, Har’el casts Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place) and Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased, Manchester by the Sea) as Otis Lort, navigating different stages in a frenetic career. LaBeouf takes on the therapeutic challenge of playing a version of his own father, an ex-rodeo clown and a felon. Dancer-singer FKA twigs makes her feature-film debut, playing neighbor and kindred spirit to the younger Otis in their garden-court motel home. Har’el’s feature narrative debut is a one-of-a-kind collaboration between filmmaker and subject, exploring art as medicine and imagination as hope through the life and times of a talented, traumatized performer who dares to go in search of himself.”
This is one of the things I had to say about the film in my review:
While the movie dealt with some heavy subject matter that was hard to watch, I still loved it, and it gave me a new found respect for Labeouf, both as a person and a talent. I hope to see him write more movies, because the script for this was so good. He poured himself into this movie, you can tell that it was extremely personal and you could see and feel that in the film. It took guts for him to tell this story of his life, and after it was over I just wanted to give him a hug.
Honey Boy arrives in theaters on November 8th, 2019. I know this film isn’t for everyone, but it was a great film that told an honest, heartfelt story of a boy and his relationship with his dad.