I’m sure that Beautiful Boy was released this time of year with awards recognition in mind. It seems to have been almost completely overlooked in the glut of prestige releases, which is a shame. Based on two books written by David Sheff and his son Nick about the latter’s catastrophic drug addiction, this is a well meaning and thoughtful film.
As Nick (Timothée Chalamet) spirals out of control, his Dad (Steve Carell) tries to make sense of what is happening to him and come up with a way of helping him through his problems. There seems to be two main criticisms of this film. Firstly, that it doesn’t offer much insight into drug addiction for anyone who has been there because it mostly shows it from the father’s point of view.
As someone who has had little contact with that world, I found that approach helpful and enlightening. I could identify with David and imagine myself acting in the same way. So, it had a feeling of realism for me. The second major complaint has been about the overbearing and on the nose soundtrack. Whilst I can understand that, at times, the music was used heavy handedly to signal how you should be feeling, any film with the peerless Mogwai on the soundtrack must be doing something right, and a scene of David and a younger Nick driving as Nirvana’s Territorial Pissings played was one of two outstanding sequences in the movie.
The other being when David finally loses his temper with his son, and runs out of the house after him. You can see the agony and frustration etched across Carell’s face. That is just one moment in another outstanding Carell performance. In the last couple of years he has shown himself to be one of the foremost screen actors working today. Chalamet, along with Maura Tierney as David’s current wife, Amy Ryan as his ex/Nick’s Mum and Kaitlyn Deaver and Nick’s girlfriend are all solid in supporting Carell’s tremendous performance. Though with flaws, this is a heartfelt and moving film.
Rating: 8 out of 10