I would make the argument that you won’t be able to feel the full power of Beautiful Boy unless you’ve had some experience with addiction. Not to say that viewers who haven’t been affected by this disease would lack the empathy to understand it, but I think firsthand experience allows the film to resonate on a higher level. As I was watching Beautiful Boy and it hit all the familiar beats, I was immediately taken back to a time when addiction was very much a part of my life.
Addiction came into my life at a very early age. I was a kid when I became very aware that my uncle was an addict. It was an issue the family had dealt with before I was even born and it was something that ravaged my uncle’s life for many years off and on. When I was younger, my mom would frame pictures of me at various ages and put the corresponding dollar amounts within the photo. So at two, I had a framed photo with a $2 bill and at five, it was a $5 bill and so on. The first time I realized my uncle was so desperate for my money in order to buy drugs was when my mother had to frequently replace the money from my framed photos. She made various excuses as to why she was replacing them but by the time I turned ten, and $10 kept disappearing from the pictures, I knew what was going on.
My uncle was a very likable guy and he could make you believe that he finally saw the light when it came to his addiction. He’d clean up for months at a time and then suddenly we’d have to search for him because he’d be missing for days at a time. We later discussed that one of the hardest moments for myself, and him, was when I was about 15 and I was with my mother helping her search for him and we found him wandering the streets. He didn’t look like himself. In fact, he looked homeless and like a former shell of the man that made me laugh so much as a kid, despite his faults. I remember as we pulled up next to him and he looked me in the eye with a look of disappointment in himself. I could tell he was consumed by pain because it was the first time he could tell I really saw him hit rock bottom due to his addiction. My mom begged him to get into the car but he refused. I would later find out that he didn’t get in because he couldn’t allow himself to be around me in that state. He was was embarrassed and ashamed.
My uncle battled drug addiction until my late teens-early twenties. It sounds cliché but he had to want the help for himself, it wasn’t enough that we would beg and try to push him into it. He had to make the decision to change his life on his own. Once he made that decision, he met a wonderful woman, had a child and was clean and blissfully happy for the last few years of his life. My uncle was clean for a good 6 years or so before he passed away unexpectedly from complications due to pneumonia. What made that end not as sad as it could’ve been, was that that the family knew that he was the best version of himself when he passed away. Clean, sober, happy and fulfilled.
Watching Beautiful Boy stirred up all of those familiar emotions for me. There is an honesty in its depiction of addiction and the performances become so good that you forget you’re watching actors playing roles. The family depicted on screen could be yours or a family you know. Some films transcend their fiction and become real, something that Beautiful Boy does on more than a few occasions.
Perhaps this happens because this really isn’t a story based in fiction. Beautiful Boy is based on two memoirs: “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction” by David Sheff and “Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines” by Nic Sheff. The former is told from the father’s perspective as he deals with his son’s addiction to meth and the latter is written by the son, showing his perspective as his life became consumed by meth. The two memoirs form the story told in Beautiful Boy and by using the two perspectives, we get an honest depiction of both sides. On one, we have a family who goes through all the anger, denial, worry, and finally the tough love necessary when dealing with a family member who is a drug addict and on the other, we have the addict himself, displaying ALL the ups and downs of one who has been consumed by the drug. This side doesn’t demonize the individual because at a certain point the drug has given away to any self-control. What this side shows is that the addict sometimes really wants to get clean but it’s a struggle and it’s a struggle that is full of strides toward sobriety thank turn into backtracks down the road of addiction.
Beautiful Boy tells the tale of the addiction of teenager Nic Sheff (Timothee Chalamet) from two perspectives: his and that of his father, David (Steve Carell). Using a tortured chronology that employs layered flashbacks to let us know what stage of Nic’s addiction we are experiencing. When we first meet Nic, he’s already well into the throes of addiction and, in all but the innermost nesting of the flashbacks, he is at least experimenting with drugs. His father is dimly aware that he’s trying things (and even shares a joint with him at one point) but is unconcerned. Eventually, however, both Nic and David are forced to confront what has happened. A rehab stint that initially appears to be going well, leads to a setback. This is followed by a cycle of binges and abstinence. The breakthrough seems to come when Nic moves from San Francisco to Los Angeles to live with his mother, Vicki (Amy Ryan). He’s 14 months sober when he returns to visit his father, stepmother Karen (Maura Tierney), and half-siblings Jasper (Christian Convery) and Daisy (Oakley Bull). The experience proves to be too much for Nic and he doesn’t make it back to Los Angeles in the same state he left.
I think that some will take issue with the film because there really isn’t a straightforward narrative. The film jumps around a bit to tell its story and it’s clear that’s not moving towards a definite conclusion. For me, this is where the power of the film lies because, in real life, there is uncertainty when dealing with a situation like this. The film isn’t so much a movie, as it is a series of events. Since the film is based on a true story, it feels very much ripped from their personal experiences and that makes it a powerful, albeit tough, experience. I read several reviews of the film on Rotten Tomatoes that called it “glum”, “depressing,” and “bleak” while diminishing the film for these very reasons. Let me tell you, addiction is “glum”, “depressing,” and “bleak” and to tell the story in a way other than this, would ring false. The film, much like an addiction, isn’t supposed to be a walk in the park and I give the film credit for not compromising itself in order to tell a clean version of the story.
Writer-director Felix Van Groeningen and his co-writer, Luke Davies (a former heroin user who went on to pen the Oscar-nominated Lion), help remove the stigma of addiction by focusing on the neuroscience of dependency. At its crux, Beautiful Boy is the story of a father letting go of his son. In one of the numerous flashback scenes to Nic as a young boy, we see father and son surfing. David loses his son, shouting his name in a panic until he spots Nic, who has gone ahead, searching for a bigger wave and a bigger high, gleefully surfing back into the beach. One could argue that David’s addiction is holding on to the son he once was, something he may need to let go of just as much as Nic needs to let go of drugs.
Beautiful Boy lives and breathes based on its performances. Steve Carell, who hasn’t received nearly enough kudos for his role, is top notch as David. Having been on this side of addiction before, Carell’s performance is heartbreaking and honest. From wanting to save his son to showing outbursts of anger because he truly doesn’t understand how his son with so much promise fell so far, Carell never misses a beat. Even more powerful are his scenes of distrust. There is one moment after Nic has been clean for 18 months, that Nic comes home late and says he was at an NA meeting that ran long. David wants to believe him but he’s been burned so many times that he actually asks him to take a urine test. Carell plays the moment so honestly that you go from being upset that he doesn’t believe his son to coming back around and realizing why he can’t fully do so. Carell offers a sympathetic and at times moving portrait of a father desperate to understand what has happened to his son yet unable to cope with it up close.
On the other end of the duo is Timothee Chalamet who has proven in a short period of time that he’s one of the best actors of his generation. Chalamet’s nuanced portrayal covers all the bases: delirium, despair, depression, determination, and desperation. He avoids all the cliched tics that might be associated with someone playing a drug addict and isn’t afraid to dive deep into the despair of the role. Chalamet is also good enough to bounce from a sober Nic to a Nic that is in his darkest corner of addiction showing a focused range that is a testament to his talent. You root for Nic to get better because of Chalamet and when he relapses, you feel the setback as if you’re watching your loved one go through the same thing. His recent nominations for Best Supporting Actor isn’t about him being the flavor of month, he’s the real deal and deserves every bit of attention he’s getting.
Movies about addiction hit a lot of the same beats and sometimes this is seen as a detriment by most critics. For some, it turns into a 2 hour PSA as it tries to get its message across but if you’ve been through it, there is no denying the power of a depiction when they truly get it right. I won’t say that Beautiful Boy is a blissful experience and it’s definitely not a feel-good time but it’s a film that sticks with you long after it is over because it’s unafraid to dig deep and show addiction in its ugliest form. Moviegoers go to the movies to escape reality but I can respect any film that makes you confront reality, no matter how hard it may be.
