HONEY BOY – Review

It’s hard to critique a piece of art when it’s presented in the form of a diary or journal. Pages upon pages of memories and raw human emotions that show someone at their most vulnerable. You begin to feel like you’re reading something that wasn’t meant for you, that its purpose was meant just for the writer of the words. HONEY BOY is precisely that. An unfiltered pouring out of heart-wrenching emotions. And just like many tragic stories, perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned within the tear-soaked pages.

Shia LaBeouf has written a tragic biopic with a surprising amount of empathy for the main perpetrator of the title character’s pain. Otis, playfully nicknamed Honey Bear by his dad, is an actor who is forced to check into rehab after a drunken night on the town. It is through discussions with the counselors at the facility that Otis is able to unearth painful memories from his childhood.

Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges play Otis (meant to be a younger and older Shia LaBeouf) at the two different stages of his life. Noah Jupe comes across like a seasoned veteran trapped in a young boy’s body – performing at a level well beyond his years. He’s a boy who is faced with the pressures of his career along with the physical and mental pressures of an abusive father. Besides delivering an uncanny vocal delivery similar to LaBeouf, Lucas Hedges masters the art of pent-up rage, even if we’ve seen this performance before from him. While his scenes are few compared to Jupe, we see in both of them how the effect of these painful moments can build in their subconscious and become too painful to face.

Shia LaBeouf is extraordinary in playing his father. It’s painful seeing him confront his real-life demons and portray on screen the abuse he received; an artful form of self-help where he’s having a dialogue with his younger self. The script is more sympathetic to this character than the audience may provide, portraying him as a tragic figure plagued with addiction and a desire for his son to be better than him. Juxtaposing scenes of him attend AA meetings along with Otis’ stint in rehab is a heartbreaking reminder of how the disease of addiction can be hereditary.

It’s a sad story that often feels restrained by its own repetition of despair. The tumultuous relationship between the father and the son is the main focus of the film, but there are hints throughout of how the film could tackle other elements of Otis’ life. Instead, it focuses heavily on the broken father figure and tends to revel in the scenes of pain he causes. From flicking cigarettes at his child to scene after scene of verbal abuse, it’s a depressing affair that occasionally speaks to deeper issues in our culture.

At times, more than just art serving as catharsis, HONEY BOY speaks about the toxic masculinity that today’s generation is finally coming to terms with. Boys who were raised by a generation of men who sought to instill life lessons through strength and tough love, just like the generation of fathers before them and those before them. The psychological effects of that upbringing and it’s cyclical nature is examined with a tender hand by director Alma Har’el. Her approach along with LaBeouf’s script never asks for the audience to forgive the mistakes of these men, but for us to become aware that we will only break this chain if we can reconcile and learn from our past trauma.

Overall score: 3 out of 4

HONEY BOY is playing in limited release