Film Review: Beautiful Boy

"My Son Is Out There Somewhere, And I Don't Know What He's Doing! I Don't Know How To Help Him..."

Following on the early year release of the quite baffling Robert Zemeckis directed Welcome to Marwen, Steve Carell (The Big Short) returns once again to the big screen with Beautiful Boy, a low-key and rather delicate insight into the troubled family life of American journalist and author, David Sheff, whose 2008 memoir of the same name acts as the basis for a movie focusing on the central relationship between Carell's Sheff and his young, overly troubled and drug addicted son as played by the breakout star of the past few years, Timothée Chalamet (Lady Bird, Call Me By Your Name). Directed by Belgian filmmaker, Felix Van Groeningen, who also contributes to the screenplay alongside Lion screenwriter, Luke Davies, Beautiful Boy is a particularly somber cinematic glance into the effect of substance abuse and addiction, a film which although struggles to maintain a constant flow of greatness throughout its near two hour runtime due to some rather messy and dragged out pacing, succeeds in presenting a wide range of themes and ideas with a level of dramatic authenticity which makes the final product something both emotionally draining and cinematically fulfilling, and with a central acting duo with talent and chemistry to burn, Beautiful Boy is annoyingly just short of something rather excellent, but still highly impressive nonetheless. 

Bouncing back and forth throughout the early life of Chalamet's Nick across three main time periods, Beautiful Boy takes the nonlinear narrative approach in attempting to portray a boundless familial bond between father and son, with Carell's David a well educated, respected and grounded caring family man who is completely bedazzled by a fundamental lack of understanding regarding his son's reliance on a horrifying range of illegal substances when the world has seemingly been handed to him on a plate. Will Carell and Chalamet joyously bouncing off of each other with a level of acting which just breathes authenticity and has no problem whatsoever in attempting to construct a sense of realism, the differences in performance type also benefits the film as a whole, with Chalamet's drug-fuelled transformation carrying the almighty stand-out heft seen before from other actors in the likes of films with tonal similarities such as Requiem for a Dream and Dallas Buyers Club, and Carell counteracting the extreme side of things with a nuanced, empathetic and quite understated performance which ranks up there with his best dramatic work since Foxcatcher. With an ocean-like cinematography, a really interesting soundtrack which blends indie guitar riffs with a jukebox soundtrack, allowing for one of the best scenes in which a teenage Nick bellows out "Territorial Pissings" alongside the radio, Beautiful Boy is indeed a really interesting two-sided character piece, which although does let itself down with a rather silly elongated runtime, works best in the dramatic sense by having that horrific sense of unease the most impressive works about substance abuse always need to include in order to really stick and make a lasting impression. 

Overall Score: 7/10

90th Academy Awards: Best Actor

Oscars 2018: Best Actor

With the Academy managing to get the winner of the Best Actor category absolutely spot on last year, with Casey Affleck's performance in Manchester By The Sea one of the best on-screen character depictions I have seen in recent history, the spoils this year all seem to be heading in the direction of Britain's own Gary Oldman, whose portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour is one of uncanny excellence, a performance with much more credence and power than simply stating it's Oldman's "turn" to win an Oscar after being seemingly snubbed for previous nominations in a similar vein to Leonardo DiCaprio's seemingly odds on win for 2016's The Revenant. With Daniel Day Lewis shining as always in his so-called final role as Reynolds Woodcock in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread and Daniel Kaluuya creating his own personal waves in Jordan Peele's Get Out, either performers would be worthy of awards success, whilst Timothée Chalamet and Denzel Washington fill up the remainder of the ballot paper for Call Me By Your Name and Roman J. Israel, Esq. respectively. In regards to missed nominations, Christian Bale's outstanding performance as Captain Joseph Blocker in Hostiles has been shockingly snubbed in every major awards ceremony worldwide, whilst the more out-of-there mind could argue Vince Vaughn's career changing role in Brawl In Cell Block 99 could easily have seen recognition too. Anyhow, here are the main points: 

Winner - Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour)

Personal Favourite - Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out)

Nomination Snub - Christian Bale (Hostiles)

Film Review: Lady Bird

"I Want You To Be The Very Best Version Of Yourself That You Can Be..."

Arriving as the final Best Picture nomination from the upcoming Academy Awards to be released in the UK before the ceremony takes place on the first weekend of March, Greta Gerwig (Jackie) halts her acting career for her directorial debut, Lady Bird, a coming of age comedy drama formed around a screenplay written by Gerwig herself and starring Saoirse Ronan as the titular troublesome teen from Sacramento, California who in her transference from school to college faces difficulties within both her home-life and her widening taste of the adolescent outside world. Supported by the likes of Laurie Metcalf (Toy Story 3), Tracy Letts (The Post) and Beanie Feldstein (Neighbours 2), Gerwig's movie manages to break free from the cliches and pressures of coming-of-age dramas in which the film undeniably takes inspiration from, with the likes of particularly Ferris Bueller's Day Off and 2016's little seen The Edge of Seventeen obvious reference points in terms of storyline, thanks to a tightly wound script which manages to balance each of the film's leading characters with their own personal strengths, weaknesses and flaws, resulting in performances which not only feel perfectly rounded and entirely believable, but are so fundamentally humane and empathetic that the movie spins you around and grips you tightly from the opening scene in which we discover the roller-coaster nature of the relationship which is progressively examined between mother and daughter.  

After shining in a wide array of roles including The Grand Budapest Hotel and particularly John Crowley's magnificent 2015 romantic drama, Brooklyn, Ronan's portrayal of Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson is an absorbing and entirely empathetic performance, an awards courting triumph which perfectly captures the wildly inconsistent emotion of teenage angst, acne faced and all, one which is aided profusely by the magnificently resonant aura which the Irish star brings to a leading role bursting with flavourful personality and charisma, a character who although is proven to be riddled with human error and socially shocking flaws, manages to be much more interesting than the standardised Hollywood image of a cinematic on-screen teenager. Although the flashy editing and electrifying pace of the movie interweaves Lady Bird's in-school debacles and the choppy relationships with both the female and male sex, with Manchester By The Sea's Lucas Hedges and Call Me By Your Name's Timothée Chalamet the cameo love interests whose personal narrative endpoints both end in extravagant fashion, the cornerstone of the movie is entirely focused on the exhausting battle between the child and parent, with Laurie Metcalf's mother figure, Marion, a resoundingly commonplace thorn in the side of youthful curiosity of which many 21st century teenagers are more than accustomed to, with the performance of Metcalf equally as impressive as her younger counterpart, resulting in the many on-screen discussions between the two strong willed characters entirely captivating. With a deep level of care for the characters and precise direction from Gerwig who in her obvious admiration and pride for her screenplay manages to get the best out of even the most bit-part players of the piece, Lady Bird is flawless, a movie full with outstanding performances and a movie which manages to blend laugh out loud and perfectly pitched comic timing with elements of lachrymose inducing tenderness so effectively, you'll think you would have known each of the film's characters for years, and for a movie with a runtime with just over ninety minutes, it's suffice to say, I would have happily stayed for much, much longer. 

Overall Score: 10/10