Honey Boy (2019)

Honey Boy tells a personal and touching story through dreamy visuals and incredible performances. Such a well crafted piece of narrative art. I highly recommend this film to those who enjoy and appreciate cinema for the beauty that it is.

Fmovies: From Even Stevens to Transformers, I've watched Shia Labeouf's career rapidly evolve and slowly wind down to how people view him today. Recognized as someone who may have let the fame get to his head, Honey Boy is a film that will show you why he was the way he was throughout certain moments in his life. Recently premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival and hitting theatres this Fall, here's why I believe Honey Boy is one of the best and most necessary movies of the year.

Written by Shia LaBeouf, Honey Boy tells the true story of his own childhood, with name changes to make it not quite so obvious. LaBeouf plays his own father, who is really the central focus of the movie in a way. Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges portray Otis (the name used for his character in this story) from two different time periods in his life, and both of them deliver award-worthy performances. Those two great performances aside, Shia LaBeouf is the main reason to see this movie.

Celebrities are viewed by people in the way they create an image for themselves or by the roles they choose to take in films or television shows. While those things may reflect certain personalities, there will always be certain celebrities that are not allowing their true selves in the public spotlight. For this reason alone, I believe this movie is a necessary watch for those who have negative thoughts toward LaBeouf, especially over the last few years. This movie showcases one of the most incredible performances of his career and it's truly heartbreaking to see behind the curtains.

This is the first film that I've seen by director Alma Har'el, but her work here is crazy good. I can't wait to see what her next project will be. The combination of terrific dialogue, great direction, and performances that felt so natural just had me completely immersed in this 93-minute, quaint, emotional roller coaster. Although it's kept simple, there is a lot of reading between the lines for audiences to see when they watch this movie. I love when a film can be effective with even more to say as you look deeper.

In the end, Honey Boy is one of the greatest true stories that have been disguised as fiction that I've seen in quite some time. If you know Shia LaBeouf in terms of how he has been behaving lately, I think this movie will be quite the eye-opener for you. This is a great story from start to finish and it even becomes slightly meta at times, which surprisingly worked very well. Using pseudonyms really helped this movie and it can be viewed as a story about any young actor with a hard lifestyle. In my opinion, this is a brilliant little film that I fear will not be noticed by many viewers. Please seek this one out when it hits theatres or streaming. I think you'll be glad that you did.

You've got to be in the right headspace for this type of drama or it could eat you up. That being said Honey Boy is a total accomplishment for Shia in all aspects of the word. Honestly when Holes & Transformers were around I was not a fan but over the last 10 years or so he has delivered incredible performances this being the most vulnerable in my opinion. The entire cast is amazing & shining a light on child stardom and the repercussions of that matters. We've seen this scenario play in Hollywood too many times. Maybe this will make a dent somehow and I look forward to seeing what comes next for Shia.

Honey Boy fmovies. Greetings again from the darkness. Most 12 year olds don't have a job. Perhaps their parents have assigned a few chores around the house to help them learn responsibility, but for the most part, they go to school and play ... the things that kids do. Shia LaBeouf had 2 jobs as a kid. He was a rising actor and he was employer/quasi-guardian of his father. Now in his 30's, LaBeouf has written a screenplay about his childhood and he stars as his father in an attempt to exorcise some personal demons. It also happens to make for compelling cinema.

The film opens with a montage of cuts between a 20-something LeBeouf (played by Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges) performing stunts on an action movie set (clearly meant to represent TRANSFORMERS) and a serious automobile wreck and subsequent DUI. The wreck caused major damage to his hand and resulted in court-mandated rehabilitation. While in rehab, his therapist (played by Laura San Giacomo) diagnoses him with PTSD ... not military war related, but rather broken family related.

In this film, LeBeouf has named the character based on himself Otis, and the character based on his own father James Lort. In addition to Hedges playing the early-20's version, another rising actor, Noah Jupe, plays Otis as a 12 year old. As rehabbing Otis puts his childhood memories to paper, we see flashbacks featuring the younger Otis and his father. They live in a dump of a motel, and ride to the TV show set (meant to be "Even Stevens") on dad's motorcycle. James Lort/dad is a former performing clown, recovering addict, and ex-con. He's the kind of guy who talks a big game and blames everyone else for keeping him from succeeding. To put it mildly ... he's a jerk. That's not to say he doesn't have his moments as a caring parent, but those moments are nullified by the bullying and threats of violence towards his young son. That son is desperate to please his dad, yet wise enough to know that he's not to be trusted.

Shia LeBeouf dives in head first to play the man who had such an impact on his early years. This, mind you, is the kind of man who offers cigarettes to his young son, makes fun of his pre-pubescent body, and is quite jealous of his budding career. LeBeouf is at his best in a difficult role that surely cuts very deep for him. Supporting roles are played by singer FKA Twigs as the shy neighbor girl who befriends Otis, plus Natasha Lyonne, Maika Monroe, Clifton Collins Jr, and Byron Bowers.

Director Alma Har'el structures her first narrative feature film (she has previously worked on videos and documentaries) with timelines showing Otis at the two ages. There are no fancy camera tricks. Instead she trusts these talented actors to bring it home ... and that they do very well. Lucas Hedges was Oscar nominated for MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, and he is in the beautiful upcoming film WAVES. Noah Jupe is a star in the making, having previously appeared in A QUIET PLACE, and in the exhilarating upcoming film FORD VS FERRARI. These are some top notch actors at their very best.

As viewers, we have to remove ourselves from feeling anger and disgust towards the James Lort character. That's easier said than done when he says things like "The only thing my father gave me of any value was pain." It's meant to sum up his reasoning for his own parenting approach. There is a truly brilliant, and well-coordinated scene that acts as a three-way phone conversation between father, son, and estranged wife/mother. The kid is put smac

These films are quite rare, in a sense that; you don't find films this heartfelt.

I'd always thought LaBeouf was a bit off the rails and that his career was on a downward spiral, after watching this I'm eager for more of his content because he was stellar in this film.

Having done more research on the background of this film, I feel I can empathise with this film; you rarely a film so sincere and genuine like this.

Noah Jupe is a young actor that's been in a few good main films; such as Le Mans. He does a fantastic role playing young Otis. The on screen dynamic between him and LaBeouf is so wonderfully constructed.

To show others your life exsperiances, to be vulnerable its beautiful, and it connects us, which is what we all want in life, beautiful human connection. I'm grateful I was able to view this movie at the Sundance theater last night. I was too nervous to ask a question during the Q and A session after the movie but wanted to ask if they purposely chose to portray the modeling behavior between son and father. I recently went to a parenting class by @simplyonpurpose where they mentioned that 90% of the time a child is punished for repeating the same behaviors as their parents, only 10% of the time are children actually being disobedient. This movie did a wonderful job portraying that inevitably in a few very powerful scenes. Anyways parenting was obviously on my mind so perhaps I found what I wanted to see. We can't choose our parents or control their behaviors. We can only choose to be better, do better, love deeper and make an effort to model the type of behavior that will benefit our future generations. Love, empathy, healthy coping skills, how we treat others....Anyways I loved it! I found it very emotional and think it will connect with a wide range of audiences.