[Content Warning: Mentions of drug use, overdose, underage drinking, and spoilers, viewer discretion is advised]
Beautiful Boy is the type of movie you’d begin to watch, not knowing the full effect it’ll have on you, especially with it being a true story.
I personally try to avoid reading the movie descriptions because I find that watching the movie for what it really is is important. More important than reading the description and judging it based on the description.
There’s also a book version of Beautiful Boy, one I have yet to read. The author David Sheff said: “I realized the power of telling a story like this because it opens the door to other people”.
Addiction for many is a gut-wrenching secret that people refuse to discuss. Nic Sheff (Timothée Chalamet) finds himself lost in a loophole, as drugs begin to control his life. Repeatedly he finds himself running back to drugs.
Nic’s father, David Sheff (Steve Carell) tries his best to get him back to the Nic that he knew, raised, and built. The way that both actors play and represent their characters is different from any other, with extreme passion.
When Nic was four, his parents divorced. He had to grow up going between his dad’s house in San Francisco, and his mom’s house in Los Angeles. His father had assumed that he’d be okay, and would handle the situation well.
This went on for years. At 11, Nic had begun drinking, saying “the world was really abrasive and overwhelming, and I felt really hopeless…when I had begun drinking [alcohol], I couldn’t stop.”
Only a year later, Nic had moved on to marijuana, and David found it inside of Nic’s bag and questioned him. The answer he had gotten was a simple, “it was a mistake.” Slowly, everything Nic had worked for; being on the honor roll and captain of the water polo team, had slipped away. He used multitudes of substances all at once, acid, ecstasy, and cocaine became Nic’s entire life.
The effects of drugs only grew worse. Nic eventually switched to crystal methamphetamine, carrying major health risks including multiple side effects like rapid heart rate, increased blood pressure, elevated body temperature, insomnia, anxiety, paranoia, aggression/irritability, and tremors.
This movie shows the harsh reality of drug use. The terrible impact that addiction leaves on several families each year is gruesome.
48.5 million Americans (ages 12 and older) have battled some form of substance use within this past year. Millions of people fight battles that we don’t see every single day.
The Rotten Tomato rating on Beautiful Boy is 68% or a 6.8/10. However, I would give the movie Beautiful Boy a 10/10. The movie hurts in a different way than any other movie would, and feels quiet, as if it were a documentary.
Though the relapse cycle is repetitive, it is realistic. People relapse repeatedly, emphasized in Beautiful Boy.
My favorite part of the movie is when David sings “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon to Nic. David would sing the song to Nic when he was a child, a memory of love, and a place before addiction had taken over their lives.
The symbolism behind the song in the movie is really the lyrics,
“Close your eyes // have no fear //the monsters gone //he’s on the run and your daddy’s here.”
These emphasize the parental instinct to protect their children. In the movie, David cannot protect Nic from the drugs, making the moment in the movie ache even more.
Beautiful Boy is a reflection of the fragile line between love and loss. It forces you to sit with the heavy discomfort of addiction. It’s not an easy watch but it’s an unforgettable one. You’re not just watching Nic’s story, you feel it and carry the weight of his struggle even after the movie is over.
