Synopsis
After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine.
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Cast
- Steve CarellDavid Sheff
- Timothée ChalametNic Sheff
- Maura TierneyKaren Barbour
- Amy RyanVicki Sheff
- Christian ConveryJasper Sheff
- Oakley BullDaisy Sheff
- Kaitlyn DeverLauren
- Stefanie ScottJulia
- Julian WorksGack
- Jack Dylan Grazer12-Year-Old Nic Sheff
Recommendations
- 80
Screen Daily
Strong, committed performances and the upsetting ring of reality anchor a highly-personal film which cycles through addiction, relapse and rehab in an episodic way, each high as inevitable as the low which follows. - 80
Variety
Beautiful Boy, made by the Belgian director Felix Van Groeningen (“The Broken Circle Breakdown”), from a script by Luke Davies, is scrupulous and tenderly wounding — a drama that seizes and holds you. - 75
IndieWire
Chalamet, a heartthrob unafraid to tackle unglamorous material, so embodies the tragic struggles of a drug-addled young man it’s a wonder he made it through the production, while Carell’s melancholic eyes absorb every detail. It’s a haunting two-hander that allows their talent to tower over everything else. - 75
Entertainment Weekly
Beautiful Boy keeps you strung on that line for nearly all of its run time, and sometimes it feels less like a movie than an endurance test — one that’s lovingly, meticulously made but almost too much like real life: an impressionistic series of highs and lows, relapses and recoveries, without the necessary anchor of a cohesive arc. - 70
Los Angeles Times
The detachment at work in Beautiful Boy suggests an attempt to speak clearly and truthfully, to resist the clichés of the addiction drama while acknowledging that those clichés can hardly be rewritten. - 67
The Playlist
By working in such a deliberately muted key, the emotional payoffs we’re conditioned to require from a story like this never quite arrive, and Van Groeningen never finds a workable substitute for them. - 60
The Guardian
There are moments of crushing emotional weight but as the film progresses, they start to carry less power. - 60
CineVue
Far from perfect, and very rarely offering us anything unexpected, Beautiful Boy is nevertheless a well-mounted depiction of the terrible cycle of substance abuse.
