Beautiful Boy

— Viewed as an acting exercise, Timothée Chalamet is perfect in “Beautiful Boy” and Steve Carell continues his streak of talented portrayals. Carell is David Sheff, a California journalist whose son, Nic, once filled with promise, is now dealing with meth addiction. It’s a very personal film based on David and Nic’s separate books. Since it is so personal and looks at only one struggle, I was more easily drawn into the helplessness and frustration that are part of the realities of addition for both the addict and their family. This is a good film, showing the evolution of David and Nic’s relationship from one of easy-going, loving, wholesome innocence to isolation, anger, frustration and desperation. The criticism that this depiction fails to represent the large number of persons affected by addiction who come from a demographic that isn’t white and wealthy, and for whom far fewer treatment alternatives are available, may be justified, but this is only one story, not all stories, and addiction can affect anyone, not just people of color or the impoverished or disenfranchised. I liked the film, with its earnestness and its heights and depths, and the questions it raised about my own misconceptions about addiction. A friend of mine referred to it as an "emotional roller coaster" and it is, but it's worth the ride.

---

[2018. 120 min. Directed by Felix van Groeningen. Starring Steve Carell, Timothee Chalamet, and Maura Tierney.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/beautiful-boy-2018