‘I’m going to make a movie about you…’
Shia LaBeouf is… an interesting fella. Charting his career from child star to appearing in the Transformers and Indiana Jones movies to some kind of self sabotaging auteur has been a bizarre and, at times, exhausting experience. To be honest, I quite like the guy. Anybody who hasn’t heard the Shia LaBeouf song for example, should immediately stop what they are doing and listen to it now. This project is an autobiographical account of LaBeouf’s childhood living with his abusive father. The troubled star plays his father and he wrote the screenplay whilst in court ordered rehab for a drink driving offence. This is as personal as it gets, and LaBeouf must be applauded for having the bravery to produce a work that had the potential to be roundly mocked…
Otis (Noah Jupe) is an up and coming child actor who lives with his father James (Shia LaBeouf) in a rough and ready motel. The action switches between this tableau and Otis’ future life as a traumatised young man (played by Lucas Hedges) living in a rehab facility.
Firstly, in what almost accounts to onscreen therapy, it must be said that LaBeouf turns in an astonishingly brutal and honest performance as the jealous father of a child star. Crucially, this never feels like an excuse for his own erratic behaviour, merely a truthful account of life with a recovering alcoholic with mental health issues. While Honey Boy was clearly cathartic for LaBeouf, it is also mostly compelling and despite the fact that not much happens.
As you can imagine, Honey Boy is quite an odd film, but this quirkiness is also its main strength, reminding us that LaBeouf is more than just a name in the tabloids, he is also a damn good actor when he puts his mind to it. Whether this is a one off or a return to form remains to be seen but there is no doubting that Honey Boy is a surprisingly powerful and captivating work.