Honey Boy is a semi-autobiographical movie written by actor Shia LaBeouf. The story about a child actor and his father was written while LaBeouf was in court-ordered rehab after a public intoxication arrest in 2017.
This is a very personal and intimate recreation of a defining time in Shia’s life. It’s an examination of a broken relationship that Shia didn’t realize had so deeply affected him until his past came up in therapy.
Honey Boy moves between two specific times in Otis’ life-1995 and 2005–ages twelve and twenty-two. When adult Otis gets in trouble (the same way LaBeouf did in real life) the flashbacks start as Otis explores why he feels the way he does now.
Otis’ father acted as his guardian while he worked on set. An angry and alcoholic man, being around James was often like walking through a minefield. At any time things could pop off. With Otis constantly around a toxic and dark person, he yearns for a calm and nurturing relationship with his father. He’s searching for solace.
This movie is smart in how it navigates trauma. With such a heavy topic it’d be easy to wallow in misery (Joker) and make this entirely brutal to watch. The movie keeps a steady pace, never beating to death on how awful James is without saying something important about it. Breaks are given to you with Otis finding joy when he can. With each scene together, their relationship is first established, examined, and then exposed. James thankfully isn’t portrayed simply as a monster for the sake of being a monster. Time is given to his history, the trail of why he is who he is.
Another important layer is that the misery leads to something–a reckoning between father and son that is messy and frankly very real. Let me put this to you as well: there’s no happy ending and clean conclusion. After all, Otis grows up and the trauma and things he picked up from his father are coming out in ways that are ruining his life.
The Talk Otis has with his dad is riveting and revelatory. Otis puts it all out there. It’s incredibly sad but necessary. Otis is forced to grow up far faster than he should, creating a confrontation that you and Otis aren’t sure how is going to go.
LeBeouf plays James and he’s doing some exceptional work. Noah Jupe plays young Otis and this kid is nothing but remarkable. I don’t know what’s going on right now, but there are some amazing kid actors working today. More than how he delivers his lines, it’s in his body language too. When James gets into a fight on the phone with Otis’ mother, Otis hangs in as long as he can before walking out of the motel room he and his dad live in. With a background of venomous screaming, Otis’ face contorts as he tries to fight back his misery. There are a few powerful moments like this.
Brilliant movie.
******
That brings me to Uncut Gems. A movie I’m not sure how a feel about. At the end I didn’t regret watching it but the time getting to that point was rough.
Adam Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a high end jeweler in the Diamond District of NYC. It’s made clear early on that Howard is a gambler with a problem. After a few run ins with the people he owes money to–and seeing how he reacts to them–it becomes clear that Howard is a degenerate gambler. The high he gets from gambling is seemingly the only driving force in his life.
So Howard, like James in Honey Boy, is awful. But unlike James, Howard has no depth to him. It’s just a trail of stupid and misery from start to finish. A large portion of the runtime of Uncut Gems is a group of people screaming at each other. Just insipid insults, cursing, and nonsense yelling for what feels like minutes at a time. Put end to end, these scenes add up and it’s not good. It frequently gets exhausting and boring. I think making this a short film could have been the better way to go. The entire movie is him juggling one debt in the air to pay for the other.
That said, Adam Sandler is really good. He can bring a douche to life so I’ll give him that much.
Putting these two movies that travel on the dark side of life side by side (which I did not do on purpose) Honey Boy is the better investment of your time. It’s way richer in content and character development. The avenues to dissect and discuss aren’t even close.