Written by Juliana Ukiomogbe
Beautiful Boy, directed by Felix Van Groeningen, is based on two memoirs written by a father, David Sheff, and son, Nic Sheff, about Nic’s drug addiction. Starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet in each respective role, the film tries to hit an emotional center, but unfortunately misses the mark.
First, let’s discuss the strength. The standout in Beautiful Boy is definitely Timothée Chalamet as his ability to make acting look like second nature is a joy to watch. He gets a lot of opportunities to be emotional and complex, and that’s where the film shines. It’s disappointing that he was not nominated for an Oscar for this role, because he’s absolutely brilliant.
Aside from Chalamet’s performance, the film was pretty bland. It’s clearly about a serious topic like drug addiction, but I found it quite hard to really empathise with each character’s struggle. We don’t spend enough time with each character to warrant caring about what happens to them, which makes the film less enjoyable. When Chalamet isn’t on-screen, there wasn’t much emotional depth. Steve Carell carries much of the film in his absence, and even his character came across as one-dimensional and uninteresting.
There’s not much to say about this film because not much happens in it. We get lots of flashbacks to Nic’s childhood that don’t serve much of a purpose, and it makes the film seem longer than it actually is. There was so much potential for this film, and I think it could’ve been better with a tighter script and more character development.
Overall, if you want to see Timothée Chalamet in one of his best roles and maybe learn a bit about how a family deals with addiction, then I would recommend it. Otherwise, it was pretty forgettable and not very engaging.
