'Beautiful Boy' Review: Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell Drama Drama

At best, "Beautiful Boy" is a heartbreaking paternal detective story, David Sheff (Steve Carell) undergoing a painful cycle of fear and resentment as he tries to help his collegiate son, Nic (Timothy Chalamet) to defeat a debilitating drug. addiction. At worst, this dark drama about the separation of the family is prolonged in sorrow with limited sadistic intensity. With less performance, it would collapse under the manipulative weight of unacquired gravitas, but these two actors transcend matter at every turn. Chalamet, an idiot who is not afraid to attack a non-glamorous material, thus embodies the tragic struggles of a young drug addict. It's a marvel that he has managed to cross production, while Carell's melancholy eyes absorb every detail. It's a haunted haunter that allows their talent to dominate everything else.

The Belgian director Felix Van Groeningen knows too well this film race that feels bad. Before this English-language debut, his Oscar nominee, "The Broken Circle Breakdown," explored the turmoil of a couple of musicians who face a sudden illness that destroys their intimate existence. But while this movie was loaded into a darker territory in its second half, "Beautiful Boy" is wasting no time in establishing its sinister context. At the first shot, David looks at a doctor and describes his son's challenges with crystal meth, then lays out the two questions that are central to each upcoming scene: "What does it do to him? and what can I do to help the? "

This obvious framing device responds to the impulses of a film that adopts the didactic approach. On the basis of the non-fiction memoirs co-written by the real Sheffs about Nic's difficult path to healing – he was sober for eight years – "Beautiful Boy" never leaves his unique and focused path. However, the script (credited to the director and Luke Davies, the Oscar-nominated "Lion" screenwriter, who wrote a novel based on his own addiction, "Candy") injects a structural trick to evoke the challenges David faces to his son during his childhood to the troubled creature who is now struggling to survive. Despite the nonlinear chronology, the narrative is very clear: David, a divorced and successful journalist who maintained a healthy relationship with his son until he went to university, n & # 39; He does not understand how Nic was found. a downward spiral so intense. In his search for answers, he turns to his vocation, goes out on the streets and gathers sources to come to a better understanding of the way forward.

The film reviews virtually every aspect of this process. David tries to continue to support his son while his second wife (Maura Tierney) cares more and more about their own young children. In the meantime, David tries to keep his ex-wife Vicki (an under-used Amy Ryan, reuniting with Carell for the first time since their days on "The Office") at Bay. At times, the film drifts to the dismal feats of Nic California, in many cases, avoiding death. Van Groeningen keeps a touch so delicate that he avoids exaggerating Nic's ongoing challenges and even manages to illustrate – in a prolonged sequence where Nic puts forth a new girlfriend – how much the guy derives ephemeral contentment at each once it is high.

In these scenes and in others who see him attacking his astonished father, Chalamet once again illustrates an astonishing ability to merge with the material demands of his father. Away from the sexually adventurous teenager of 'Call Me By Your Name' or the obnoxious friend of 'Lady Bird', he buries his hunky features under a mop of hair and a malleable expression. His face is a test of Roschach's emotions, going from grimace to a strange smile as the character confronts the invisible processes of a broken brain.

As the film goes through different stages of addiction, recovery and relapse, it often falls into an instructive mode. While it is safe to offer assistance to some households facing the same challenge (and provide a mirror to those who have survived the experience), it is so simple that the cinema can continue indefinitely as a continuous cycle. Nevertheless, David's uncertainties about his ability to support his son create an underlying suspense as relapses continue to accumulate.

Francois Duhamel

Van Groeningen's ability to unite past and present in the film's constant flashback structure often creates the feeling of a tonal poem. There are dubious fixtures – including a blunt sequence set on a cover of "Sunrise, Sunset" – that span the two-hour span while the movie hits the same sad note.

However, every time the couple confronts, "Beautiful Boy" focuses. For the purpose of an end, "Beautiful Boy" finds a natural conclusion by implying that these circumstances can continue for an eternity. Despite the success of the book that the father-son couple wrote together, Van Groeningen resists the possibility of a happy ending. It may be the showcase of an actor, but as the credits return, the fight is real.

Category B

"Beautiful Boy" was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018. Amazon Studios released it on October 12.

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