Honey Boy

HONEY BOY - Amazon Studios

Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy is, at its core, a healing exercise and a form of catharsis for Shia LaBeouf’s traumatized psyche. The former Transformers star has had no shortage of controversy over the past few years, from drunken arrests to perplexing internet videos. Thus, with the release of Honey Boy, LaBeouf presents a portrait of his own life and how his experiences have shaped him into the man he is today.

 At the core of this film is LaBeouf’s relationship with his father, who subjects him to verbal and mental abuse in service of strengthening his work ethic and controlling the fate of his career and refusing to show his son any form of love or affection. This narrative jumps back and forth between two different periods of LaBeouf’s life, following a twelve-year-old and twenty-two-year-old version of himself, renamed Otis, and played by Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges, respectively. In the past, young Otis struggles with the lack of affection given to him by his father — played by LaBeouf himself — and yearns to connect with him. In the present, older Otis struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder in rehab and is forced to express his repressed feelings through therapy and writing, with much of the parallel storylines based on real conversations LaBeouf had with his father.

 All three leads are transcendent in this film. LaBeouf expertly crafts a conflicted character with a hard exterior and a tremendous deal of pain and resentment bubbling under the surface and imbues the character with just the right amount of pathos. Jupe deftly hits all of the appropriate emotional beats and balances childlike innocence with a deep-seated sadness and a certain degree of emotional maturity. Hedges finds Otis at his most damaged and vulnerable and instils his self-destructive character with layers of built-up trauma, anger, and sorrow. This triumvirate of performances brings LaBeouf’s script to life with nuance, providing a striking representation of how trauma can create as well as fix a broken man.

Har’el also works wonders here with cinematographer Natasha Braier and communicates LaBeouf’s pain visually through the use of close-ups on a dead-eyed Otis. Smooth and beautiful cinematography communicate a wide array of emotions at once and dream-like editing from editors Dominic LaPerriere and Monica Salazar propel the story forward without leaving the characters behind.

At times, the film zips pretty fast through periods of the characters storylines, and it becomes unclear what is going on at that point in his life. Perhaps a conscious decision by the filmmakers; however, by doing so, it leaps over integral, essential story beats and ends up feeling a little too short and fast-paced. When the film focuses on its characters and stays in the moment, it stunningly captures the essence of his emotional development and soars with depth and feeling. Honey Boy is a poignant exploration of trauma, abuse, and troubled parental relationships that feels both intensely personal and wholly unique to the mind of Shia LaBeouf in his recent career resurgence.

Honey Boy is released November 8th and December 6th in the U.S. and U.K.