By Vincent Abbatecola
Shia LaBeouf is an actor whose career has gone in several surprising directions. After gaining national attention from his starring role on the Disney Channel sitcom, “Even Stevens,” he soon broke out into high-profile movies, such as “Disturbia,” the first three films in the “Transformers” series, and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” While his big-screen successes were soon overshadowed by some run-ins with the law, he was still able to show that he was serious about his career, delivering terrific performances in films like “Fury,” “American Honey,” and this summer’s “The Peanut Butter Falcon.”
His quest to stabilize his career now takes another step forward, with his latest movie (which he has also written) being his most personal. Director Alma Har’el helms LaBeouf’s life story in the new film, “Honey Boy,” and as she looks into his life, we gain access into an autobiographical story that adds many layers to what we knew, or thought we knew about LaBeouf’s life and career.
In 1995, Otis Lort (Noah Jupe) is a child actor who’s taken care of by his father, James (LaBeouf), with whom Otis has a troubled relationship. Meanwhile, in 2005, an older Otis (Lucas Hedges) is sent to rehab after a drunken altercation with the police. As he tries to recover, he will examine his stressful past in order to make a better life for himself.
LaBeouf reaches into himself to give a performance that only he could have accomplished, something that’s so close to him that you can feel the emotional, personal pain emanating from him in this portrayal. With LaBeouf playing his father, you can see that he’s trying to gain an insight into his dad and why he was the way that he was. This is a role where you see the deep connection that the performer has with the material, allowing LaBeouf to look back on his life by portraying someone who played a huge, but dismaying role in his life. LaBeouf shows the love that James has for Otis and doing what he can to help him, but also displays a bit of resentment for his son gaining fame as James deals with the fact that his own dreams of fame were never achieved, and this adds to the power of LaBeouf’s work as he creates a seamless merge of art and real-life experience.
Jupe exhibits someone whose relationship with his father is strained by him trying to be nice and take his father’s acting advice to make him happy, but also attempting to forge his own path within his career, despite his father’s reservations. As we get further into Otis and James’ relationship, Jupe shows the strain of his character trying to maintain the pressures of his profession and working to keep the tension between him and his father at a minimum. Although Otis loves his father, Jupe exhibits his character’s strength in standing up to him and taking an even bigger charge of his life, showing the poignant nature of Otis’ situation of being in a position where he must grow up fast and face the difficulties of his work life and personal life.
Lucas continues his noteworthy succession of dramatic performances in his role as someone who’s fallen into an uncertain time in his life. He presents an individual who has hit rock bottom and doesn’t know how to climb out of it, showing the effects that the tumultuous years of being a child actor had on him and how those memories have shaped him into who he is later on, someone facing even tougher challenges now that he’s older. From the quiet, meditative moments of him thinking about his situation to the talks he has during his therapy sessions, Hedges gives us an insight into everything that has been weighing on Otis’ mind, bringing us on a moving journey as he tries to detoxify his life while showing how much of a sense of freedom he experiences when given outlets that provide him with a chance to pour out his deepest emotions.
LaBeouf’s screenplay goes back and forth between 1995 and 2005, allowing us into a heartrending exploration of someone who we enjoyed watching on a childhood sitcom, but whose life was rough offset. The dialogue that Otis and James share evoke a powerful genuineness as LaBeouf’s script has him opening up to the audience about the hardships through which he has gone through behind the scenes. What’s fascinating about his story is how he has certain motifs repeat between the two time periods, emphasizing the painful notion of how, even though Otis’ life seems a little more optimistic near the end of the 1995 storyline, we know the struggles that he will face when he’s older. However, LaBeouf still shows a sense of hope for Otis when that character begins putting this thoughts to paper and formatting a story from his memories.
While the film as a whole provides significant details into LaBeouf’s life, the story would have benefited from spending as much time on the 2005 storyline as it does on the 1995 storyline. The movie is just over 90 minutes, so if it was a little longer, this would have provided more of a chance to expand on Hedges’ part of the story.
Har’el, whose previous movies are the documentaries “Bombay Beach” and “LoveTrue,” makes a narrative feature directorial debut, but still employs a documentary feeling to the movie. The way in which she captures the deep and personal interactions between Otis and James makes this a blend of narrative and documentary sentiments. Although this movie is a narrative, Har’el brings out her documentarian talents to capture the unconstrained truthfulness of these characters, allowing you to look into their souls as they try to confront their issues.
With cinematography by Natasha Braier, Har’el uses ethereal imagery to tell LaBeouf’s story, similar to what she did with her two documentaries. Such imagery helps to emphasize the dreamlike feeling of watching someone else’s memories, but also shows the realism of Otis and James as we view their interactions through a great deal of closeups that show us everything that they’re feeling.
“Honey Boy” marks an occasion that shows Har’el, LaBeouf, Jupe, and Hedges tapping into new areas of their talent. However, in LaBeouf’s case, his work here is more than that; it’s a reinvention.