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Honey Boy

Honey Boy

2019

Alma Har'el

Noah Jupe, Shia LaBeouf, Lucas Hedges, Maika Monroe ...

6.3

1,394

Drama When 12-year-old Otis starts to find success as a child television star in Hollywood, his ex-rodeo-clown father returns to serve as his guardian. When Otis isn’t on set charming audiences, he spends his days with his father at an extended-stay motel on the edge of the city, enduring his overbearing father’s abuse. Honey Boy follows two threads of time, watching father and son's contentious relationship and their attempts to mend it across the course of a decade. [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Jon Frosch The Hollywood Reporter	"A sensitive, sincere portrait of a child actor's dysfunctional upbringing and its devastating fallout."
		Peter Debruge Variety	"A tender portrayal (...) rendered emotionally resonant by a series of central performances that feel grounded, never gonzo."
		Eric Kohn IndieWire	"It's best appreciated less as movie than cinematic confessional, a quest for catharsis in the only substantial medium within his grasp."
		Ann Hornaday The Washington Post	"Directed with sensitivity and insight by Alma Ha'rel (...) [An] intense, unsettling, modestly triumphant portrait of the artist as a young man (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Emily Yoshida Vulture	"As an origin story for a young actor’s warped worldview, 'Honey Boy' is compelling (...) But the stuff with Otis sorting through this origin story feels unnecessary (...) [It] ultimately sells that emotional work short."
		Sheila O'Malley rogerebert.com	"[LaBeouf's] performance is so good, so in-the-trenches, it feels like it's an act of channeling rather than mimicry or even imitation (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"
		Sam Fragoso The Wrap	"LaBeouf honestly portrays a fractured life and a recovery in progress (...) [It] is not an act of justification. It does not rationalize his decisions. But it is a reminder that LaBeouf is here, and unafraid of what’s to come."
		Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"It’s an inventive and admirably introspective exercise. As a film though, it’s only half as successful, not quite as involving or as stirring for us as it surely is for [LaBeouf] (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Gregory Ellwood The Playlist	"[It] turns out to be not only a triumph for LaBeouf but a spectacular narrative debut for noted documentary filmmaker Alma Har’el."
		David Fear Rolling Stone	"[Its] vision of unadorned, no-bullshit life, played out against the background of Hollywood film fantasy, that makes a connection so strong that audiences won’t want to let go (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Alex Godfrey Empire	"It’s hard to recall any other film that does what this does, an actor laying himself bare like this (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Tim Grierson Screendaily	"Sensitively made and infused with pain, 'Honey Boy' is an emotional exorcism that can’t overcome the limitations of its autobiographical construction (...) [It] ends up feeling indulgent rather than searing"
		Lewis Knight Mirror	"A moving portrait of fatherhood, abuse, and redemption that is anchored by a superb turn from Shia LaBeouf as his own father, laying his soul bare on camera (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Clarisse Loughrey The Independent	"[LaBeouf's performance is] startlingly intimate (...) [The film's] raw humanity serves as a balm, too, for our own wounds (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Donald Clarke Irish Times	"This is a harrowing, often effective film (...) The excellent direction and first-class acting make the thing work (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"

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