Do you like Shia LaBeouf? No? Then, would you like to see him play a washed-up rodeo clown failure of an abusive father? In a movie that satirizes large portions of the actor’s life? Yeah, this movie is for you. Oh, you do like Shia LaBeouf. No kidding! (Didn’t think there were any of you out there after those Transformers films). Would you like to see a film that does a deep dive into the life of a troubled child actor, purposefully paralleling large portions of Shia LaBeouf’s life, with a screenplay by the man himself? Yeah, this movie is for you.
Honey Boy has believable characters, good acting, compelling themes, and compassion even for its grimiest and most broken characters. And it pulls off the strangest little trick: if you love Shia LaBeouf you can learn a little bit about his life (about which this movie is loosely based) and celebrate his victories with him. If you hate Shia LaBeouf, you can spend the film hating him and watching him lose. Either way, it’s win-win for the watcher.
Content warning: sexual assault plays a minor role in the plot, nothing explicitly shown.
Plot: 7
Characters: 10
Themes: 9
Spectacle: 6
Overall score: I feel like that’s not a great place to grow weed.
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