Because of the nature of its story, 'Beautiful Boy (2018)' is repetitive. It tries its best to replicate the vicious recovery-relapse cycle that most addicts go through, and initially succeeds in doing so, but it ends up overstaying its welcome by quite a long while, marching past its presumed end to noble yet detrimental effect. On the whole, the film feels very long, especially after it exceeds this natural end-point. Plus, its actual ending is at odds with the near novel-length 'text ending'. I feel as though a few of the relapse periods, especially early on, should have perhaps been truncated - or, even, totally removed; this way, the piece would maintain its purposefully non-conventional, almost frustrating structure without (as much of) its repetitive pacing. The structure itself is a little strange because the picture plays around with time in some counter-intuitive and, frankly, unnecessary ways. Occasionally, these time-jumps are confusing, if not jarring, and they only serve to further distance us from the plot's events. Another issue with the picture is its soundtrack, which is often played distractingly loud and feels as though it's being used as the sole emotional manipulator. The soundscape usually goes for this annoying faux-'punk' feel meant to embody a disenfranchised youth, but this seems incredibly on-the-nose and the actual song choices are sometimes strange, as well as obvious (if you'll forgive the juxtaposition). The fact that the music is meant to elicit emotion more than the scenes themselves - or, at least, it overpowers the scenes themselves - is a bit of an issue, especially since the flick didn't affect me at all, despite its 'heart-wrenching' narrative. Indeed, aside from its function as a realistic, anti-drug biopic, it functions mainly as a tear-jerker, so it is a bit of a problem that not a single one of my tears were ever close to being jerked (and it's not like I have a heart of stone, either). You engage with the experience more with your head than your heart. It all feels rather distant, to be honest. The piece's major saving grace is its lead performances. Both Carell and Chalamet really are great. They believably portray the relatively compelling father-son dynamic at the heart of the story, differing greatly while also having many similarities (aspects of their relationship which aren't highlighted as much as I'd perhaps have liked). The other players are all good, too, and compound the flick's events as occurring in the 'real world'. The performances and this grounded vibe keep things more than watchable, even if the overall result is slightly underwhelming. This isn't a bad effort, just a somewhat hollow one. 6/10
Review of Beautiful Boy
