Honey Boy – a dramatic, true-to-life masterpiece
The plot and execution of Shia laBoeuf’s new movie Honey Boy is all the more extraordinary considering it is true.
The autobiographical story of laBoeuf’s turbulent upbringing under the care of his destructive, alcoholic father James (played by laBoeuf himself), Honey Boy pulls no punches and leaves viewers in no doubt as to the suffering laBoeuf had to endure.
The story begins with the 20-something laBoeuf (renamed Otis and superbly played by Lucas Hedges) being hurled bodily towards a crashed passenger plane: presumably on the set of an early Transformers movie.
This was the movie franchise that went on to make the young actor a major Hollywood star by the mid-2000s.
Such stardom was a slow process though, with laBoeuf beginning his acting career at the age of 12 following the urging of his abusive father.
His father’s career had deteriorated from a professional rodeo clown to an unsuccessful, stand-up comedian living in a run-down motel.
The young, 12-year-old laBoeuf (Noah Jupe) is an integral player in the movie, and it is his relationship with his unhinged father that is most unnerving.
A Vietnam veteran, James suffers mood swings which often lead to inexplicable acts of violence, and his dysfunctional abuse is evident at regular intervals.
As mentioned, Honey Boy also focuses on Otis as an older ‘young man’, i.e. in his early 20s.
This is the period when, while his father continues to be bitter and twisted, he adopts his own cliched yet debauched persona: living the quintessential ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ off-screen lifestyle, which lands him in trouble again and again.
Indeed, it is only in 2017 that LaBoeuf really takes stock of his life and while in rehab, decides to write Honey Boy; possibly in an attempt to face his demons and achieve some sort of peace and closure.
The result appears to be a positive one, with the movie ending on an optimistic note as the older Otis returns to his father’s seedy motel to tell him: “I think I might make a movie about you.”
Honey Boy is showing at Luna Leederville, Luna Outdoor and Camelot Outdoor from February 27.
By Mike Peeters
