Beautiful Boy (2018)

I'm not the biggest Timothée Chalamet fan out there —actually, I can't stomach the guy— but I decided to give Beautiful Boy a chance anyway because people seem to have such contrasting opinions about his performance. 

Based on the memoir by David Sheff, the story follows David Sheff (Steve Carell), a father who is desperately trying to help his drug-addicted son, Nic (Timothée Chalamet). As Nic goes through a period David can't quite understand, he slowly comes to terms with the fact that maybe he can't help him. 

The main issue with Beautiful Boy is that it tells a story that has been told over and over again without bringing anything new to the table other than the story being told from the addict's father's perspective rather than the addict himself as the film's main focus is to highlight the despair and struggle of a parent while watching his child on the downward spiral of drugs. Too bad that the film fails to capture that. In addition, the story has a non-linear timeline with many pointless flashbacks that make you completely lose track of the story. And it doesn't make a lot of sense either as most of the story is told from the father's point of view. 

The characters are another issue as they are underdeveloped and lack characterization. It's very difficult if not impossible to develop any sort of emotional attachment to them, you just don't care about what happens to them. The bland, dull performances sure don't help; if anything, they make you question Carell and Chalamet's acting abilities as the first seems to be playing a depressed version of The Office's Michael Scott, and the latter looks like a male model filming an ad or something.

Photos not available because apparently I was violating copyright by using them. 

There's something about Beautiful Boy that is way worse than script and acting combined, it's Felix Van Groeningen's direction. I really don't know what he had in mind while making this film, but the tone he set just don't match the serious theme of the story. The scenes are very poorly put together —the editing is nearly as bad as Bohemian Rhapsody's— and the music rarely fits the scene —I mean, there's horror-like music in this film. The kind of music you expect when someone is about to get killed.