Directed by: Alma Har'el
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Noah Jupe, Lucas Hedges, Laura San Giacomo, Clifton Collins, Jr.
Honey Boy works best when Shia Labeouf's James is onscreen. He is the Little League Dad and Stage Dad rolled into one, which is to say he is resentful, insufferable, and his rage is like a powder keg threatening to explode any second now. When James isn't around, the movie loses focus and drifts, like it's just marking time until James comes back.
Shia LaBeouf wrote the screenplay for Honey Boy based on his life as a child actor and his subsequent battles against substance abuse. When Honey Boy opens, Otis (Hedges) is a working actor who finds it more difficult to keep pace with the Hollywood lifestyle without drugs or alcohol. He is soon arrested for his third DUI and put in rehab. Rehab is a bit tougher this time around. He can leave, yes, but then he will go to prison for four years. He figures he can b.s. his way past the counselors and be out in a matter of days. The rehab psychologist (San Giacomo) wants him to dig deep into his past and figure out what fills him with such seething anger towards everyone. We don't have to wait long to find out.
Circling back to 1995, Otis (Jupe) is a twelve-year child actor on the rise. James, his father, lives with him in a fleabag motel on the edge of town. Otis rides on the back of James' motorcycle too and from the studio. While Otis is performing, James is growing marijuana on the side of the highway. James is a former rodeo clown, convicted sex offender, recovering user, and takes his resentment at his lot in life out on his son while ostensibly supporting him. Otis pays his father to be his guardian, otherwise James would probably want nothing to do with him.
When the adult Otis is diagnosed with PTSD, he is stunned. PTSD is something an Iraq war veteran experiences, not an actor, but as we witness his interactions with his father, we see he had to survive a trauma not unlike a war. James is a veteran himself, and his sobriety is just one more pressure he endures in his daily life. James' issues are self-inflicted, but he in turn inflicts them on his son, who experiments with drugs and hangs out with a teen prostitute in order to find some relief.
With The Peanut Butter Falcon and now Honey Boy, LaBeouf has given us his two most powerful and multi-dimensional performances. We would feel more sorry for James if he didn't take his grudge against the universe out on Otis, who didn't ask to bear James' burdens. Otis' mother is absent, and a potential Big Brother named Tom (Collins) is soon attacked by a threatened James simply for wanting to help Otis. Tom is a much more stable force, but James will have none of it because he's his, gulp, father.
Honey Boy has all the parts in place for a searing drama, but only electrifies when LaBeouf is on screen. The rest meanders and turns a potentially heartfelt conclusion into a dud. The Jupe and Hedges performances are also spot on. We see the evidence of James' destructive influence in both, but in the end, we aren't exactly happy or moved for Otis. We just remember some strong performances in search of a captivating story.
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