Well, I thought I’d continue my semi-autobiographical stint, and what better time to catch up with Shia LeBeouf’s Honey Boy than following Pete Davidson’s The King of Staten Island? Potentially, I could, ‘compare the pair’, like a Hostplus Super commercial. ‘Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance’; likewise, the same goes for myself.
LeBeouf has written this to catalogue his days with his father during the time he was shooting the Disney Channel show Even Stevens, and his following turn in rehab for anger issues and alcohol abuse. Honey Boy switches back and forth, with Noah Jupe playing Otis, a stand in for LeBeouf, at the age of twelve, and Lucas Hedges taking the reins of Otis at 22. LeBeouf takes on Otis’s father, James. In youth, James and Otis would practice clowning, and read lines in a small motel room they called home. James gets volatile and domineering, especially around issues of Otis’s mother and the people his son would hang out with. Seeing his son’s success, James also gets resentful for the fact that he, himself, never made it. Directed by Alma Har’el, Honey Boy comes from the nickname James uses for Otis.
…And I thought The King of Staten Island was raw, oh boy. It’s clear Shia LeBeouf has had to work out some issues, and found meaning in creating a movie out of that process. The fact that LeBeouf stars, in a self-written biopic about his life is jarring at first, and always remains inescapably prominent as a meta-telling of this story. Otis’s father is detailed, and watching LeBeouf get into the mentality to re-enact a man that was a foot on this throat at times, and a boulder attached to his adolescence seems therapeutic for LeBeouf, and a bit voyeuristic for an audience. LeBeouf is attempting to turn his cross to bear, into something primal and artistic – that’s his passion, and his gift; for all the somewhat shitty and ultimately bittersweet experiences LeBeouf had in childhood, he was able to garner a flourishing career and reputation that’s still influential today, influential enough to get a quality movie made about his life at least. The bounty is not lost on the production team behind Honey Boy, as, despite the raw anguish on display, the movie is quite generous at being thankful.
The first thing I wanted to do when I finished the movie was jump on YouTube and look up the best bits of LeBeouf in Even Stevens. I never got into that show, but I came across LeBeouf early enough due to his main role in Holes – then, he exploded with Transformers, up to more recently where LeBeouf seemed the perfect guy to play John McEnroe in Borg v McEnroe. LeBeouf has always come across as an intensely erratic person, and Lucas Hedge captures the essence of LeBeouf so well – I wish he was in more of the movie. I have a feeling Noah Jupe as young Otis is great beyond his years, and going places fast, having worked with some of Hollywood’s biggest names in the past few years, like Matt Damon, Christian Bale, George Clooney and Emily Blunt. And LeBeouf is completely solid in bringing a complicated characterisation to life from many different angles; anger, wit, contempt, and regret among them.
Parts of Honey Boy are genius, whilst others are muddled; isn’t that always the way with therapy, when sifting through thoughts – some bring clarity while others fester and fluster. But what results is a truly poignant tale of son trying to understand father; knock Beautiful Boy off the shelf, which dealt with a turmoil from the father’s perspective, and replace it with this, that has it from the sons. The movie, as a therapeutic exercise, aims to culminate the equally important aspects of fatherhood – role-model, care-giver, friend – and balance the slate for LeBeouf to reconcile with his past, and redefine his relationship to his lineage and the world. We’ve seen parents pressure their children before, we’ve seen it recently in movies like I, Tonya, but James seems to have a sharp awareness of the burden he is, and puts on Otis, but’s resigned to not being able to ‘get out from under it’. James does genuinely want the best for Otis, without often displaying the restraint to find the best way to go about it. And Otis recognises the value in having is father around as well, even if he isn’t the most reliable – Otis calls James a great father more than once, and he means it. In the end, the movie concludes that you want not to be angry at the people who let you down, but be better for them, and forge the way forward they were yet to find. That’s a powerful message, and a deep sentiment in compassion; in layman’s terms, that’s some Jesus-level shit right there. Honey Boy is not fun, but wields a heavy lesson and an insight into Shia LeBeouf, if you are willing to put yourself through it. Shia, show us the way.
4.0
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