Honey Boy: A Cathartic Exploration of The Inner Self
Shayna Saide (Shia’s mother), Noah Jupe, Shia LaBeouf (Photo: Monica Lek/Vulture)
After months of waiting, Honey Boy finally came out and I had a chance to see it. I’ve been a fan of Shia since the Even Stevens days and I basically grew up watching him from Transformers, Disturbia (one of my favorites), Indiana Jones and the Wall Street sequel to his Performance Art projects with Rönkkö and Turner. I did not know what to expect walking into it and I certainly was way too excited. But I am pleased to report that it did not disappoint. The Film came after LaBeouf was arrested and spent some court-mandated time in a rehab center where he was forced to face some of his father inflicted trauma. While doing some exposure therapy he wrote some essays that would later be sent to Alma Har'el who convinced him to turn them into a script. At the time LaBoeuf hadn’t talked to his father for seven years and did not have an ending to the film. Now Director of the film Alma Har'el convinced him to go see his dad and that’s where the final arc of the picture came to be.
(Photo: Monica Lek/Vulture)
The film oscillates between Labeouf’s childhood and adult life. As a child, while shooting Even Stevens his father managed him, and together they lived in a cheap motel in Los Angeles. Their daily life consisted of reading lines, chain smoking cigarettes and for Shia - Otis in the movie - playing with a female that also lived in the motel who would later turn into a romantic interest, while his father went to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Viewers get a close look into a tense multilayered father-son relationship; we see his father’s bitterness and resentment grow from jealousy to acts of violence both emotional and physical. On the other hand, a son’s craving for his father’s love is palpable throughout the story and as he gets older we see his trauma reflected on his behavior, mostly through public intoxication and disorderly conduct which become the reason he is arrested and sent to rehab.
(Photo: Monica Lek/Vulture)
Catharsis is the main theme, and I for one cannot imagine portraying the person that gave you most of your emotional baggage on screen, nevertheless Labeouf delivers a staggering performance that is meta-performance-arty in nature. A lot of it hits close to home for anyone who’s had a complicated relationship with a parent, a bit too close sometimes. All of this was beautifully weaved together by captivating cinematography in all of a surprisingly short 19-day shoot. Lucas Hedges embodies adult Otis to the point of getting the voice and enunciation perfectly (I was shook) while Noah Jupe portrays the child version with an impressive and heartfelt performance. To get his father to sign off on the film; Labeouf convinced him that Mel Gibson was playing him, and who wouldn’t be wanna played by Braveheart right? After watching the film; this anecdote becomes more comical as you get more context of who the man is. Labeouf wa so afraid of what his father would say that he couldn’t watch it with him, but rather watched him watch it. He set up a webcam and observed his every reaction up until the end of the film. His father felt seen.
(Photo: Monica Lek/Vulture)
All in all, what sounds like a glorious display of vanity - on paper - ends up being a genuinely beautiful expression of pain; the kind of pain that a lot of us hold on to, thinking it’s the only thing of value that we receive from family, hence why letting go is so difficult. Some of us wake up to find ourselves feeling comfortable in our pain, we feel that it makes us special and that no one could possibly understand so we make it our comfort zone, we bind it to our identity because we’re too afraid to explore who we are beyond it. And maybe that’s the thesis of the film; as daunting as it might be, it’s okay to let go. It’s truly fascinating how something so personal can resonate with so many people. I, for one, am just glad this film exists and I recommend each of you to take the time to watch.
(Photo: Monica Lek/Vulture)