Us being the huge Timothée Chalamet fans that we are, my roommates and I have been looking forward to his latest film, Beautiful Boy since the trailer was released in June. I knew that we would go see it together as soon as it hit theaters and that’s exactly what happened. As we walked downtown to the theater a few blocks from us, we knew we were in for a heartfelt experience.
Because Beautiful Boy is primarily a story about addiction, I expected to get emotional during the film but I quickly noticed that the film doesn’t try to be anything but an honest story. I admired how it refrained from romanticizing any aspect of drug addiction and remained entirely authentic and truthful throughout.
The film focuses on the relationship between David and Nic Sheff and their struggle to understand each other throughout Nic’s battle with sobriety and relapse. The father and son relationship in this story is touching because the audience sees that David still looks at his son as the amazing kid he always was and still is. Not to mention, David and Nic are real people who are alive and well today and whose memoirs are what inspired this film.
I might be a little biased, but Timothée’s acting is exceptional in this film. His devotion to his role of Nicholas Scheff is apparent and makes it hard to watch his character struggle with himself so badly. The audience doesn’t get a lot of insight as to why Nic became addicted to drugs because its main priority is to make it known that this disease has no face; it can happen to anyone.
Overall, I think the film is effective in the way nothing about it is overdone but that’s not to say there aren’t several climatic and heart-wrenching scenes. It was upsetting to see the people around Nic not know how to help or feel like they can’t do anything else for him although they want to.
As my roommates and I left the theater, we couldn’t pass by the movie poster without getting emotional about what we had just experienced. It turns out that Timothée Chalamet himself had been at the same theater for a Beautiful Boy Q&A only days before and all we could do was go home to our posters of him! However, we were content just knowing that seeing the film was something we all got to do together and that it was an important film we would never forget.