Content warning: This story mentions mental illness and substance abuse.
Beautiful Boy, directed by Felix Van Groeningen, is a heartwrenching depiction of a father’s resilience and a son’s humanity, reminding the world that there is always a person behind every struggle and every pain.
While it has been seven years since its release, the message and conversation are ones that should not be disregarded or forgotten. Its emotional depictions still weigh heavily on the minds of those who have seen this film.
Beautiful Boy is based on two memoirs, “Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction” by the father, David Sheff and “Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines” by his son, Nic Sheff. David Sheff’s memoir details how he and his family dealt with his son Nic’s addiction to crystal methamphetamine, a stimulant drug, commonly known as meth. Nic Sheff’s memoir details his own personal journey through life and his experience with drug use.
Beautiful Boy doesn’t choose whose story to tell—father or son, Nic’s or David’s—but combines both in a two-hour, raw, vulnerable, and emotionally moving film that encapsulates their experiences.
Steve Carell plays David with a vulnerability that is staggering, heartbreaking, yet heartwarming. Timothee Chalamet captures the humanity of Nic, the ebb and flow of joy and pain embodied in one person. The beautiful moments of his relationship with his half-siblings through the saturated and calming lens of cinematographer, Ruben Impens, to the cold, bleak and painful depictions of addiction taking over his being.
There is beauty shown in the care and love found in the film’s family—Maura Tierney, who plays Nic’s stepmother, follows him off their property, tears in her eyes as she winds down the curving paths of California, or the way Carrell packs his bag in the night, eager to be there for his son. Maura Tierney. Each performance of hurt and desperation reaches out of the screen and grabs your attention.
The scenes that reach your heart are those that show Nic throughout the years. From a doe-eyed boy to the teenage years, you see what David sees when he looks at Nic, even when he is reeling from drug use.
This film does something rare in the media: it humanizes the addict. Words such as crackhead, druggie, and junkie have been scattered in descriptions of those living with addictions. It has disregarded the actual sufferings and rehabilitation of addiction that exist.
Beautiful Boy includes real-life statistics and realities of the aftermath of the use of meth.
In a conversation that David has with a medical specialist, the specialist details how methamphetamine essentially destroys nerve endings within the brain and severs connections with dopamine receptors, making the individual psychologically addicted to the drug.
“The meth user may be unable, not unwilling, but unable to participate in normal treatment programs.”
This quote is essential to the understanding of an addict’s struggle. The narrative that someone is “doing this to themselves” regarding taking drugs furthers the harmful viewpoint attached to those who are struggling.
Meth, being a stimulant drug, targets dopamine levels and causes them to spike. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter and hormone in the brain that deals with pleasure, happiness, and improvement of moods. As meth is taken, dopamine spikes higher, and because dopamine is the hormone that sends signals to the body to repeat behaviours that feel good, it causes the addict to become further reliant on the cause of that spiked dopamine.
The closing of safe injection sites in Ontario speaks to the lack of care and the disregard for this growing epidemic of drug use and death. The Global News writes, “Critics argue it will send illegal drug users back onto the streets and lead to a spike in preventable overdoses.” The sites were ensuring they were supervised consumption sites to help prevent this. Between March 2020 and May 2024, it was found that approximately 22,000 overdoses were prevented on-site.
These numbers speak to a deeper problem, a reflection of a society that aims to disregard and dehumanize these lives. There is a detachment to the understanding that these people have lives, families, and experiences beyond just the drug use. If we choose to ignore that, the pain will continue to be left unattended and uncared for.
In a quiet, yet stirring, moment, Nic finds a paper on his father’s desk. On it reads a passage containing what feels like all the love, desperation, and care he has for his son, no matter what has happened, what he has done, or how he has acted. Beautiful Boy encompasses the idea that the beauty of the care and time put into those we love can remind us all that, above all, there is always the chance to heal.
If you or someone you know is seeking help for substance use, find resources through CAMH or contact Toronto Distress Centres: 416 408-4357 or 408-HELP.