Honey Boy (R) ★★★ #FilmFest919

Noah Jupe and Shia LaBeouf appears in Honeyboy by Alma Har’el, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Natasha Braier

Shia LaBeouf in a Role of a Life-time!

“Honey Boy” is an autobiographical story of actor Shia LaBeouf’s childhood relationship with his father. LaBeouf plays his father while Lucas Hedges and Noah Jupe play older and younger LeBeouf. “Honey Boy” had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2019, and won the Special Jury Award for Vision and Craft. It is scheduled to be released on November 8, 2019, by Amazon Studios.

The film is directed by Alma Har’ el, her narrative feature directorial debut—with a screenplay by Shia LaBeouf, based on his volatile upbringing. He wrote the script during his court-ordered re-hab stay, in which he was diagnosed with this PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome). During his stay, he reached out to Har’ el and asked her to direct the feature film about his younger life of being raised by his father, a felon rodeo-clown, haunted with regret. Har’ el’s feature narrative debut is a one-of-a-kind collaboration between filmmaker and subject, exploring art as therapy and imagination as hope.

The uniqueness of the filmmaking situation is reason enough to see this excellent, realist, intense film.

Here’s the link to the Radio Podcast:

“Honey Boy” (R) ★★★

Sarah Knight Adamson© November 10, 2019