{"id":23008,"date":"2018-10-20T14:34:25","date_gmt":"2018-10-20T13:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=23008"},"modified":"2018-10-20T14:34:25","modified_gmt":"2018-10-20T13:34:25","slug":"beautiful-boy-is-a-realistic-and-powerful-depiction-of-drug-addiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/beautiful-boy-is-a-realistic-and-powerful-depiction-of-drug-addiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Beautiful Boy is a realistic and powerful depiction of drug addiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Based upon memoirs by\u00a0David Sheff and\u00a0his eldest son Nic Sheff that talk about Nic\u2019s addiction to crystal meth, Beautiful Boy serves as a raw, realistic and incredibly necessary film.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bkk2EFGAGiD\/?hl=en&#038;taken-by=beautifulboymovie<\/p>\n<p>The drama takes on David\u2019s (Steve Carell) perspective as he watches Nic\u2019s (Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet) struggle with drug addiction, leaving him relentlessly questioning what has happened to his \u201cbeautiful boy\u201d and how he can help him. This is not just a story about someone with a drug addiction, but one also about family love and how far it can be tested when faced with destructive, devastating circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>The film is nothing short of an emotionally demanding journey as your heart aches just as much for helpless David who loves his son \u201cmore than everything\u201d, but harshly has to realise he can\u2019t control the disease, as it does for Nic when the addiction wins time and time again. Nic is often left feeling ashamed, at one point admitting: \u201cThis isn\u2019t like cancer. This is my choice, I put myself here,\u201d and professing he just wants his family to be proud of him.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BlJVn7uAgnW\/?hl=en&#038;taken-by=beautifulboymovie<\/p>\n<p>The points in the film where it looks like things are on the up and Nic is on the right track (taking part in rehab, going to college, having dinner with his girlfriend\u2019s family), it is a devastating, bleak reality check that addiction has no quick, short-term fix when he slips back into drug use.<\/p>\n<p>Another important message within Beautiful Boy is that addiction can happen to, and can affect anyone. The Director, Felix Van Groeningen, chose to use a series of flashbacks in the film which allows us to see Nic growing up as a happy kid &#8211; singing in the car, surfing at the beach \u2013 and stereotypically, you wouldn\u2019t expect a life like his to take a dark turn into addiction.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bo7YbpqAPqU\/?hl=en&#038;taken-by=beautifulboymovie<\/p>\n<p>On the surface David looks like he is\u00a0living an idealistic lifestyle; he is happily re-married, he has a beautiful home in California and he works as a successful journalist, and yet his family is being challenged by years of addiction.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of the acting, Chalamet does a phenomenal job. He effortlessly exhibits an array of emotions, be it sadness, irritability, anger, shame, happiness or love, as we are taken on Nic\u2019s journey. And though being named the youngest Oscar nominee for Best Actor in 80 years left expectations for his performance very high, he certainly proves he deserves all the hype surrounding him and more. The way he carries out the role is so flawless you forget you\u2019re watching an actor.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bou1EKEgH8S\/?hl=en&#038;taken-by=beautifulboymovie<\/p>\n<p>Carell does an equally as great job. The love and struggle behind his eyes is convincing and touching, he can deliver lines with a painful softness in moments of despair (the scene in the diner where he asks: \u201cWho are you Nic?\u201d is particularly heart-breaking), and he can present a powerful, fiery performance in moments of extreme frustration. Co-stars Amy Ryan (David&#8217;s ex-wife) and Maura Tierney (David&#8217;s current wife) also bring their A-game.<\/p>\n<p>Beautiful Boy is no clich\u00e9 drug addiction movie. It places you directly in the middle of the realities of addiction and makes for a hard to digest but necessary reminder that addiction is happening, it could affect you, and we should all make ourselves aware of the epidemic.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Beautiful Boy - Official Trailer | Amazon Studios\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y23HyopQxEg?start=11&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read next:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"t0BvQP27t7\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/are-young-actors-ending-toxic-masculinity-in-film\/\">Are young actors ending toxic masculinity in film?<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Are young actors ending toxic masculinity in film?&#8221; &#8212; Voice of London\" src=\"https:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/are-young-actors-ending-toxic-masculinity-in-film\/embed\/#?secret=76n67eDvi8#?secret=t0BvQP27t7\" data-secret=\"t0BvQP27t7\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Trailer courtesy of Amazon Studios.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Words: Amelia Richardson | Subbing: Milly McVay and Kiara Vigo<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Based upon memoirs by\u00a0David Sheff and\u00a0his eldest son Nic Sheff that talk about Nic\u2019s addiction to crystal meth, Beautiful Boy serves as a raw, realistic and incredibly necessary film. https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bkk2EFGAGiD\/?hl=en&#038;taken-by=beautifulboymovie The drama takes on David\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":23012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}