Ruthless, raw, and honest. That describes to a tee Alma Har’el (LoveTrue, 11/8/16) Honey Boy, the film based on writer Shai LaBeouf’s (The Peanut Butter Falcon, Borg Vs. McEnroe) own childhood experiences with his father. Showcasing events over two time periods, the 2005 version of Otis Lort (Lucas Hedges – Manchester by the Sea, Ben Is Back) is a 22-year-old, rising movie star who has had violent, alcohol-induced brushes with the law. His latest DUI has landed him in a court-ordered rehab, where he is diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), something which he steadily denies. As part of his therapy, he is pressed by his counselor (Laura San Giacomo – Havoc, Sex, Lies, and Videotape) to dig deeper and pen out the events in his life that have led him to this point. At this point, we continually go back and forth between the 1995 and 2005 timelines.
Category Archives: Lucas Hedges
Ben is Back (2018)
Lucas Hedges (Lady Bird, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri) had much early Oscar buzz surrounding his name for his work in Boy Erased. I was as hyped as anyone for that movie and that performance. As I had mentioned in my review of it, Boy Erased was based on a book that I had read before I even knew that there was a movie to be made on it (which NEVER happens). I liked the book and appreciated it being adapted into a movie. It deals with a controversial issue that I have somewhat strong thoughts on, and I was curious to see how it played out on film. And with a cast of Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton, and Russell Crowe, I thought it would be a Top 10 contender for sure. However, it completely underwhelmed, and Hedges’ performance in the film was not as great as I expected. I did not expect Hedges to dominate every screen he was in during two other 2018 performances after the release of that October. However, he was fantastic as the bully of an older brother in the handful of scenes he was in Mid90s (a film that had no other name actors besides him. And he let the screen on fire, matching Hollywood’s finest actress over the last 25 years in Julia Roberts (August Osage County, Erin Brokovich) in the under-the-radar, poignant Ben is Back.
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Boy Erased (2018)
After two movies, the jury is still out on Joel Edgerton as a director. After catching fire with 2015’s surprise hit The Gift, Edgerton tried his hand with material based on a true story, adapting and writing the screenplay for Garrard Conley’s novel Boy Erased. To be perfectly transparent, I had extremely high expectations for this film. This was actually a novel that I read a couple of years ago, well before I knew that a film based on the story was in the process. I enjoyed the novel, and when I saw that the cast was to include Edgerton, Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and that it was already being mentioned in Oscar discussions before it was released, I was more than excited. However, I knew that the topic of this film was a controversial one. When I read the book, I don’t think that I was dissatisfied with the ending, but one that I felt was rushed quite a bit. Boy Erased was definitely one of my ten most anticipated films of the year. And like a few others in my ten most anticipated films of the year (namely First Man), it completely failed to impress. A film that should have been ripe with emotion left me completely unaffected the entire time.
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Mid90s (2018)
Before reading this review on Jonah Hill’s (True Story, War Dogs) directorial debut effort Mid90’s, I ask that you watch this quick 90-second video that someone compiled about him and put on YouTube. It is completely heartbreaking and, hopefully, will change your impression of this living legend of an actor. Perceived for many years as being Hollywood’s next fat man, perhaps in the same mold as the gone too early Jim Belushi, John Candy, Chris Farley, Hill broke into the Hollywood with roles in iconic comedies like Superbad, Funny People, Get Him to the Greek, Cyrus, This Is the End, 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street, Hail, Caesar, Knocked Up; movies that in one way or another accentuated his overweight character. And if you, like me, laughed at the jokes aimed at his weight in any of these movies and are feeling guilty after watching this clip, first of all, relax; you were supposed to. Secondly, reevaluate. It doesn’t take a genius to see that Hill has battled his weight throughout his career (he has numerous roles interspersed in his career in which he is thin). With this video, it is clearly evident that this is an insecure man trying to roll with comments that he is insecure with when he can and to challenge it in a super-friendly way when it is too difficult to let them just wash off his shoulders. But for all of those who say Hill is someone who is just a Hollywood funny man who capitalizes on jokes about his weight, let’s look at this stat for a second. Hill has as many Academy Award nominations (as an actor) as Bruce Willis, Robert Redford, Jim Carey, Ewan McGregor, Jim Carrey, Hugh Grant, Richard Gere, Jeff Daniels, Kevin Costner, Guy Pearce, John Goodman, and Jeff Goldblum, Ben Stiller, Channing Tatum, Owen Wilson, and Vince Vaughn…COMBINED. Costner (Dances With Wolves) and Redford (The Sting) each have one. Hill with Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street already has two. Not only that, he should earn his third this year for Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot. And now he’s directing?!?! And directing a very good movie with a unique lens…I don’t say it lightly when I say he is a Hollywood treasure and living legend.
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Lady Bird (2017)
I think if you told someone that Saoirse Ronan (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Lovely Bones), the actress who won audiences over with her innocent portrayal of a conflicted young Irish immigrant navigating her way through 1950s New York City in 2015’s fabulous Brooklyn (which earned her a Best Actress Nomination) is the same person playing the lead role two years later in Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, they’d look at you funny before looking at pictures of her from both movies, recalling scenes from each, and then of nodding their heads and saying, “Yeah, I guess that is the same actress.” While a movie I didn’t really resonate with and definitely near the bottom of the Best Picture nominees in the lackluster 2017, I did appreciate her performance…one that was just as honest and true as the one she gave in Brooklyn. And similarly to 2015, her work in this movie is likely the third or fourth-best of the year and landed Ronan her second Academy Award nomination.
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