What a year for Shia Labeouf. This summer, he released a modern American fable that should have long legs. And now he gives us his his rehab project, Honey Boy. One tip given to writers is write about what excites and empassions you. Well, LaBeouf, who famously spends a lot of time inside his own head, writes about what that feels like to him, and the results are riveting and spectacular at times.
LaBeouf renames himself Otis Lort (Lucas Hedges as an adult). After a wild ride becoming a super duper star, Otis has several drunken angry run ins with the police, forcing him to attend rehab. In rehab, Otis confronts the PTSD he received in his past, when he thinks about his rise to stardom and his younger self (Noah Jupe) living in relative squalor with his father James (Labeouf, playing his own dad).
The power of Honey Boy comes in the “becoming a star” portion of the movie, focusing on the relationship between young Otis and his father James. Labeouf crafts an emotionally complex relationship between father and son, spotlighting the potentially toxicity and dangers of life as a child star. Both Otis and James are fascinating characters. Noah Jupe channels Labeouf’s ability to live outside himself a bit, and understand that he might have a lot of power in this relationship with his dad. However, Jupe’s wide face also elicits vulnerability, as he just wants to be a son loved and cared for by his father. Conversely, James sees in Otis everything he wanted for himself. Labeouf channels that understanding into a combination of admiration and cruel jealousy. Labeouf’s James is a loose cannon, triggered by the slightest dent someone tries to put into James’s delusion of his life. Put Jupe and Labeouf together and the results are riveting: two entertainers trying to earn the love of the other. As Otis’s star rises, James becomes more and more volatile, treating any outside influence on his son outside of himself as a threat to his current lifestyle, isolating his son from love. This brokenness manifests in rehab as Otis tries to come out the other side of the abuse he’s endured in rehab, as Lucas Hedges navigates us to memory after memory of his past.
Sure it’s creepy watching Shia Labeouf find catharsis by playing his own father. But at this point, that fits with everything we know about the pensive, sometimes tormented talented actor. Another thing Labeouf wants to be known for is finding the truth in everything he does, and that search for meaning gives Honey Boy extra energy for the talented actors to deliver for the audience.