Honey Boy

Otis, twenty-two, is an actor in action films who goes into rehabilitation after a crash. Between what he says in therapy we move to him at twelve: a boy living in a motel with his father, the family's only income as a child actor. His father is a former clown, on parole and alcoholic, both managing his son and crushing him. Alma Har'el directed. Shia LaBeouf wrote the screenplay and played James Lort, the character based on his own father. Lucas Hedges plays the adult Otis and Noah Jupe the child, with FKA Twigs, Maika Monroe and Natasha Lyonne in the cast. The script came out of the treatment itself. LaBeouf wrote it in rehab in Connecticut, after being diagnosed with PTSD, at his therapist's suggestion. The title comes from his childhood nickname. He later said that showing his father as abusive was a fiction he regrets, and that his father was loving throughout his life. Shooting took about three weeks in Los Angeles on a 3.5 million dollar budget. Natasha Braier photographed it and Alex Somers wrote the music. It premiered at Sundance on 25 January 2019 and was released by Amazon Studios on 8 November 2019, taking 3.3 million dollars worldwide. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 95 percent from 238 reviews and Metacritic at 73. The Associated Press placed it seventh among the best films of 2019. Who it is for: viewers who like autobiographical films and reckonings between fathers and sons. Who it is not for: anyone who would take it as literal record. The writer himself later said the portrait of his father was invented.