Beautiful Boy Sheds Light on Addiction

*This article discusses addiction*

The award-winning film, Beautiful Boy, starring Timothee Chalamet, who plays the role of a struggling son, Nic Sheriff, and Steve Carell, who plays the stretched thin, but loving father David Sheriff, is, without doubt, a movie to remember. Director Felix Van Groeningen initially intrigues the audience with the vulnerability of the early relationship dynamic between the father and the son, while reeling in watchers with a tough journey through addiction. 

The movie deals with addiction and all of the aspects that play into this attack on one´s normalcy. Addiction is something that can be seen as very surface level by those not educated on the topic. Yet, Felix made sure to display substance abuse as something that one can struggle with and come in and out of. Often times this is strung together by a series of traumatic and life-changing events. 

An interesting film choice that was made in the movie was the use of flashbacks. The use of flashbacks gave the audience a look at Nic Sheff’s early life leading up to addiction. This allowed us to see an inside to Nics relationship with his father, David, and how he will soon play an important role in the moments where he has the task of saving his son. 

The journey David Sheff takes to help his son get out of his drug led life was something he did not take lightly. Many times in the movie David expressed how bright, creative and attentive Nic is and the reason behind why he simply couldn’t let that just disappear. 

Drug addiction is something that people struggle with on a daily basis in everyday instances, in everyday lives. Many people struggle to realize that this life-altering issue is not something that can be stopped instantly at will. To put an end to the immense mental and physical anguish known as addiction, most need a strong and healthy circle of people and habits to pass through this dangerous trial.  That support and strength for the main subject, Nic, was his father, David. 

This touching line in the movie where David expressed his endearment for Nic stands out:¨If you could take all the words in the language, it still wouldn’t describe how much I love you¨ 

A certain impactful message that Director Van Groeningen made sure the audience was aware of by the end of the movie is that addiction does not define a person, it is an intrusive yet at times, uncontrollable experience that may not always be at the fault of the individual undergoing it. In this award-winning film, a powerful story of the reality and painful truth of addiction is told in a truly unique way.