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Beautiful Boy

2018

Felix Van Groeningen

Steve Carell, Timothée Chalamet, Maura Tierney, Amy Ryan ...

6.5

4,924

Drama Chronicles meth addiction and recovery through the eyes of a father who watches his son as he struggles with the disease.

	Author	Review
United States	Brian Truitt USA Today	"While the sometimes confusing non-linear narrative keeps the whole package from coming together, the first-rate acting more than makes up for it in the film (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"An emotional workout that’s too powerful to resist (...) It’s a tough, achingly tender film that refuses to trade in false hopes or cheap sentiment (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Todd McCarthy The Hollywood Reporter	"'Beautiful Boy' is a one-note, prosaic, on-the-nose look at drug addiction (...) This story does not emerge as compelling or convincing"	NEG
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"It’s a compelling movie (...) There’s not a lot to the characters apart from their relationship to drugs, and so the film has a certain staid, repetitive quality"	NEU
United States	Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"The detachment at work in 'Beautiful Boy' suggests an attempt to speak clearly and truthfully, to resist the clichés of the addiction drama while acknowledging that those clichés can hardly be rewritten."	POS
United States	Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"Van Groeningen has delivered too safe a movie (...) [Carell] makes a believable dad to the equally moving Chalamet (...) The perfect pair is better than this movie (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Eric Kohn IndieWire	"Van Groeningen’s ability to unite the past and present in the movie’s constant flashback structure often creates the feeling of a tone poem"	POS
United States	Christy Lemire rogerebert.com	"It’s a heartbreaking true story (...) But there’s a gauzy detachment in Van Groeningen’s approach that keeps it from achieving the kind emotional wallop it seemingly intended (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times	"Chalamet is so good it's worth seeing 'Beautiful Boy' for his work alone."	POS
United States	Joe Morgenstern The Wall Street Journal	"The root problem is repetitiveness (...) that causes heartbreak in real life and induces déjà vu in audiences (...) there's repetition within the already familiar pattern."	NEU
United Kingdom	Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"In doggedly aiming to portray this unbearable pain with rare authenticity, it has a raw, haunting power (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Jason Bailey The Playlist	"Van Groeningen’s direction is technically proficient (...) The emotional payoffs we’re conditioned to require from a story like this never quite arrive"	NEU
United States	Steve Pond The Wrap	"Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell shine in harrowing look at addiction (...) It’s all too much sometimes, but it’s an undeniably wrenching journey"	POS
United States	Matt Goldberg Collider	"Both Carell and Chalamet are outstanding (...) While the film lacks narrative momentum, its heart is in the right place"	NEU
United Kingdom	Fionnuala Halligan Screendaily	"Strong, committed performances and the upsetting ring of reality elevate a highly-personal film (...) 'Beautiful Boy' makes interesting observations."	POS
United States	Joshua Rothkopf Time Out	"[It] is perfectly fine: unflinching where it needs to be (...) It sometimes feels strenuous in making its points, but you’ll be too wrecked to call that a demerit (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
Canada	Barry Hertz The Globe and Mail	"There is a strange emotional detachment to van Groeningen’s adaptation, which renders the tale needlessly cold (...) [It] end up smothering strong performances (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU

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