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Post by alexanderblanchett on Jan 20, 2020 9:58:44 GMT
Beautiful and emotional Father/Son Drama and semi Biopic of writer and star Shia LaBeouf. One of the best Indie flicks this year and a great redemption for the "fallen" Actor. It was an intersting look behind the curtain of his life but also the life of many child actors out there who are often used as a tool by their parents for "easy and fast Money". Its in that regard a dark film but also with many bright highlighhts. A Little bit of humour to rise it up and in General a very Beautiful and intimate film. The acting is strong. You have Noah Jupe who once again proves himself as the most intersting and talented child Actor we have of his Generation at the Moment. He just nailed it and it was absolutely not a simple Task. Its a very moving Performance and absolutely natural. Definitely Top 10 material in a strong year for leading actors. Lucas Hedges who played the older Version of his character also does good. Sometimes a bit too monotone and he generally loses in comparision with his younger "equivalent" but still a decent Performance. Last but certainly not least you have Shia LaBeouf himself who Plays his "own" Father in this film. A side we have never seen of LaBeouf before. And I am not Talking About the deglam but rather the different facettes he Shows off here, as he never did before. He really goes Deep into that character and uses it as his own Kind of therapy. The result is excellent and absolutely Award worthy. Its a shame he is being widely disregarded this year as he desrves all applausse possible for this dislousure of his Soul. Wonderful Comeback and I hope he uses this Kind of Talent in his future Projects as well. A very dysfunctional (in the best way possible) movie About an even more dysfanctional but still loving Father/son relationship-
Current nominations:
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Shia LaBeouf
Rating: 8/10
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Post by stephen on Jan 20, 2020 15:58:19 GMT
LaBeouf puts all the Supporting Actor contenders this year to shame, and that's saying something.
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Post by getclutch on Jan 20, 2020 17:52:40 GMT
Great review and I assume Shia did not get a nod for the reason of his legal troubles in the past? Maybe, maybe not. All in all, I hope he continues to write/act more projects like this one along with getting great treatment in his personal life.
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Post by finniussnrub on Jan 21, 2020 2:20:29 GMT
LaBeouf's great, but come on guys, he's co-lead. It's not an ensemble, and his scenes with Jupe jump back and forth between them as the focus.
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Post by bob-coppola on Jan 21, 2020 16:30:04 GMT
Is it just me or this movie feels really short? It's a very sad movie, and how it approaches Labeouf's dependency on his abusive father - to the point of his portrayal even being a bit heroical despite the fact he's a piece of garbage - shows how much of a sorrow it is. The movie could've used 30 extra minutes to dig deeper into that.
Oh, and I was disappointed that I didn't like Labeouf's performance that much. He's a very limited actor and, even though I appreciate what it means to have him play the role of his father, he's out of his depth as a performer here.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 21, 2020 16:38:45 GMT
Oh, and I was disappointed that I didn't like Labeouf's performance that much. He's a very limited actor and, even though I appreciate what it means to have him play the role of his father, he's out of his depth as a performer here. It's a preposterously overrated performance - that I thank God wasn't nodded because then I'd have to hear more about it. Even in general when he does things right in some roles - including this one - it's amateur night with him all the time - he has no actor craft, discipline or rigor - literally, none.
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Post by thomasjerome on Jan 21, 2020 16:49:29 GMT
Is it just me or this movie feels really short? It's a very sad movie, and how it approaches Labeouf's dependency on his abusive father - to the point of his portrayal even being a bit heroical despite the fact he's a piece of garbage - shows how much of a sorrow it is. The movie could've used 30 extra minutes to dig deeper into that. Oh, and I was disappointed that I didn't like Labeouf's performance that much. He's a very limited actor and, even though I appreciate what it means to have him play the role of his father, he's out of his depth as a performer here. Pretty much my impressions. The story is obviously personal to him, but the script lacks depth and kind of feels repetitive? As for Labeouf, he gives a very "Labeouf performance", there's nothing interesting or unusual about his work, he doesn't go to any place that he hasn't gone before.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jan 21, 2020 19:04:14 GMT
Oh, and I was disappointed that I didn't like Labeouf's performance that much. He's a very limited actor and, even though I appreciate what it means to have him play the role of his father, he's out of his depth as a performer here. It's a preposterously overrated performance - that I thank God wasn't nodded because then I'd have to hear more about it. Even in general when he does things right in some roles - including this one - it's amateur night with him all the time - he has no actor craft, discipline or rigor - literally, none. I get how you might not care for him as an actor in general, but what did you find amateurish about this performance specifically?
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 21, 2020 20:15:48 GMT
It's a preposterously overrated performance - that I thank God wasn't nodded because then I'd have to hear more about it. Even in general when he does things right in some roles - including this one - it's amateur night with him all the time - he has no actor craft, discipline or rigor - literally, none. I get how you might not care for him as an actor in general, but what did you find amateurish about this performance specifically? The performance evokes another (over)praised one to me with the same faults, Mickey Rourke in Barfly - where all the character trappings - the look, accent, addictions etc. are pushed out front and the internal motivations of the actor decisions are arbitrary and that's not the script here imo. Literally any choice could be made at any time - sometimes he makes the right one, often he does not. The guttural moan he let's out in the "if I wasn't paying you, you wouldn't be here?" scene and things like that. That works in the scene (maybe) - does it work in this overall film and what you've seen before - I don't think it really does and I was catching that throughout. That's what I meant by lacking rigor - what he's doing is sometimes acting........many times it's more indicating or designating - it's amateurish because he can't shape the performance to make the disparate threads all connect. He's not lazy, he has an idea how to play it too, as an overgrown child etc. so there's thought involved too he but he's missing an actor's delineation.
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morton
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Post by morton on Jan 21, 2020 20:58:26 GMT
Is it just me or this movie feels really short? It's a very sad movie, and how it approaches Labeouf's dependency on his abusive father - to the point of his portrayal even being a bit heroical despite the fact he's a piece of garbage - shows how much of a sorrow it is. The movie could've used 30 extra minutes to dig deeper into that. Oh, and I was disappointed that I didn't like Labeouf's performance that much. He's a very limited actor and, even though I appreciate what it means to have him play the role of his father, he's out of his depth as a performer here. Is it just me or this movie feels really short? It's a very sad movie, and how it approaches Labeouf's dependency on his abusive father - to the point of his portrayal even being a bit heroical despite the fact he's a piece of garbage - shows how much of a sorrow it is. The movie could've used 30 extra minutes to dig deeper into that. Oh, and I was disappointed that I didn't like Labeouf's performance that much. He's a very limited actor and, even though I appreciate what it means to have him play the role of his father, he's out of his depth as a performer here. Pretty much my impressions. The story is obviously personal to him, but the script lacks depth and kind of feels repetitive? As for Labeouf, he gives a very "Labeouf performance", there's nothing interesting or unusual about his work, he doesn't go to any place that he hasn't gone before. Oh good I enjoyed it, but I thought it was too short too, and felt like I was one of the few that seemed to have that problem. It just ended abruptly to me similar to Mid90s last year where there's a very good central performance from a child anchoring it down, Lucas Hedges being serviceable for the most part, and an older actor as parent that also does some heavy lifting, and both films are pretty good but then just end at weird points imo. I also agree that it was repetitive which makes sense in that someone struggling with addiction problems is just going to keep going through the same cycle until they're able to finally break it, but at the same time, the ending felt a little too pat for that to be the case here. I felt that Otis only was beginning to scratch the service of his issues. Not that it had to be an exact imitation of LaBeouf's life, but I remember him getting in an accident that seriously injured his hand during the filming of Transformers 2, I believe, and there were already red flags other than that like how he spoke out against Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and pissed off Spielberg and a bunch of other stuff later like getting arrested in NYC. Then he got arrested in 2017 which seems to be the turning point in his life, but Honey Boy makes it seem like it was the 2008 accident that did it when unfortunately he struggled for years where it seemed like he might really be better but then get trapped into the same cycle again. So just compared to his own life, Otis's struggle felt a little hollow for how quickly it seemed he made a major breakthrough and presumably gets better.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jan 22, 2020 0:21:48 GMT
I get how you might not care for him as an actor in general, but what did you find amateurish about this performance specifically? The performance evokes another (over)praised one to me with the same faults, Mickey Rourke in Barfly - where all the character trappings - the look, accent, addictions etc. are pushed out front and the internal motivations of the actor decisions are arbitrary and that's not the script here imo. Literally any choice could be made at any time - sometimes he makes the right one, often he does not. The guttural moan he let's out in the "if I wasn't paying you, you wouldn't be here?" scene and things like that. That works in the scene (maybe) - does it work in this overall film and what you've seen before - I don't think it really does and I was catching that throughout. That's what I meant by lacking rigor - what he's doing is sometimes acting........many times it's more indicating or designating - it's amateurish because he can't shape the performance to make the disparate threads all connect. He's not lazy, he has an idea how to play it too, as an overgrown child etc. so there's thought involved too he but he's missing an actor's delineation. I think we might just disagree about this, but his decisions as an actor didn't seem arbitrary to me because the character himself was inherently erratic and unpredictable (not sure what the issue is with the guttural groan in that scene). To me, the performance felt entirely lived in and believable. None of his decisions really made me challenge how they fit into the overall character creation because of the internal contradictions of the character... it all seemed of a piece imo.
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Post by Viced on Feb 8, 2020 4:04:48 GMT
I like Shia and was pretty hyped for this... but unfortunately it kind of stunk.
Didn't like the way it was structured at all. The montage-y sequences were pretty lame and mostly everything with 12 year-old Otis felt pretty lightweight (partially because LaBeouf didn't do much for the father character besides make you wish he'd crash his motorcycle and die).
Some of the stuff with 22 year-old Otis in rehab kind of hit me, but not enough to salvage this thing.
5/10
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Feb 9, 2020 18:40:09 GMT
This was added to Prime today, just FYI.
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dazed
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Post by dazed on Jun 29, 2020 16:03:03 GMT
I thought this was great. Very raw and moving. The three main performances are aces across the board. Har’el did an amazing job directing this and Braier is consistent as always with the cinematography. I’d be down if Har’el was to direct Shia’s next script which has been getting exceptional notices. I can’t find it anywhere online, but the scene with the song Glimpses playing in the background was wonderful and one of the standout scenes of 2019.
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