Honey Boy

2019 Directed by Alma Har'el

The story of a child star attempting to mend his relationship with his law-breaking, alcohol-abusing father over the course of a decade, loosely based on Shia LaBeouf’s life.

Shia LaBeouf Lucas Hedges Noah Jupe Byron Bowers Laura San Giacomo FKA twigs Natasha Lyonne Maika Monroe Clifton Collins Jr. Martin Starr Dorian Brown Pham Craig Stark Sandra Rosko Greta Jung Kara C. Roberts Giovanni Lopes Paulina Lule Eli Santana Ludwig Manukian Chala Savino Leana Chavez Graham Clarke Zack Whyel Ben Maccabee Kingston Vernes Bryan Sapphire Haylee Sanchez Autumn Barlow Al Burke

Alternative Titles

宝贝童年, Hunajapoika, ハニー・ボーイ, Medeni dečak, Honungspojken, 我的寶貝男孩, Şeker Çocuk, Гарний хлопчик, Медено момче, Лапочка, 허니 보이, ילד דבש

drama

94 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by iana ★★★★½ 5

my biggest weakness is sincerity so, yeah, i loved HONEY BOY. it’s more than just a cinematic memoir, it’s an act of forgiveness. the whole cast is wonderful but noah jupe displays a wisdom and emotional maturity far beyond his years. i really hope he goes far.
Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★ 13

Oh, this was a painful watch.
This is a movie about the inescapable trauma you can inherit from your parents and how hard it is not to love them in spite of it all. It’s a movie about recognizing your own problems as they happen but still feeling powerless to stop them, feeling like you need them. I recognize so many of Otis’s actions and emotions in people I know, in people I’ve loved. I’ve reckoned with the frustration of loving these people and feeling like they should “just be better,” only to see a pain in their eyes that shows me that they’re trying. More than anything, it’s clear that this movie is a cathartic (if maybe too meta)…
Review by katie ★★★★★ 12

"I'm going to make a movie about you."
Honey Boy is not perfect. *update, it very much is perfect. But Honey Boy is loud, and with emotions as honest and raw as these, loud is perfect. Loud enough to give me bruises and stains of mascara on my cheeks, honest enough to dig up old phone calls with my dad, raw enough to leave me in pieces. All I know right now, with the scars Honey Boy left with me, is that Noah Jupe gives my favorite performance of the year, and Shia LaBeouf is just about as emotionally vulnerable as a writer and performer can get. I don't think I could get this movie out of my head if I tried.
And I wouldn't dare.
"Make me look good, Honey Boy."
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★ 20

Last year it was Ethan Hawke, this year it’s Shia (so far). One of the most powerful performances I’ve seen in awhile. Agh. Yeah. Hm. Wow. Glad I exchanged my Velvet Buzzsaw ticket for this. You people are gonna eat this shit up.
Review by maria ★★★★½ 9

forget dad astra, THIS is the daddy issues movie of 2019 and possibly of ever
Review by Karsten Runquist ★★★★ 22

So much going on here, I think it's pretty brilliant. Will be elaborating more on the Karstcast episode coming next monday!
(please don't like this review and make a podcast plug one of the top reviews for this movie please)
Review by Sean Baker 12

Been a fan of Alma Har'el since Bombay Beach. I knew she would make a solid narrative fiction film someday and she did with Honey Boy.
DP Natasha Braier (Neon Demon, The Rover) is one of my favorite DP's and she really kicks ass with this one. I LOVE these Cooke Xtal Express anamorphic lenses.
variety.com/2019/film/spotlight/shia-lebeouf-honey-boy-dp-natasha-braier-took-nonfiction-approach-to-fiction-feature-1203404499/
Watched at Cineplex Odeon Scotia Bank - Vancouver
Review by Jay ★★★½ 1

youll be glad to know this coming of age movie features many pool sequences
Review by Gabriel Gundacker 22

I love Shia Labeouf. One time, I was at a Los Angeles flea market and Shia Labeouf came up to me and handed me a flyer to one of his celebrity-filled music events like he was putting on a community theater production. Us both pretending we both didn’t know he was Shia Labeouf was some of the more affecting performance art I’ve ever taken part in.
Labeouf’s emboldened ego and desperation to be taken seriously has made for, I think, some very entertaining, but not entirely sympathetic, movies and art. But while I have no doubt that Shia is dealing with a lot of truth about a deeply fucked-up childhood here, his inability to approach his Honey Boy script with…
Review by josh lewis ★★★★ 2

an intoxicating mix of free-floating, almost docudrama camerawork, expressionistic lighting and raw nerve performances. who knew that a metatextual psychodrama about the life of shia labeouf would end up a real-deal artistic work of overwhelming empathy and generosity? watching him psychologically access the POV of his abuser not with with judgement or anger but with sensitivity is remarkable. so in tune with its characters rippling pain and messy, sometimes contradictory feelings that the occasional bit of clumsy writing almost works in its favor.
Review by kevin abstract ★★★★★ 25

Perfect
Review by ˗ˏˋ Liam ˊˎ˗ ★★★★★ 2

“i’m going to make a movie about you”

this broke me i am broken

Recent reviews

Review by Ross ★★★★½

That’s a lot of damage
Review by jonathanpyle35 ★★★★½

One of the most poignant films I’ve ever seen.
“You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t pay you.”
Review by wohnwick ★★★★½

This movie was so honest it hurt my feelings
Review by Gage Warren ★★★★ 1

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

The editing in that scene where he woos in the junkyard as a kid and screams in the woods 10 years later. 👨🏻‍🍳🤌🏻😘
Review by Simon ★★★★

I love how Shia turned his career from movies to cinema
Review by Catarina Diniz ★★★★ 1

Well that was therapeutic
Review by joeylovesfilms ★★★★

88% 🎉
Noah Jupe deserves an Oscar for this movie the best performance by kid I’ve ever seen.
Review by cindy ★★★★½

Make me look good, Honey Boy.
Review by richt37 ★★★½

Sad but true tale of the abusive childhood of Shia La Boeuf. Disturbing but ends with some mild hope.
Review by Jacob_Ray ★★★½

Wow must be tough to have bad parents lol losers
Seriously though, the film loses a lot of its effectiveness of your parents were decent people. It's very heartfelt, and good at getting you to feel for the main character, but also a very personal movie that relies on the audience relating to it.
I'm glad Shia was able to do this for himself, though. Good for him.
Review by Ethan Lecter ★★★

Mixed feelings
But it's good therapy for the writer
Review by Mehmet Arif Burgaç

bazı yetersizlikler gitgide büyür ve kalıcı olurlar..çocukken elinde olmayan nedenler seni hüzün ve kaoslu bir yaşama iter ve ne kadar kaçmak istesen de bununla yaşarsın..bazen görmezden gelmeye çalıştığın şeyler seni sarıp sarmalar,parazit yaşam kaçınılmazdır.bir şeyler bir şeyler olur ve bununla yaşamak zorundasındır.o hasar çoktan alınmıştır ve geri dönüşü yoktur.