Beautiful Boy

This movie perfectly captures the feeling of grieving someone who is still alive. Watching them deteriorate, fall lower and lower with each relapse, and knowing when to stop giving help because they aren’t taking it. But still longing to know, to understand. Between trying to understand his son, trying to understand the mind of an addict, how addiction feels, how a high feels, and doing whatever he can to help the person he loves — that feeling of helplessness and loss, Steve Carell portrays masterfully. This movie shows how often what the addict is feeling, their loved ones are too. As stupidly cliché as it sounds, it’s true. The loneliness, hopelessness, confusion, anger, hurt, yearning. The scene with Nicolas (Timothée Chalamet) writhing on the floor of a public restroom while he overdoses is a scene that breaks me every time. Whether you’ve been on either side of that situation or simply are imagining what it’s like, it is a perfect scene. Beautiful Boy manages to touch upon the perspectives of all sides of addiction tastefully. I could probably go on for much longer but this is just a rewatch for me — all in all, accurate, and if you want to have your heart shattered by a movie, this is one.