Beautiful Boy

Critics Consensus

Beautiful Boy sees Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell delivering showcase work that's often powerful enough to make up for the story's muted emotional impact.

69%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 248

77%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 2,387
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Movie Info

Based on the best-selling pair of memoirs from father and son David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse, and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.

Cast

Steve Carell
as David Sheff
Timothée Chalamet
as Nic Sheff
Maura Tierney
as Karen Barbour
Amy Ryan
as Vicki Sheff
Christian Convery
as Jasoper Sheff
Christian Convery
as Jasper Sheff
Oakley Bull
as Daisy Sheff
Kaitlyn Dever
as Lauren
Stefanie Scott
as Julia
Julian Works
as Gack
Kue Lawrence
as 4 & 6 Year-Old Nic Sheff
Jack Dylan Grazer
as 12-Year-Old Nic Sheff
Ricky Low
as Destiny
Mary Pat Farrell
as Julia's Mother
Amy Forsyth
as Diane
Andre Royo
as Spencer
Mandeiya Flory
as Kit
Timothy Hutton
as Dr. Brown
Jeffrey Adler
as Smileyman
Edward Fletcher
as Minister
Sasha Jackson
as EMT
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Critic Reviews for Beautiful Boy

All Critics (248) | Top Critics (47) | Fresh (170) | Rotten (78)

  • There's an emptiness to this story, and it's a shame because Chalamet could've really given us the depths of what was going on in this kids life.

    March 4, 2019 | Full Review…

    tt stern-enzi

    WXIX-TV (Cincinnati, OH)
    Top Critic

  • I loved watching it. It's fantastically enjoyable.

    January 20, 2019 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

    Charlotte O'Sullivan

    London Evening Standard
    Top Critic

  • It is a film of rare emotional complexity and punch - not just wincingly sharp on the business of addiction in particular, but also a heart-piercing ode to fatherhood at large.

    January 18, 2019 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

    Robbie Collin

    Daily Telegraph (UK)
    Top Critic

  • Yet Beautiful Boy is that rare cinematic artifact, a film that purports to be about one thing (in this case, addiction), but when you scrape away the surface dazzle, is really about everything.

    January 17, 2019 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review…

    Kevin Maher

    Times (UK)
    Top Critic

  • This supersensitive and tasteful movie is all but insufferable, suppressing a sob at the tragedy of drug addiction afflicting someone so young and "beautiful".

    January 16, 2019 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

    Peter Bradshaw

    Guardian
    Top Critic

  • Carell is heroically good as the father vexed by his powerless compassion and Chalamet equal to him in his wrestling, restless awareness of his own path to destruction.

    January 16, 2019 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

    Nigel Andrews

    Financial Times
    Top Critic
View All Critic Reviews (248)

Audience Reviews for Beautiful Boy

  • Jan 15, 2019
    BEAUTIFUL BOY (2 Stars) Ugh. This isn't even a movie. There's no real story. It just keeps repeating itself to death and then ends. Yes, it mirrors the cycle of addiction that plague so many people, but that doesn't make for good storytelling. Timothée Chalamet does some great work when portraying his character's addiction to heroin, but I never believed him as a meth addict. There's a distinction that I don't think he quite captured. Steve Carell here has that annoying high pitch in his voice we typically see from Tom Cruise when he plays an end-of-his-rope character. Major points deducted for the terrible choice to edit a montage to "Sunrise/Sunset" from FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. Who thought that worked? I want names!!
    Glenn G Super Reviewer
  • Jan 09, 2019
    One of the best and most moving movie endings I have seen, the film is well paced but the out of order story line can confuse. This version leaves a lot to be desired from the book, but the score picks it up and it soars. Timothee underwent a brilliant transformation to bring this character to light, some of his co stars also shine.
    Super Reviewer
  • Dec 10, 2018
    It felt like it was taking this a long time to really find its groove and then I checked my phone to see where we were time-wise and it was an hour and a half in. Needless to say, Beautiful Boy has no groove to be found. Having not read the source material this may immediately mean less to me, but the structuring of this story as its done in the film doesn't help. It's not hard to see what the film is trying to do in telling the two parallel perspectives of the father and the son caught in this battle with addiction, but in doing so what results is a disjointed mess of a movie (at least upon first watch). We never spend long enough periods with either of the characters to garner any real sympathy for them-not until the end anyway when Carell brings it all home. It's kind of a weird movie too, but worse is the fact it's a boring weird movie. Every single aspect of these people's lives revolves around coping with addiction and addiction itself, but there has to be more in order to have the audience invest in these lives. I adore Steve Carell and Timothï¿ 1/2 (C)e Chalamet seems like a genuinely nice, cool, and grateful kid, but even their strenuous performances feel exhausting and void of any tangible pathos.
    Philip P Super Reviewer
  • Nov 25, 2018
    The story's impact is almost diluted by the film's editing (with its jumps in time and flashbacks within flashbacks) and questionable choice of music, which makes it kind of emotionally stiff, even though that is compensated by two amazing performances by Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell.
    Carlos M Super Reviewer
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