For documentarian Alma Har’el’s (Bombay Beach, LoveTrue) first fiction feature Honey Boy she collaborated with actor and performance artist Shia LaBeouf, working from his original autobiographical screenplay. Written in part as a therapeutic exercise during a stint in rehab, the film depicts LaBeouf’s intense, chaotic relationship with his father from childhood to young adulthood, lightly fictionalised with characters renamed.

Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea) play child actor Otis Lort as he rises from early success to self-destructive Hollywood star, with LaBeouf taking on the challenge of playing a version of his own father, an ex-rodeo clown and a felon. 

“To say Honey Boy is one big therapy session is to do it a disservice — it’s much better than that… this is an utterly unique bit of autobiography. Brave, bold, and a little batshit.” Empire

2019 | Dir Alma Har’el | 93min |  USA