If you’ve been surfing the web this week, you probably came across the viral movie trailer for Beautiful Boy. The upcoming drama produced by Amazon Films focuses on a drug-addicted teenager and his experiences with recovery, relapses and redemption. The emotional tw0-and-a-half minute clip got been picked up by several entertainment sites this week and has already garnered over 500,000 views on YouTube.
Truth be told, there are several reasons why Beautiful Boy is picking up so much buzz. For one it stars the very popular Timothée Chalamet, who recently scored an Oscar nomination for his work in Call Me By Your Name. Boy also features a moving performance from actor Steve Carell, who plays the father of Timothée’s character.
Those of us in the recovery community are probably already familiar with the subject matter of this movie. It is actually based a very successful book, which chronicled the real life methamphetamine struggles of Nic Sheff. The moving story gained quite a bit of critical acclaim when it was released back in 2008, earning the title of “#1 Best Nonfiction Title of the Year” from Entertainment Weekly. Not only that, it topped the The New York Times Best Seller List for multiple weeks.
The film adaptation is expected to earn its own level of praise and it’s not hard to see why. The trailer starts off with some very effective dialogue between Chalamet and Carell. Things take a darker turn from there, with narration from the father character about a broken relationship and a son that’s gone missing. Several moving images ensue as the audience is taken on an emotional journey from the perspective of a loving parent.
Taking a very quotable line from the book, you can hear Chalamet’s character Nic say, “I don’t feel like I have a disease. This isn’t like cancer. This is my choice. I put myself here.”
You can bet we’ll be ready to buy our tickets when Beautiful Boy hits theaters this October. And in our opinion, getting this story to the big screen is a well deserved accomplishment. We encourage our readers to watch the full trailer below. And, in the months before the big release, try going to your local library or bookstore to pick up the hardcover for yourself.
