The actor-turned-screenwriter debuted his intensely personal new film at Sundance, where he resisted giving his creative process an easy pass.
It’s hard to imagine an actor getting any closer to their material than Shia LaBeouf did with his latest role, in which he plays his own father in the Alma Har’el-directed biopic, “Honey Boy.” Written partially while he was in rehab, the film also serves as LaBeouf’s feature screenwriting debut, and it’s surely as personal as the actor has ever gotten.
The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday afternoon at the Eccles Theatre, where the addiction drama earned a standing ovation from an attentive crowd. The fractured narrative flips between scenes that take place when LaBeouf — here referred to as “Otis” — was embarking on his early Disney career (the 12-year-old version is played by a revelatory Noah Jupe) and a decade later when he had reached international stardom after starring in films like “Transformers” (this Otis is played by Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges, who turns a LaBeouf impersonation into something special). In both sections, Otis’ life is informed — mostly for the worse — by his addict father (LaBeouf himself).
