Day three of TIFF 2019 brought me into the heavier part of my schedule. I was tired when I arrived, and exhausted by the time my 6:30 alarm woke me up. I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to see two films I’d been looking forward to for a while (Honey Boy and Guns Akimbo) or any chance to spend two hours with Beanie Feldstein (How To Build A Girl). The energy was pumping around town and kept me going through a long day. And it was totally worth it for these three.
Honey Boy: Healing For All To See
Folks, the LaBeoufaissance is full speed ahead.
It’s no secret Shia LaBeouf has had his share of troubles. He’s been accused of plagiarism. He’s been arrested more than once and eventually landed in court ordered rehab. It seems rehab wasn’t just healing for him, but productive. While there, LaBeouf wrote his first screenplay – Honey Boy. It’s a pretty thinly veiled autobiographical retelling of a traumatic childhood and relationship with his father.
Otis (Noah Jupe) is a young child actor on an unnamed show (really, it’s “Even Stevens”) who lives with his ex-con father, James (LaBeouf). The dad constantly verbally abuses him. He’s racist and fills his son’s head full of lies. James tells Otis that he “pumps [Otis] full of strength,” while his mom has a job “in case he fails as an actor.” Otis lives to please his dad, who will never be happy.
In a weird and unhealthy way, his dad pushing him does help him become a better actor. It also takes its toll on Otis mentally. His dad doesn’t know how to love him – he has his own family issues and alcoholism.
It’s so cathartic that it all feels like on-screen therapy. In playing his own father, LaBeouf isn’t just acting, he’s empathizing. It’s, unsurprisingly, the most personal performance you’ll see all year. He seems to recognize his father’s own struggles and accept them. The role feels like an exercise a therapist would suggest done for all to see.
Jupe, for his part takes on the role of LaBeouf like a seasoned pro. It probably helps to be an actual child actor, but he pulls off an impressive and complex range of emotions. One moment he’s innocently idolizing his dad, the next he’s shattered by the lack of his love. And another he’s delivering lines and getting pied in the face. There’s one particularly funny scene in particular where he’s the intermediary on the phone between his mom and dad who are fighting. He acts as each of his parents, including their mannerisms.
It’s just one moment of balance that LaBeouf and director Alma Har’el found to lighten the heavy nature of the film. It’s on-screen healing that brought me to tears more than once. You feel LaBeouf putting his soul into every word he wrote and every line he delivers. You feel his load being lifted from his shoulders as he battles his demons.
Honey Boy may not be the top family drama of the year (see: Waves), but it is the most personal story you can imagine. And it seriously hits home with anyone who carries pain inside them.
How To Build A Girl: Beanie Feldstein Carries The Load In This Rock n Roll Fairy Tale
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Beanie Feldstein stars as an overachieving teenage girl who’s a social outcast. If you thought I was talking about Booksmart, you didn’t read the intro header to this review. Feldstein has the part down pat, and in How To Build A Girl she adds a Wolverhampton accent.
She’s a high school student named Johanna Morrigan, who dreams of meeting her prince charming in a storybook ending. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to really be in the cards for her. She’s neither socially nor culturally adept. Her heroes covering her wall aren’t musicians or movie stars, but fictional and historical characters.
So when she gets a job writing for a music magazine, reviewing rock acts, she’s a fish out of water. One thing leads to another and she ends up in love with rock star singer John Kite (Alfie Allen). At the same time, her colleagues tell her she needs to eviscerate musicians in her writing. And so she turns into a stone cold bitch, trashing countless acts.
Ultimately, it’s a lesson in not trying to become who you think you need to be, but rather you’ll eventually become who you’re supposed to be. A valuable lesson indeed, but one that’s been told better elsewhere. The film starts out strong and creative flourishes make it stand out. There are plenty of cheeky jokes that combine Booksmart style humor with a wry British wit.
However, as each act comes the film loses its energy. It almost feels like it takes on more than it can handle. She has family issues at home, professional issues at the magazine and personal issues in her love for Kite. It adds up to what feels like three different ending moments in the third act before we get the actual one (with a wonderful guest appearance).
Feldstein shines as bright as ever under the stage lights, but How To Build A Girl can’t quite manage to rise above an average coming-of-age rock n roll fairy tale.
Guns Akimbo: Double-wielding wild fun
Delayed a few years, Guns Akimbo has been much talked about in dark internet circles. Mainly because of the amazing slash absurd picture floating around of Daniel Radcliffe wearing stuffed animal slippers and a robe with guns bolted to both of his hands. Turns out, that picture is a pretty good indicator of how the film was going to be. Over-the-top, crazy and absurdly fun.
Radcliffe plays Miles, a nerdy and timid guy IRL who trolls on the internet. He’s still not over his ex girlfriend Nova (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). One day after work he’s watching a stream of an underground fight streaming channel called SKIZM when he leaves a nasty comment. The SKIZM team tracks him down, knocks him out and operates on his hands attaching two guns with fifty bullets each.
When he wakes up, Miles is told he has 24 hours to either kill Nix (the always badass Samara Weaving) or be killed by Nix. Nix has her own background, but honestly it’s not worth getting into because the fun is in the city-wide chase and all of its twists and turns. Along the way there’s a gimp named Fuckface, a wise homeless man played by Rhys Darby and non-stop action.
Mixed in with the intense choreography of it all is a ton of self-aware humor. Miles has to learn to live with guns for hands – how to pee, open the door and other everyday things. These mundane activities are a welcome chance to breath between the all-out action that takes up most of the film.
Writer and director Jason Lei Howden manages to add in a surprising amount of commentary on internet culture, especially for a 90 minute action flick. Some of it feels a little dated (likely because it was filmed in 2019 and was delayed), but not to the point of taking away from the fun. Howden speaks to video game culture, the obsession we have with likes and views. The majority of what he speaks on is our obsession with watching other people suffer, as long as it’s through a screen and doesn’t feel real. SKIZM, and the millions who watch it, represent the worst of humanity in the digital age.
All in all, Guns Akimbo is a delightfully absurdist, high-octane, drug-fueled video game come to life. Radcliffe continues to shake himself loose from the label of playing Harry Potter with another weird indie role (see: Swiss Army Man). Guns Akimbo doesn’t take itself remotely seriously and that’s why it works so well.