Amazon Studios has just released the Red Band Honey Boy trailer. The film is written by Shia LaBeouf and based on his true experiences with his father. For those of us who have follow LaBeouf‘s ups and downs – some of us would catch every single episode of “Even Stevens” – this feels like a must-see to understand and experience the man himself.
Honey Boy premiered at Sundance to a standing ovation and is currently 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Coming on the heals of The Peanut Butter Falcon which was heartwarming and delightful, it will be really interesting to see how people talk about Shia LaBeouf after this year.
In Honey Boy, award-winning filmmaker Alma Har’el (Bombay Beach, LoveTrue) brings to life a young actor’s stormy childhood and early adult years as he struggles to reconcile with his father and deal with his mental health.
Fictionalizing his ascent to stardom, and subsequent crash-landing into rehab and recovery, Har’el casts Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place) and Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased, Manchester by the Sea) as Otis Lort, navigating different stages in a frenetic career. LaBeouf takes on the therapeutic challenge of playing a version of his own father, an ex-rodeo clown and a felon.
Dancer-singer FKA twigs makes her feature-film debut, playing neighbor and kindred spirit to the younger Otis in their garden-court motel home. Har’el’s feature narrative debut is a one-of-a-kind collaboration between filmmaker and subject, exploring art as medicine and imagination as hope through the life and times of a talented, traumatized performer who dares to go in search of himself.
Are you excited for Honey Boy? Let us know what you expect in the comments below.
Honey Boy hits select US theaters November 8