Film 02: Why "A beautiful boy" feels real?

The 2018 Film "A Beautiful Boy" directed by Felix Van Groeningen and starring Timothee chalamet as a drug addict and Steve Carrell is a film I recommend you watch. Spoilers ahead!

The story begins flicking between the past of the drug abuser as a little boy, then to when he starts experimenting with drugs and lastly to the present where he is a full blown addict. Groeningen explores the demise of the character and presents him in his past years as a truly innocent and well mannered young man. This continuous flick between him as a child and the strong bond that the father holds reinforces that innocent perception of the character therefore making us feel sympathetic towards him during his demise and deteriorating relationship with his Dad.

Throughout the narrative the message of him as a drug abuser is how Nic's in denial that he has a disease in which admitting he is the cause of/ is fuelling this addiction, in turn makes him relapse due to the guilt. Your opinions as a viewer, at least mine was was very much similar to the Father in the film. Understanding but angered and upset to see his son fall back into the patten. Now most popular drug abuser films centre in on how he got started which this film does do but it goes a lot further back and get to know the character as the individual with potential rather than what he already was. This is very much how a Father would view his own son and personally I believe this was done intentionally, so that throughout the film we would be agreeing with the Father instead of saying that it is self inflicted and deserved the outcome.

With this outlook on a whole person it gives better insight to the fall of the protagonist and shapes the audience to support him even though Nic's himself is not helping. A more enhanced perception of the drug abuser prior to drug abusing is why i constructed this blog to tell you that this does not alienate the person as a "low life druggy" but a "lost young man". Films like Requiem of a dream do the opposite and show how the abusers are low life and you are not exactly sympathetic when their end comes unlike "a beautiful boy".

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