Recensioni de* critic*

Because millennial filmmaking is primarily based on escapism — or is generally unresponsive to broad social concerns — Beautiful Boy is distracted from the very problem it hopes to expose.

The down-to-earth details of Nic's misery, and his family's anguish, are delicately observed and don't pander to viewers who want an inspirational, tidy story. A narrative decision that would feel like a flaw in other movies feels like proof of integrity here: at roughly the 90-minute mark, Nic seems as if he's about to get clean, only to relapse and end up back where he started, but even worse off.

The leads are superb, buoyed by Amy Ryan as Nic's mom, Maura Tierney as his stepmother, and LisaGay Hamilton in a moving cameo as a parent whose unconditional love couldn't save her child.

Somewhere between harsh truth and slick sentiment lies Beautiful Boy. Still, director Felix Van Groeningen, who also co-wrote the screenplay, commendably sustains the story’s profound sense of irresolution.

This is a case of an editor rescuing a project headed toward certain disaster. If an editor can write a movie, then Nico Leunen—who stepped in, broke down the material, and rebuilt it when director Felix van Groeningen realized that several previous edits weren’t working, and most likely realized that he should’ve been working with his regular editor all along—has written Beautiful Boy.