Otis Lort (Lucas Hedges) is a young Hollywood star mired in addiction. After crashing his car, he is forced into court ordered rehab in lieu of a 4 year prison sentence. He must face the trauma of his childhood as a child star being controlled by his recovering biker father James (Shia LaBeouf).

I applaud any therapeutic relief Shia LaBeouf is able to achieve with this film. On top of that, there are a couple of really compelling scenes. I really like the adult young Otis resisting rehab. One thing that took me out of the movie is LaBeouf's look. It's very superficial but it does look like a clown. It's a clown on a bike and it throws me off. It's not about his performance. I also like him when he runs out of his rehab group. I like his performance but I don't like his look. Also there is only limited tension. He faces the danger of his addiction everyday and there is a danger of jail. Those dangers were never elevated. In the end, it's about his childhood and I find it interesting but not mind blowing. That's this movie. It's interesting but not mind blowing.

Yikes, but this is an angry film. An almost unrecognisable Shia LaBeouf portrays a father - a former rodeo clown - in this semi-autobiographical project. He has a pretty turbulent relationship with his son so, perhaps unsurprisingly, the kid goes off the rails and the story is cleverly related from the perspectives of the older version of the child (Lucas Hedges - now a 22 year old with anger-management and alcohol issues) and a really impressive Noah Jupe (also great in Le Mans '66) playing Otis as a 12 year old whose work as a child actor on daytime television is keeping himself and his father employed, as they live a sort of hand-to-mouth existence in a motel. I was never quite certain as to whether (or not) he is actually loved, or is just being used by his father as a mealticket. This is a moving, touching story - perhaps more so because it is written by a man who does not appear to wish to cover up much in this warts-and-all representation of some of his own early life. FKA Twigs offers a few moments of tenderness to the younger Otis as he struggles to come to terms with his fathers indifference. Otherwise this is a profoundly honest and absorbing, occasionally difficult 90 minutes. Ought to be seen, though.

"Honey Boy" is 90 minutes of Shia LaBeouf in an unacceptable haircut acting like a twerp.

LaBeouf the personality is incredibly unlikable to begin with, so it took virtually no time for me to tire of his one-note, relentlessly unpleasant performance. I knew going in that this movie was basically him working through his daddy issues, but I thought it would bring some more universal enlightenment and not be quite such an act of cinematic narcissism. The point of "Honey Boy" is that messed up dads raise messed up kids. Well I can just hang out with people I'm related to come to that conclusion, without paying $10 bucks for it.

"Honey Boy" has one bright spot, and that is the performance of Noah Jupe as the LaBeouf surrogate as a little boy.

Grade: C-