I am getting down to the wire here in terms of watching films that have been or could be potentially nominated for the most prestigious awards available for film. So I’ve got to step to it! Luckily, I managed to squeeze in two very solid films this weekend.
First up was a film written by Hollywood’s resident trouble-maker, Shia LaBeouf. Although, this year it seems he’s finally turned his life around. That point is further proved based on the fact that he wrote this screenplay for Honey Boy in rehab. That’s right, as part of his healing process, Shia decided to write about certain traumatic events in his life that mainly revolved around his father.
In the film, we see two versions of a fictionalized Shia, called Otis. An older version (played by Lucas Hedges) is shown in rehab after getting into a pretty serious car accident, and the other is a young Otis (played by Noah Jupe) who is accompanied on set and at a motel by his aggressive father. He’s brash, swears, smokes, and sometimes physically assaults his kid, but he’s there. And that’s all Otis really wants, regardless of the outcome.
It was a tough watch, because it was a really intense relationship filled with pretty rough parenting, but you can’t deny the love this son has for his father. I also thought it was interesting that as we watch older Otis live his alcohol-infused life, we see variations of scenes from famous films that Shia himself shot growing up in the spotlight, like Holes, Transformers, and Even Stevens. It’s a very, very indie film, so if that’s not your bag, I recommend you skip it.
Next up was Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell. This film tells the story of a security guard who spotted a bomb in Centennial Park during a concert for the 1996 summer Olympics in Atlanta. At first touted as a hero, the media soon gets a hold of information from the FBI indicating that they were looking at Jewell as a suspect. Jewell and his family were hounded to no end by the media, essentially already marking him guilty, even though there was solid evidence arguing their initial claim.
The movie itself was fairly heart-breaking seeing what the media can do to person’s life. But it ultimately seems like Richard Jewell was a nice person who loved his job. As a fan of the actor who played Richard Jewell, Paul Walter Hauser (most notable in I, Tonya and series Kingdom), I was really excited to see him in a lead role, but this film was excellently shot by Eastwood. I would highly recommend adding this to your watch-list.