If you thought that the abuse Judy Garland had on set was painfully awful, just look at what Otis, the character inspiration for Shia LaBeouf’s troubled childhood, had to suffer through.

Man o’mighty.

Documentary-experienced director Alma Har’el perfectly understands the abuse and misfortune of a father in her outstanding debut feature film “Honey Boy”.

The film showcases itself in a non-linear structure of the life of Otis Lort as both a kid (Noah Jupe) and a young adult (Lucas Hedges). There are mostly sequences involving him as a kid because we as an audience are experienced of his relationship with his father James Lort (Shia LaBeouf) as a tough watch.

James Lort is a hicky, aggressive human being that annoys his neighbors to shut up while Otis Lort is a son that is completely aware of his father’s actions and wants to assist him to be a better father.

In addition, James is a person that has the same exact qualities the young adult version of Otis is going through. Not only are they both sex offenders, but also deal with the awful, grotesque addictions with alcohol. Har’el wants to believe the audience that one person influences another and realize that Otis is the same as his father, James.

Similar to this year’s “Pain & Glory” from Pedro Almodovar, it is kind of a film within a film where we have our perspective to young adult Otis looking at metaphoric chickens and clowns because he is thinking about his father’s occupation as a rodeo clown.

“Honey Boy” is a near-masterpiece in every shape of form and shows that Alma Har’el is a unique, powerful voice in cinema.

During the fast-paced 93 minutes, we want to feel the absolute worst for Otis Lort’s childhood as we do the same for Shia’s childhood, the life that inspired to make the movie. That is the main purpose of this film hence the “film within a film” aspect of it.

If Shia LaBeouf does not get nominted for either his ruthless performance in this or the endearing “The Peanut Butter Falcon”, it is a crime about as harmful as if the Oscars snubbed Joaquin Phoenix’s costing as much as that coming up as a $1,000,000 felony.

LaBeouf plays a character inspired by Bria Vinaite’s raw performance as Halley in “The Florida Project”, where you want more mercy for the kid than you do for the adult. He perfectly plays a person that thinks he is doing better for his life in the inside, but he showcases himself doing worse for his life in the outside.

However, Noah Jupe after this and “Ford vs. Ferrari” has started to become alongside Jacob Tremblay as one of the best child actors working today in modern film. His performance as Otis as a child is just faithfully brilliant. He feels like he wants to live the American dream as a child actor, but get forced to rehearse his acting over and over again by his father James, whom is accompanying him when acting.

That is no lie to Lucas Hedges’ consistent film career he has had through the past three years because this might represent his full-on A-game right there as young adult Otis Lort. He plays as an exact replica of his father, but is forced to go into a rehab facility because of his drunk behavior towards the police due to his car being crashed. We don’t get much time with this version of Otis as we do of the child version of Otis because the film allows us to reconcile his past through these small segments encompassing the grown-up Otis.

Just saying.

There are other hidden metaphors found throughout “Honey Boy” like for example, there is this “Shy Girl” (played by British singer FKA Twigs), whom plays as a reminder and a positive influence towards Otis throughout during some scenes. This absolutely makes PERFECT sense within the context of the story because Otis wants to be friends with her and not deal with the disgusting behaviors of James Lort.

“Honey Boy” is one of 2019’s very best pictures worthy of having Shia LaBeouf’s very first nomination both worthy for Supporting Actor and his amazing script necessarily considered for Best Original Screenplay. It is a unique work of art that might not please every audience through it’s structure, but understand the hardship of a father-and-son relationship so poetic and beautiful.

It is so devastating that we may conceive Shia LaBeouf as a different person when watching his films he has starred in.

Grade: 9.5/10