Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy is currently streaming in Australia on Amazon Prime Video, and in the US on Amazon Prime Video, and it rewards the patience it asks of you. It knows exactly what kind of film it is from the opening scene, and never loses that thread. 2,893 viewers have already rated it on TMDB — the kind of consensus that does not happen by accident. Steve Carell leads a cast that never overplays its hand. There is no real reason to keep putting it off — it is right there on Amazon Prime Video.

Part of the current wave of titles people are actually watching, Beautiful Boy earns its spot. The writing in Beautiful Boy treats its characters as people first, plot devices second. After he and his first wife separate, journalist David Sheff struggles to help their teenage son, who goes from experimenting with drugs to becoming devastatingly addicted to methamphetamine. Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet lead a cast that treats the material with real seriousness. It hit screens in 2018. Beautiful Boy resists tidy resolutions in a way that respects how messy real consequences actually are. It rarely drops the ball, and when it does, it recovers fast.

For anyone looking for storytelling that takes its characters seriously, Beautiful Boy delivers. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. Short enough to finish in one sitting, substantial enough to feel satisfying. Steve Carell is the centre of it, and it is one of their strongest performances on record. The patience it asks of you early on is paid back with interest.