A fascinating and moving film.
This movie marks Shia LaBeouf's first time writing a feature length film. It is a shockingly personal and self revealing movie for him. This mostly autobiographical film focuses on Shia's own difficult relationship with his father. While this could have easily come off as self-indulgence. What is incredible is that it doesn't. This film is not a commendation of his father nor it is it a defense of him. This is movie also does not serve as an excuse for the mistakes Shia has made in the past. Instead this movie shows us the brutally honest truth and we choose what to make out of it. The father is not the black and white caricature he could have easily been. He is abusive to his son both mentally and physically. However we do get the feeling that underneath this he does truly love his son, though he is unable to show it. He is haunted by his past demons and pain to the point where he is unable to function the way a parent should. Whether we are supposed to hate and blame this character or if we are supposed to feel sorry for him, remains a purposely unanswered question. Truth is we feel a little of both watching this movie as much as these feelings contradict each other. One gets the feeling with this movie Shia LaBeouf is trying to both understand his father while still feeling pain towards what happened in the past. These conflicting emotions bring a strong sense of humanity and frailty to this movie, making it hard not to become emotionally involved in what we see on screen. All this is heighted by Shia LaBeouf's decision to play the character himself. His performance has a string sense of humanity under all the abuse.
However this film was not made by one person and many very talented people helped make this movie as great as it is. Despite this film being very much a personal work for Shia LaBeouf, it is interesting to note he was not the director. Instead this movie was directed by Alma Har'el, in her first non-documentary movie. She does an incredible job, presenting all this film's complex emotions in a completely real way. Noah Jupe steals the show playing Otis (basically this film's version of Shia LaBeouf) as a kid. This is an extremely heartfelt and human performance that makes the movie feel so much more real to us.
This is not always an easy to watch movie as it can often feel to heartbreakingly real. However it is extremely powerful movie that handles a complex situation in a surprisingly mature way.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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