Feature premiered at Sundance Fest
By Ryan Pearson, Entertainment Writer
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) --Shia LaBeouf latest film was born in an unusual place — court-ordered rehab.
The actor spent time writing the script for his semi-autobiographical “Honey Boy” while he was being treated for substance abuse after a 2017 arrest.
“He wrote this script in rehab and actually sent me an email from there with the script,” said Israeli director Alma Har’el. “So it was pretty mind blowing. I couldn’t say no to that.”
LaBeouf premiered the film at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday in Park City, Utah. He didn’t speak with the media but posed alongside his mother, Shayna Saide, and fellow actors.
The former “Transformers” star plays an alcoholic and abusive father of a child actor, who is played at different ages by Noah Jupe (of “A Quiet Place”) and Lucas Hedges (“Boy Erased”).
“I think it was emotionally difficult for anybody to do what he did and I think nobody has ever done it before,” Har’el said. “He stepped into his own trauma and played his father in it — the most complicated relationship he’s ever had, that defined his life more than anything else.”
LaBeouf had admired an early documentary by Har’el and they’d developed a working relationship over the years. “We did a music video. He was kind enough to finance my second film when nobody but nobody else would,” she said.
In 2017, LaBeouf pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction stemming from his attempt to elude police following a vulgar public outburst in Georgia.
He was also ordered to pay $2,680 in fines and fees, perform 100 hours of community service, enroll in anger management counseling and complete a drug and alcohol evaluation. That’s when he began on “Honey Boy.”
Har’el said the film shines a light on LaBeouf’s private struggles.
“It’s a story about the things you inherit. Shia definitely inherited a lot of his passion towards acting from his father. But he also inherited other things that he has to deal with for the rest of his life. And he’s trying to do it as best as he can. He had to do it in the public eye, unlike many of us. So it’s been very challenging. And I think this film really kind of deals with that,” she said.
“Honey Boy” is seeking a distributor at Sundance.
Har’el is also known as the founder of the Free The Bid initiative designed to open up opportunities for female filmmakers. She was a nominee last year for the DGA Award as best commercial director of the year on the strength of P&G’s Winter Olympics piece, “Love Over Bias,” produced by Epoch Films, which handles her for select commercials and branded content.
Review: Malcolm Washington Makes His Feature Directing Debut With “The Piano Lesson”
An heirloom piano takes on immense significance for one family in 1936 Pittsburgh in August Wilson's "The Piano Lesson." Generational ties also permeate the film adaptation, in which Malcolm Washington follows in his father Denzel Washington's footsteps in helping to bring the entirety of The Pittsburgh Cycle — a series of 10 plays — to the screen.
Malcolm Washington did not start from scratch in his accomplished feature filmmaking debut. He enlisted much of the cast from the recent Broadway revival with Samuel L. Jackson (Doaker Charles), his brother, John David Washington (Boy Willie), Ray Fisher (Lymon) and Michael Potts (Whining Boy). Berniece, played by Danielle Brooks in the play, is now beautifully portrayed by Danielle Deadwyler. With such rich material and a cast for whom it's second nature, it would be hard, one imagines, to go wrong. Jackson's own history with the play goes back to its original run in 1987 when he was Boy Willie.
It's not the simplest thing to make a play feel cinematic, but Malcolm Washington was up to the task. His film opens up the world of the Charles family beyond the living room. In fact, this adaptation, which Washington co-wrote with "Mudbound" screenwriter Virgil Williams, goes beyond Wilson's text and shows us the past and the origins of the intricately engraved piano that's central to all the fuss. It even opens on a big, action-filled set piece in 1911, during which the piano is stolen from a white family's home. Another fleshes out Doaker's monologue in which he explains to the uninitiated, Fisher's Lymon, and the audience, the tortured history of the thing. While it might have been nice to keep the camera on Jackson, such a great, grounding presence throughout, the good news is that he really makes... Read More