I finally saw Beautiful Boy. It was definitely heavy, but both Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet are brilliant. It is a film that shows how far people will go to save the protect the ones they love. It has many moments that are heavy but it is powerful and engrossing. Chalamet is nominated for best actor in a supporting role in the Golden Globes on Sunday he is worthy of the award. Carell’s performance is also Oscar-worthy. The film challenges a dad and his son (Carell and Chalamet). Carell is a man that is doing all he can to help his son be completely clean from using drugs to get by in his life. The film is a heavy journal that is powerful, bold, and a true story.

David Sheff (Carell) has a son who has a history tons of drug usage, and his son is Nic (Chalamet). Chalamet is completely in denial when it comes to being questioned about his drug usage. That is because his system is full of all kinds of dangerous substances. They range from alcohol, meth, cocaine, and more. Throughout the film David does every possible research he can to help Nic follow steps to getting himself out this horrible habit, but Nic keeps on being dishonest and relapsing. He has his moments where he acts like he is clean or doing well for short periods of time, and then he goes right back towards drugs, bad decisions, and all other kinds of disasters. This starts to leave David to run out of options in terms being a support to Nic. That is because Nick keeps lying, using, and his consequences start to become irreparable.

For Chalamet this film is a transformation for him. He went from being the geeky and cool student in “Lady Bird” (2017) and “Call Me By  Your Name” (2017) to the pale, dry-skinned, and teary-eyed and depressed Nic Sheff. Chalamet lost 25 pounds to play the role. He plays the role very well and is faithful to the depressed real-life character in which he portrays in this sad, but vivid masterpiece. Also it is a transformation for Carell, he went from being the cranky and opinionated Michael Scott from “The Office” (2005-2013) to the worried, but also hard working father that will do whatever it takes to bring his son to recovery. Both are just very memorable in “Beautiful Boy.”

I also felt the film reminded me a lot of what is going on in today’s society. There are many people who are struggling with addiction, and “Beautiful Boy” has a message to that, and that is relapse is part of the process of recovering. Nic does not get better overnight, he has multiple ups and downs where he is better and then falls apart again, and viewers are thinking if Nic is ever going become a better and stronger person in his life.

For director Felix van Groeningen, this is his seventh film as a director, and in the process of editing “Beautiful Boy” it took seven months. With that the movie was recut a generous amount of times, however Van Groeningen wanted the film to be perfect and he found an editor that he has worked with for a while at the last minute to help him. That editor was Nico Leunen, and when he came in, I believe that brought out “Beautiful Boy” to be as visually moving and emotional as it was. The editing and the pacing will movie viewers to feel they are in the heavy world of challenges there is for Nic Sheff.

Another factor that was riveting with “Beautiful Boy” was its screenplay. The writer for it is Luke Davies and he did the screenplay for “Lion” (2016) and that was another movie I was deeply moved by as equally as I was with “Beautiful Boy.” Davies writing in the screenplay is quite realistic and intense where it makes its audience feel they are part of the problems in the film. This would be more on the elements along the lines the scenes of disagreements and arguments between Carell and Chalamet.

“Beautiful Boy” is a must watch. I will say though, be ready for its heavy theme. The world of drugs and addictions is not a pretty place, and it was not for Nic Sheff or his father. There is so much more in the world for Nic, and his father tries to help him realize that he has so much to offer the world, and that what he is doing to himself will not make the pain go away. It is a journey that viewers will feel moved by. Four stars.

The rush of holiday films are basically over, therefore the big titles now that will grab most film fanatics’ attention are films that has Oscar buzz, films worthy of a second viewing, or independent films that only play at limited locations. “Escape Room” was definitely not a movie that I enjoyed very much. I saw a variety of decent films over the holiday season ranging from “Vox Lux,” “Aquaman,” “Mary Queen Of Scots,” “Ben is Back,” and those grabbed my attention, but not “Escape Room.” Escape Room was a very predictable movie that was very overrated. Yes, these games may seem fun to do in real-life, but why make a silly movie out of it?

The plot focuses on six strangers who fall into one escape room. They all must fight to survive the games or scenarios they are placed in. They have limited resources, limited time, and their lives are on the line. However, it is a very easy plot to solve on who survives as the film gets further. I will not explain what I mean by the film being easy to understand, that is something viewers will have to see for themselves.

The film opens up with a game and someone who is on the line with his life and about to die. Then the movie jumps forward to everyone coming together to be part of a game. In that scenario, there is not much background story to the characters or why they are in the game. Therefore, we do not know much of their purposes for taking part in a game requiring to escape. We notice some of their emotions and drama but the background lacks entirely. I think the director was gearing more on the scare factors or jumping moments over emphasizing the importance of character development.

I know I am basically bashing this movie. However, it is always in January where mostly crappy movies come into play. “Escape Room” is crappy. I came to realize the director, Adam Robitel also directed “Insidious: the Last Key.” He is still fairly new to directing, so I will not be that negative with his directing, because when I think of it, he is still new in the game with directing, but he has a fair amount of writing, editing and producing credits.

I remember looking at the ratings before watching the film, and they would vary from the six zone to the seven zone, however, I would drop it more down to the five zone. That is because this movie is poorly written, poorly directed, has some good jumping moments, but of course they are predictable. Here is some movie math on it, think of the “Saw” series, however drop the level of violence down a multiple amount of levels. With that, “Escape Room” is basically a PG-13 version of “Saw.”

Overall, I do not have much positivity for “Escape Room.” All I can say is hello January and hello to average to poorly done film month. I am only going to give this movie one star.

I came across “October Sky” when I was like age eight or so. I remember not being fully enthusiastic about it at that age. However, I began to appreciate “October Sky” more when I was about age twelve or so. Now, I’m 25 years old, and I view “October Sky” to be a faithful and true story to what it means for someone to follow their dreams. Also, for Jake Gyllenhaal, I definitely would say this film to be one of his most recognized performances of his career. The film is charming, faithful, and true to its real-life adaptation on the life of Homer Hickam (Gyllenhaal).

Hickam is the son of a coal miner, John Hickam (Chris Cooper). The Hickams live in a small town called Coalwood which is in West Virginia. The year is 1957 and the first artificial satellite goes into orbit and its called Sputnik. Homer is fascinated by the science behind Sputnik. This leads Homer to have an aspiration to build rockets. For Homer and his friends, this becomes a big deal for them, however, his father and a majority of the town believes that Homer and his buddies are wasting their time and energy on something that is ridiculous. One person that has faith in Homer is his science teacher Miss Riley (Laura Dern). Riley believes that Homer has potential to be first in a science fair and has a bright future for him if he continues with his rocket science. Homer’s father still thinks otherwise. However, Homer and his buddies continue to build their craft and accept trial and error with their rocket experiments. The film becomes one that challenges controversy, disagreements, and many tensions for Homer. Not just tensions for Homer and his father, but also for those around the small town of Coalwood.

For Homer, he does not really care about impressing his father. That is because he knows that he is capable of doing something extraordinary with his craft and rocketry. On the other hand, his father really only cares about Homer becoming a coal minor or finding something else to do other than rocketry. As the film progresses, the tension builds between Homer and his father. There is a point in the film when Homer and his father have a huge argument. For both Gyllenhaal and Cooper, the argument is a knockout performance. More for Gyllenhaal. Viewers can feel the tension in Homer’s heart as he is fighting with his father and yells, “I’ll be gone forever, I won’t even look back!” This just shows how serious Homer is about following his dream. The director Joe Johnston does an excellent job with the direction for these argument scene.

The time period in “October Sky” being the 1950s really shows the challenges of building a rocket that Homer comes across. The technology in that time frame was not much developed at all. They were not any VCRS, DVDS, fancy TVS, the telephone was still fairly new, and also there was not a lot of resources to Help Homer research for his rockets because there was no internet. The film incorporates this with moments of Homer asking a nerd friend about science and such and also trying to figure out math equations the hard way. He also looks into chemicals that he believes will be stable for his rockets. “October Sky’ challenges the viewers in terms of wondering how Homer is going to succeed.

What I love about “October Sky” is the message basically being to follow your dreams. Homer is not giving up or letting people bring him down, he continues to strive for what he wants to accomplish. I feel I can relate, because in life I want to be a true critic. I know it is a challenge to be a critic, but I am not going to stop writing reviews, I am going to write reviews until it gets me somewhere. Homer got somewhere.