You Have to Watch 'Beautiful Boy,' but Not for the Reasons You Think

You Have to Watch ‘Beautiful
Boy,’ but Not for the Reasons
You Think
There’s a scene in Felix Van Groeningen’s film Beautiful
Boy where David Sheff (Steve Carell) tells his ex-wife Vicky
(Amy Ryan) over the phone that their son, Nic (Timothée
Chalamet), is a meth addict and going to die. Their years of
sacrifice—emotionally and financially—are seemingly for
naught, because Nic relapses no matter how many in-patient
rehab cycles and Narcotics Anonymous meetings he goes to.

Somehow, though, Nic survives. His recovery is revealed to the
audience in a postscript: the real Nic Sheff has been sober
for eight years. Beautiful Boy isn’t interested in that part
of the story, or even how Nic became an addict. The movie only
shows the “middle” part of drug addiction, intercut with
flashbacks from Nic’s childhood.

For over two hours, the audience watches the Sheffs’ pain
become more pronounced as David tries to help his son any way
he can. What makes it even more heart-wrenching is seeing Nic
become sober for over a year—working in a rehab facility, no
less—only to relapse harder than ever before.

It was jarring to watch Chalamet’s Nic spiral further and
further and then read that the real Nic is, in fact, alive and

sober in 2018. The postscript emphasized questions I’d been
asking myself for the entire movie: whose addiction stories
are being told? Whose are being forgotten?

Beautiful Boy is based on a pair of memoirs, Beautiful Boy by
David Sheff andTweak by Nic Sheff. The books detail Nic’s meth
addiction, alcoholism, and other drug use through the
individual perspectives of father and son. Both were published
in 2008, but Nic’s story seems even more topical now. Millions
of Americans suffer from substance abuse disorder. A
record 72,000 Americans died from an overdose last year.

Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell in ‘Beautiful Boy’.
Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Nic Sheff’s story is unfortunately not unique. What is unique,
however, are his circumstances. The audience can tell from the
Sheffs’ Bay Area home, from the Los Angeles sky-rise Vicky

lives in, from the opportunities Nic had—both college and
rehab—that they have money. A limit to such resources is
referenced just once in the film, when David and Vicky veto a
rehab option because it would cost $40,000 a month. It’s clear
that the Sheffs are an upper middle class (white) family.

As Nic was privileged to receive professional help again and
again, he was also privileged to profit off his story multiple
times, with father and son memoirs and now film royalties. Nic
did relapse after the release of Beautiful Boy and wrote a
second book about recovery called We All Fall Down. Now Nic is
sober again and writes for TV, including an episode of The
Killing. He also writes and produces for 13 Reasons Why.

This doesn’t mean Nic Sheff’s story is not worth telling, but
it’s no accident that it’s his story that made it to our
screens. Beautiful Boy is a movie in the first place because
the Sheffs were able to secure multiple book deals and catch
the attention of agents and producers. And it’s not just any
movie—it is being released by Amazon Studios and stars 2018’s
“It Boy” Timothée Chalamet. There’s been Oscar buzz
surrounding it since the release of the trailer, despite the
fact that it’s similar to many other addiction movies. There’s
a reason this is happening to Nic’s addiction story and not
someone else’s—a poor person’s, a person of color’s, a queer
person’s—and it’s because of his family’s class, status, and
race.

The postscript says that Nic is sober today through hard work
and taking it one day at a time. It’s about as happy of an
ending as a film like Beautiful Boy can get, but it’s not
inspiring or triumphant. It emphasizes how few addicts end up
like Nic, not just in terms of the book and movie deals, but
also the fact that he’s remained sober long-term.

Beautiful Boy doesn’t hide the ugliest parts of addiction. Nic
is sometimes portrayed as a monster, statistics about how low
the success rate is for rehab is discussed throughout, and the
mental and financial toll on his family is clear. The film
shows that addiction permeates class and permeates growing up
in a “good” family with a beautiful house and loving parents
and step-parents. It doesn’t gloss over anything, showing Nic
reduced to behavior like stealing $8 from his young step-
brother and encouraging his girlfriend to use. This is all
important to see, and I’m grateful to the Sheffs for letting
others glimpse their pain on the page and onscreen.

Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell in ‘Beautiful Boy’

But all I could think of while watching Beautiful Boy is all
the pain that I wasn’t seeing, and how we willfully turn away

from the plight of addicts without privilege and resources.
Don’t watch Beautiful Boy because Timothée Chalamet may win an
Oscar, or because of Felix Van Groeningen’s dark filmmaking.
Watch it to remind yourself that there are millions of stories
like Nic’s, but they won’t have the opportunity to be made
into books or films.

People like Nic Sheff and Danielle Steel get book deals about
addiction. Sheff will probably be at the 2019 Academy Awards
ceremony because of it. What about everyone else?

(Source: Vice)