Beautiful Boy (2018)

I'm not the biggest Timothée Chalamet fan out there —actually, I can't stomach the guy— but I decided to give Beautiful Boy a chance anyway because people seem to have such contrasting opinions about his performance. 

Based on the memoir by David Sheff, the story follows David Sheff (Steve Carell), a father who is desperately trying to help his drug-addicted son, Nic (Timothée Chalamet). As Nic goes through a period David can't quite understand, he slowly comes to terms with the fact that maybe he can't help him. 

The main issue with Beautiful Boy is that it tells a story that has been told over and over again without bringing anything new to the table other than the story being told from the addict's father's perspective rather than the addict himself as the film's main focus is to highlight the despair and struggle of a parent while watching his child on the downward spiral of drugs. Too bad that the film fails to capture that. In addition, the story has a non-linear timeline with many pointless flashbacks that make you completely lose track of the story. And it doesn't make a lot of sense either as most of the story is told from the father's point of view. 

The characters are another issue as they are underdeveloped and lack characterization. It's very difficult if not impossible to develop any sort of emotional attachment to them, you just don't care about what happens to them. The bland, dull performances sure don't help; if anything, they make you question Carell and Chalamet's acting abilities as the first seems to be playing a depressed version of The Office's Michael Scott, and the latter looks like a male model filming an ad or something.

Photos not available because apparently I was violating copyright by using them. 

There's something about Beautiful Boy that is way worse than script and acting combined, it's Felix Van Groeningen's direction. I really don't know what he had in mind while making this film, but the tone he set just don't match the serious theme of the story. The scenes are very poorly put together —the editing is nearly as bad as Bohemian Rhapsody's— and the music rarely fits the scene —I mean, there's horror-like music in this film. The kind of music you expect when someone is about to get killed.

Don Verdean (2015)

As a fan of Sam Rockwell, I decided to check out Don Verdean. The fact that I hadn't heard of the film before seeing it on Rockwell's filmography and that it is considerably new had me thinking that I'd grant myself one and a half hour of suffering. And I was right. 

The film follows Don Verdean (Sam Rockwell), a self-proclaimed Biblical Archaeologist that hunts down religious artefacts to prove that the stories from the Bible are true. When he is hired by a pastor, Lazarus (Danny McBride), to find sacred relics in order to bring more people to his church, Verdean is forced to get creative.

The plot is one of the major problems with Don Verdean. It is far from being interesting and engaging, it doesn't make a lot of sense, it has several uninteresting romantic subplots, and the ending, if you could call it that, is incredibly contrived. It seems like the writers knew they had to end the story but didn't know how and they just wrote something random that makes as much sense as everything else.

The characters too are the result of lazy writing. The film is filled with odd and bizarre characters but unfortunately, the writers didn't make the most of their potential. Their personalities never take over, they aren't as compelling as they should have been and. most importantly, they are not a bit funny.

Neither the cast can fix that as they all give pretty bland performances. Sam Rockwell looks bored from start to finish, hidden behind a beard and terrible clothes. The others are just as bland, Danny McBride and Will Forte being the most disappointing as they fail to make laugh consistently. There's a good chemistry between Rockwell and McBride but it feels like the director, Jared Hess, was not able to capture it.

Lionsgate Premiere

As you probably guessed, Don Verdean is not that funny of a movie and calling it comedy should be a crime. The jokes, a blend of biblical and adolescent jokes, fall flat most of the film, and when they don't they barely make you chuckle.

Unless you really love one of the actors in, whether it's Sam Rockwell, Amy Ryan, Jemaine Clement, Leslie Bob, Will Forte or Danny McBride, my suggestion is that you stay the hell away from this film.