Health Beyond the Blog: Amazon Prime’s Beautiful Boy

“Beautiful Boy” shows the struggles of a young boy battling with addiction and his father’s desire to save him.

by Yasemin Isbilir

Addiction is often potrayed as a personal weakness in films. Beautiful Boy, a 2018 film directed by Felix Van Groenigen, portrays this differently. The film frames addiction as a chronic brain disease as opposed to a moral failure, based on memoirs written by journalist David Sheff and his son, Nic, who struggled with addiction.

The character Nic, played by award-winning actor Timothée Chalamet, goes through a journey of methamphetamine use, treatment, and relapse. Nic’s father, David, played by Steve Carell, is desperate to save their relationship, which drives the plot forward. David gains hope every time Nic has a stretch of sobriety and is crushed every time Nic uses again. The movie is painfully realistic in how addiction changes the human brain’s reward pathways. Triggers like stress can restart cravings after months of sobriety. There is also a clear genetic component at play as well as the fact that Nic starts using so young. Both factors are described in research as tendencies of addictive personalities.

The movie also does not free Nic from all responsibility, despite making the viewer empathize with his character. While Nic is out of control, the film shows it as a symptom of the disease.

What stands out is how Beautiful Boy depicts addiction as a health issue without a clear-cut cure. The obvious need for lots of medical care and the impact of addiction on friends and family is a harsh reality of similar situations. David researches treatment programs and meets with doctors. He goes as far as to experiment with drugs to try to understand his son better. He finds that the love he has for Nic cannot save or fix his son’s neurological condition. Being firm and patient with loved ones in interest of their health is sometimes the hardest act of love.

Nic is also humanized through scenes of his childhood as an artistic and intelligent and as a person who cares. I value Beautiful Boy because it does not glamorize addiction and is committed to medical reality. The movie shows the importance of recovery planning and support for those struggling with addiction and their loved ones. Getting people to talk about addiction openly is one of the first steps to spotting and bettering the diagnosis and treatment of it. The movie is a thoughtful depiction to learn more on the science of addiction.

Beautiful Boy is available to stream on Prime Video.