Timothee Chalamet made a name for himself with last year's Call me by Your Name. He's back again and likely looking at another Oscar nomination, portraying a young addict Nic Sheff. The film is based on the memoirs of Nic and his father David, and shows the ups and downs of Nic's addiction, and its impact on those around him.
The film has some flaws but acting is not one of them. This is one of the best acted films of the year, not only from the leads but from the whole ensemble. With David's memoir so crucial to the film's story, he ends up taking the most screen time. He is played by Steve Carrell who does a great job. His performance is emotionally rich and at times hard to watch, as he constantly shows David's compassion and devotion to Nic despite his downfalls. The way he reacts to his son's mistakes can be heartwarming or heartbreaking, and Carrell navigates every element of his character with ease. The only problem I have with his performance is that he isn't very good at yelling, and in two or three big scenes his weak yelling took away some of the emotional intensity. While I have that small issue with Carrell's performance, I have nothing negative to say about Chalamet. He doesn't quite surpass his Oscar-nominated performance from Call me by Your Name, but he certainly rivals it. He portrays Nic as flawed but very likable, making his low points really tough to watch. The more you get to know his character the more you want him to pull through, making every relapse and mishap more and more disheartening. Playing David's wife and Nic's stepmother Karen is Maura Tierney. Unfortunately I have a feeling that she'll be overlooked by many, but I found her incredible. She is in the thick of everything, but also on the outside. Her performance shows multiple conflicting aspects of Karen, wanting to help Nic in any way but also needing to care for her own children. She also gives off a sense of uncertainty regarding whether she should or shouldn't be involved, as she isn't his mother but is just as close to him if not closer. I really think Tierney's work is incredible here. Amy Ryan plays Nic's mother. She isn't in the film much but has her rich moments. One more actor I want to touch on is Kaitlyn Dever. Dever plays Lauren, a girl from high school Nic runs into that sparks up a drug fueled relationship with him. This role needed much more development. Dever proved here and in Detroit that she has some great talent, but this character is too limited in development to leave much of a mark.
There is some to love and some to hate when it comes to the filmmaking on display. For starters, I think it's a quite well directed film. This is Felix van Groeningen's biggest film to date, and his work is solid. He gets the richest emotion possible from his actors, and I found the staging of many scenes quite interesting. I also really enjoyed the cinematography. It isn't anything that will blow you away, but in tandem with Groeningen's direction it presents a subtle but aesthetically pleasing watch. Now onto some issues. The script is a bit flawed. The dialogue is really well written, but I think the merging of two memoirs disrupts the flow of the film at times. It also feels as though we are put into the story a bit late, pretty much throwing the audience right into Nic's addiction instead of fleshing out the relationship between him and David. There are flashbacks throughout the film that develop them that some people have taken issue to. I found the flashbacks effective, but they aren't used early enough so it takes a lot of time to become fully invested in Nic and David's relationship. The editing of the film is at times pretty bad. There are many scenes where the dialogue starts before cutting to the shot it comes from, and usually I don't mind that but it happened way too often. The beginning of the film is cut together very choppily, making it hard for the film to find its footing and at times being hard to follow. Alongside the editing I hated a lot of the sound design. The music crew behind this film doesn't seem to know what this movie is. There is rock music that is cranked way too loud and played at the wrong moments, leaving a weird tone through some scenes. There is also some music that you'd find in a horror movie, which took an otherwise pretty great scene and made it feel very out of place. The music fits Nic very well, but in no way fits the tone of the film.
I was going to rate this right at a 3, as its performances wowed me but some stylistic elements didn't work for me. However as I was leaving the theatre the film hit something in me and invoked a strange emotional response that I didn't expect. A film's ability to stay in my active consciousness is something I applaud, and I've been thinking about this film a lot so it's rating is going to raise a bit from my initial reaction when the lights came up.
Rating: 3.3/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
The film has some flaws but acting is not one of them. This is one of the best acted films of the year, not only from the leads but from the whole ensemble. With David's memoir so crucial to the film's story, he ends up taking the most screen time. He is played by Steve Carrell who does a great job. His performance is emotionally rich and at times hard to watch, as he constantly shows David's compassion and devotion to Nic despite his downfalls. The way he reacts to his son's mistakes can be heartwarming or heartbreaking, and Carrell navigates every element of his character with ease. The only problem I have with his performance is that he isn't very good at yelling, and in two or three big scenes his weak yelling took away some of the emotional intensity. While I have that small issue with Carrell's performance, I have nothing negative to say about Chalamet. He doesn't quite surpass his Oscar-nominated performance from Call me by Your Name, but he certainly rivals it. He portrays Nic as flawed but very likable, making his low points really tough to watch. The more you get to know his character the more you want him to pull through, making every relapse and mishap more and more disheartening. Playing David's wife and Nic's stepmother Karen is Maura Tierney. Unfortunately I have a feeling that she'll be overlooked by many, but I found her incredible. She is in the thick of everything, but also on the outside. Her performance shows multiple conflicting aspects of Karen, wanting to help Nic in any way but also needing to care for her own children. She also gives off a sense of uncertainty regarding whether she should or shouldn't be involved, as she isn't his mother but is just as close to him if not closer. I really think Tierney's work is incredible here. Amy Ryan plays Nic's mother. She isn't in the film much but has her rich moments. One more actor I want to touch on is Kaitlyn Dever. Dever plays Lauren, a girl from high school Nic runs into that sparks up a drug fueled relationship with him. This role needed much more development. Dever proved here and in Detroit that she has some great talent, but this character is too limited in development to leave much of a mark.
There is some to love and some to hate when it comes to the filmmaking on display. For starters, I think it's a quite well directed film. This is Felix van Groeningen's biggest film to date, and his work is solid. He gets the richest emotion possible from his actors, and I found the staging of many scenes quite interesting. I also really enjoyed the cinematography. It isn't anything that will blow you away, but in tandem with Groeningen's direction it presents a subtle but aesthetically pleasing watch. Now onto some issues. The script is a bit flawed. The dialogue is really well written, but I think the merging of two memoirs disrupts the flow of the film at times. It also feels as though we are put into the story a bit late, pretty much throwing the audience right into Nic's addiction instead of fleshing out the relationship between him and David. There are flashbacks throughout the film that develop them that some people have taken issue to. I found the flashbacks effective, but they aren't used early enough so it takes a lot of time to become fully invested in Nic and David's relationship. The editing of the film is at times pretty bad. There are many scenes where the dialogue starts before cutting to the shot it comes from, and usually I don't mind that but it happened way too often. The beginning of the film is cut together very choppily, making it hard for the film to find its footing and at times being hard to follow. Alongside the editing I hated a lot of the sound design. The music crew behind this film doesn't seem to know what this movie is. There is rock music that is cranked way too loud and played at the wrong moments, leaving a weird tone through some scenes. There is also some music that you'd find in a horror movie, which took an otherwise pretty great scene and made it feel very out of place. The music fits Nic very well, but in no way fits the tone of the film.
I was going to rate this right at a 3, as its performances wowed me but some stylistic elements didn't work for me. However as I was leaving the theatre the film hit something in me and invoked a strange emotional response that I didn't expect. A film's ability to stay in my active consciousness is something I applaud, and I've been thinking about this film a lot so it's rating is going to raise a bit from my initial reaction when the lights came up.
Rating: 3.3/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
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