Beautiful Boy
Anchor Bay Films | Release Date: June 3, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
5
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinJun 2, 2011
Like its fellow crowd-depressor "Blue Valentine," Beautiful Boy offers the antithesis of escapism: a claustrophobic, punishingly intense, beautifully measured exploration of the depths of human despair. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedJun 1, 2011
Too bleak and wrenching to recommend unconditionally. You need a strong constitution to watch it soberly, but it is a gripping experience that left me weak in the knees. Read full review
85
NPRJeannette CatsoulisJun 3, 2011
Beautiful Boy is the antithesis of melodrama. Painfully perceptive and relentlessly raw, this intimate observation of a couple in extremis plays out with such subdued intensity that, by the end, audiences will very likely feel as wrung out as its embattled stars. Read full review
80
Boxoffice MagazineWade MajorJun 7, 2011
Beautiful Boy is a discerning film lover's off-season tonic, regardless of where, when or how it's seen. What matters most is simply that it be seen. Read full review
80
MovielineMichelle OrangeJun 2, 2011
Ultimately, the effort, however rough in patches, is to be admired. We need our best minds on this subject, in all arenas, and Beautiful Boy is another jagged, early piece in a puzzle whose borders haven't formed yet. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJun 9, 2011
A film like this can end honestly in only one way, and Ku is true to it. Life will go on, one baffling day after another. There can be no release, only a gradual deadening. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 2, 2011
A grim, thought-provoking drama. It aims to be both heartbreaking and (in an odd way) inspirational, although the former is more convincingly conveyed than the latter. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 2, 2011
Blazing performance will burn in your memory. Same goes for the film. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnMay 31, 2011
Despite routinely overstating the scenario with rampant scenes of tantrums and sobs, the majority of Beautiful Boy is made bearable by its two solid performances. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 15, 2011
What Sheen and Bello provide, however, is searing acting. Their performances - genuine, awkward, difficult - are not always easy to watch but never are less than tremendous. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesJun 9, 2011
The most daring aspect of the film, fully realized in Bello's grave performance, may be the notion that a parent can invest endless love in a child and one day find him unfathomable. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenMay 29, 2011
Directing from the nonjudgmental script he wrote with Michael Armbruster, Ku's assured, unadorned documentary style allows his leads ample breathing room to inhabit their devastated characters. Read full review
70
VarietyJoe LeydonMay 29, 2011
Although it's very much a contemporary yarn, there's a distinctly '70s feel to much of Beautiful Boy. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJun 5, 2011
In Beautiful Boy, Ku manages to take a new-to-movie subject and flatten it into something that, despite its harrowing contours, is often grindingly familiar. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanMay 29, 2011
Michael Sheen and Maria Bello both have wrenching moments in this quiet, oblique drama. Yet the movie isn't really convincing. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyJun 9, 2011
Not an entertainment but an experience. And a kind of cinematic sensitivity training. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 9, 2011
If the key performances in Beautiful Boy were any less honest, the film's half-formed suppositions would undo it utterly. Read full review
63
Slant MagazinePaul SchrodtMay 30, 2011
This complex emotional texture no doubt owes a lot to Bello's stunning performance, which works by screwing with the familiar conventions of reaction shots; she goes cold when we expect her to freak out and explodes when we expect her to be silent. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenJun 16, 2011
The whole project labours towards an importance it never earns. In Beautiful Boy, the themes are vast but the picture is small, and the ensuing emptiness is what the characters are meant to feel – not us. Read full review
50
The New York TimesStephen HoldenJun 2, 2011
A kind of apocalyptic 21st-century "Ordinary People," Beautiful Boy, directed by Shawn Ku from a screenplay he wrote with Michael Armbruster, is so high-mindedly determined to avoid sensationalism that it sidesteps critical dramatic content and sabotages its own ambitions. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMark HolcombMay 31, 2011
While Beautiful Boy is potent and even admirable, it ultimately mistakes prim, emotional monotony for gravity. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 3, 2011
Actors are left with too much time to play emotional symphonies, while inevitably having to hit too many required notes. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearMay 31, 2011
While the filmmaker may favor a classic Amerindie art-house style - shaky cameras, peekaboo framing, fill-in-the-gaps storytelling - he doesn't offer much in the way of corresponding insight regarding this social-issue case study, preferring to just construct a bare-bones stage on which his gifted performers can rage. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisJun 16, 2011
There's just very little in Beautiful Boy that feels fresh or new or truly raw. The houses, that title, every emotion, even the false moves: They're all generic. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickJun 3, 2011
Beautiful Boy ends up being an endurance test. Read full review
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