Due to the Golden Globe Awards a few days ago, Timothée Chalamet is on the hot search again! ! !
I believe that for most Chinese audiences, the familiar sweet tea is Elio, the daffodil-like chasing teenager in "Please Call Me by Your Name", or the unruly Kyle in "Miss Bird".
("Call Me By Your Name" Elio)
("Miss Bird" Kyle)
This time, Sweet Tea at the Golden Globe Awards was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a new film "Pretty Boy".
Unlike previous films, "Pretty Boy" is a true story, based on the memoir "Pretty Boy: The Journey of a Drug-addicted Father" published by David Sheff.
In the film, the father David is played by Steve Carell, while Sweet Tea plays the drug-ridden son Nick.
When a person is infected with drugs, it is the whole family who falls off the cliff. No normal person can feel the pain of drug addiction, relief and self-doubt again and again. On the long road of detoxification, it consumes not only the body but also the love and trust of a family member.
Maybe based on this, the tone of "Pretty Boy" is depressing, the colors are rich but lifeless, maybe only the sunshine that sheds when the father and son are speechless at the end of the film is a glimmer of hope.
The story told in the film is very simple. Nick went to infinite darkness and pain because of drug addiction. His father David worked hard and hesitated in Nick's relapse again and again. Finally, Nick successfully got rid of drugs.
Nick was a beautiful boy as a child, but his parents were divorced and separated, so Nick had to travel back and forth during the holidays. Nick Jr. didn't understand the separation, but he was comforted by his father telling him, "I love you more than anything."
This sentence is an expression of love between the father and son. After growing up, this sentence "Everything" seems to be the rope connecting father and son, but the rope was almost broken in repeated disappointments.
When he grew up, Nick became a literary teenager with his own melancholy temperament. He liked to read books by world-weary and melancholic writers, and his writing was also very good.
David, who doesn't quite understand his hobby, doesn't stop it, even celebrating by smoking marijuana with Nick when he gets six college offers.
He had good warnings, but Nick thought he was worrying too much, and David didn't preach too much. But gradually, Nick was no longer satisfied with marijuana.
In fact, here, the film does not tell the real reason for Nick's drug use. It could be the divorce of the parents, the sadness of literature, or the mere boredom of the world.
By the time David learns the truth, Nick is already in the grip of meth. David could only send him to a drug rehab center, but every time he went, he recovered for a few days, and then began an infinite loop of escape and relapse.
The sons before and after drug addiction are completely two people.
Nick is gentle and calm when he is not taking drugs, full of charm, and a little poem can be infinitely flirtatious;
Once a drug addiction occurs, it is easy to speak ill of people around him, violent and habitually lie just to ask his father for money to buy drugs.
David's capricious and "never sucking" commitment to Nick begins with infinite trust and constant help.
Repeated relapses made Nick's remorse suspicious in David: Is it true or false? When drug addiction occurs, people are no longer themselves, but puppets controlled by drugs, and they can do anything to get the drugs.
Gradually, trust died between the two. David began to let Nick test his urine, and he didn't give him money easily. Obviously, he wanted to get closer, but the two father and son gradually drifted apart.
When Nick returned to his mother to detox, the longest detox time reached 485 days. Just when everyone thought that everything was back to normal, Nick fell short. This time the relapse was fierce. Nick disappeared for a few days. David was frustrated with him and decided to give up.
The ending of the film is abrupt, but very "Hollywood".
Nick overdose but miraculously survived, David returned to Nick's side again, a piece of sunshine fell on the two, and the story ended.
But such HAPPY ENDING probably only exists in movies.
"Pretty Boy" received mixed reviews after its release.
In particular, the fragmented editing and uninterrupted episodes make it difficult for the audience to adapt. It is clear that it has just been integrated into it, but as soon as the camera moves to another time and space, the empathy of the audience is easily pulled away.
Felix van Gunningen is a European director who may be ill-suited to directing a "Hollywood-style" film for the first time.
But it is undeniable that the movie set is full of artistic atmosphere, and the emotion of the real story is also touching. Veteran Steve Carell's acting skills have been re-introduced, and Sweet Tea is indeed "beautiful".
The film that moved the editor the most was actually the name "Pretty Boy". This comes from the fact that David Sheff himself used to sing "beautiful boy" to Nick when he was a kid.
"Close your eyes, the fear will disappear, the monster will stay away from you, and Dad will always be here."
Being beautiful is not only beautiful on the outside, Nick is always a beautiful angel in David's heart.
David once suspected and gave up, and made mistakes, but at the end he let go of his despair and regained his courage to move forward for the sake of the child.
While watching Pretty Boy, Dog Thirteen, which was released at the end of last year, came to my mind. Both films tell family stories from different countries, and we may all be a little squeamish when we watch them.
Seeing that the traditional Chinese education and the awkward love between father and daughter displayed by Li Player will be angry, and seeing that David did not stop Nick from taking drugs at the beginning, and even wanted to give up Nick.
In "Dog Thirteen", this fire point is empathetic, because we grew up in a Chinese-style family; in "Pretty Boy", it is not, because we do not empathize with the collapse of a family brought about by drugs.
But both represent the pursuit of good family relationships by children and parents.
While pursuing it, it's easy to forget that we're first-time children and parents are first-time parents, and we're both inexperienced, which can put our relationship at risk.
Like David and Nick, parents and children moving forward together may be the best parent-child relationship, but this is easier said than done.
(Warm reminder: there are Easter eggs at the end of the video, don't miss it~)
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