Tag Archives: Lucas Hedges

“Honey Boy” Posters and Trailers

biography, drama, , ,

Biography projects can be touchy because the screenwriter, Shia LaBeouf, takes a subjective look at his own traumatic experiences.

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Alma Har’el, Honey Boy journeys the life of the young actor’s mean-spirited childhood, including his fledging adult years.

He struggles to reconcile with his father, played by LaBeouf, and deal with his mental health, fictionalizing his ascent to stardom and subsequent crash-landing into rehab and recovery.

Noah Jupe plays the young actor, with Lucas Hedges playing the older version of Otis Lort.

Har’el navigates the different stages in LaBeouf’s frenetic career. LaBeouf takes on the therapeutic challenge of playing a version of his father, an ex-rodeo clown and a felon.

Enter dancer-singer FKA Twigs makes her feature-film debut, playing neighbor and kindred spirit to the younger Otis while living in their garden-court motel home.

Har’el’s feature narrative debut is a one-of-a-kind collaboration between filmmaker and subject, exploring art as medicine and imagination as hope through the life and times of a talented, traumatized performer who dares to go in search of himself.

The trailer shows hardline misery, though Jupe is hardcore and shows committed acting skills.

Learning about LaBeouf’s traumatized childhood and knowing he worked for Disney studios in Even Stevens, what role did the studios play in helping him overcome, clearly, a bad upbringing?

In the red band trailer, I don’t see any difference from the “regular” movie trailer.

“Mid90s” Trailers and Poster

drama, independent, , ,

Written and directed by Jonah Hill, Mid90s follows Stevie, played by Sunny Suljic, who is a thirteen-year-old in 90s-era Los Angeles. He spends his summer navigating between his troubled home life with his brother, played by Lucas Hedges, and a group of new friends that he meets at a Motor Avenue skate shop.

We know Hill for his acting talent in Money Ball and 21 & 22 Jump Street movies.

Mid90s premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Hill teared up over the stand ovation from the audience.  Sunny Suljic also stars in The House with a Clock in its Walls.

“Ben is Back” Trailer, Poster

drama, suspense, , , ,

Written and directed by Peter Hedges,  Ben is Back follows 19-year-old Ben Burns, played by Lucas Hedges. He unexpectedly returns to his family’s suburban home on Christmas Eve morning.

Ben’s mother, Holly, played by Julia Roberts, is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean. Rightly so because over a turbulent 24 hours, new truths are revealed, and a mother’s undying love for her son is tested as she does everything in her power to keep him safe.

Peter Hedges is well-known as a screenwriter for such movies as About a Boy and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?

Also starring is Courtney B. Vance and Kathryn Newton.

These two actors work so well together.

The official trailer is intense and tells us what is happening in the movie. A mother’s love is so powerful. Yes, as a mother, I agree. We will do anything for your children.

The movie clip is intense, with Julia Roberts afraid of what her son brought back home after being gone for some time.

Ben is Back is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and streaming online. The cast is powerful, with Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, and Courtney B. Vance. If you are interested in seeing the drama, now is your chance. If you have seen it, you can see it again with the Special Featurettes and Bonus Material. The trailer tells the story but doesn’t give the ending. It’s intense.

“Boy Erased” Trailer, Movie Clips, Featurette & Poster

based on a book, drama, true stories, , , ,

Directed by Joel Edgerton, Boy Erased is based on a memoir of a teenage boy whose parents encouraged him to attend a gay-deprogramming through a Christian-sponsored program. 

The movie stars some hefty actors like Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe and Oscar-nominated Lucas Hedges. Openly gay singer and songwriter Troye Sivan plays one attendee of the church-sponsored program.  In the trailer, Sivan appears to keep up with the other talented actors, and I am happy for him. 

The movie isn’t about being gay and accepting homosexuality. It’s about accepting your child or people.  Parents can mold their children into being what they want to be. I know it is cliche,  but parents have to accept who their children are and love them unconditionally.

This isn’t an anti-religion movie because, truly, it is about loving and caring for people and letting people be who they are.

Edgerton is an actor, and this is the fifth movie he’s directed.   He also wrote the screenplay based on Garrard Conley’s book Boy Erased: A Memoir of Identity, Faith, and Family.

The featurette shows how much Edgerton is respected for directing this movie.

These two movie clips pretty much say what the movie is all about. Great acting, watch the clips and you will see what I mean.

The movie clip shows Troye Sivan playing a boy at the church-sponsored program.

The movie trailer tells the story and the frustration the boy and parents went through and the outcome we will find out when we watch the movie.

“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” Trailer, Clips, and Featurettes

comedy, drama, , , , , , , ,

Directed by Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is a dark comedy that follow Mildred Hays, played by Frances McDormand, who after months have passed without a culprit in her daughter’s murder case, makes a bold move, commissioning three signs leading into her town with a controversial message directed at William Willoughby, played by Woody Harrelson. Apparently, Willoughby is the town’s revered chief of police but it such doesn’t look like it in the trailer.

When Willoughby’s second-in-command Officer Dixon, played by Sam Rockwell, an immature mother’s boy with a penchant for violence, gets involved, the battle between Mildred and Ebbing’s law enforcement is only exacerbated.

This is a great interview about an actor’s process of being the character.

The trailer is hilarious and fun to watch, but I still feel Hays’ pain of losing her daughter without the police doing anything about her murder.

The story begins with Mildred Hayes and the three billboards she rents on Drinkwater Road. “I decided the buyer of the billboards was an aggrieved mother and from there, things almost wrote themselves,” McDonagh recalls. “Mildred was someone strong, determined and raging, yet also broken inside. That was the germination of the story.”

Frances McDormand is exceptional to watch in the trailer and clip as a modern, female variant of the classic western hero in a showdown-style performance. “I really latched onto John Wayne in a big way as my physical idea, because I really had no female physical icons to go off of for Mildred,” she explains. “She is more in the tradition of the Spaghetti Western’s mystery man, who comes walking down the center of the street, guns drawn, and blows everybody away — although I think it’s important that the only weapons Mildred ever uses are her wits and a Molotov cocktail.”

“I could see it in her walk and her attitude,” says McDonagh. “I think John Wayne did become a touchstone to a degree for Frances. But I also see Brando and Montgomery Clift in there, too.”

Here is a featurette describing McDonagh’s work.

I saw the movie last night. It is well-written, but the ending is not uplifting. I wanted the characters to find and closer.

My daughter found an article about how the movie is based on a real-life incident of a grieving father “advertising” on three billboards about how the Vidor, Texas police botched their investigation into her murder.