Quendrith Johnson

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

Sometimes a film stands on its own merits, as is the case with the screenplay for HONEY BOY, written by and starring Shia LaBoeuf (TRANSFORMERS). Watch and learn what it is to be the bread-winner golden child, and the price a kid pays when he pays his parents to stay in the picture.

Jackie Coogan is giving a standing ovation somewhere in the Hollywood firmament. Released by Amazon Studios, HONEY BOY will roll out Nov. 8, and begin its Oscar run for Best Screenplay.

Watch a sneak here; full official description follows.

Here's What Amazon Studios Wants You to Know About This Film

From a screenplay by Shia LaBeouf, based on his own experiences, award-winning filmmaker Alma Har'el (Bombay Beach, LoveTrue) brings to life a young actor's stormy childhood and early adult years as he struggles to reconcile with his father and deal with his mental health. Fictionalizing his ascent to stardom, and subsequent crash-landing into rehab and recovery, Har'el casts Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place) and Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased, Manchester by the Sea) as Otis Lort, navigating different stages in a frenetic career. LaBeouf takes on the therapeutic challenge of playing a version of his own father, an ex-rodeo clown and a felon. Dancer-singer FKA twigs makes her feature-film debut, playing neighbor and kindred spirit to the younger Otis 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.

Round of applause for the bare-knuckle fighter disguised as an actor, who is the one and only Shia LaBeouf, who turned age 33 (for Christ's sake, lol), this past June.

Learn more here, from Sundance.

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