‘Honey Boy’ on Amazon Prime: Shia LaBeouf is Back, and I Couldn’t Be Happier

Honey Boy, which is streaming for free on Amazon Prime as of today, offers not a defense, but an explanation for Shia LaBeouf‘s wild behavior over the past decade. That explanation is so honest, raw, therapeutic, and so deeply moving, it’s hard to imagine anyone not getting on board with the Shia LaBeouf comeback this gorgeous film—written by LaBeouf himself and directed by Alma Har’el—is sure to bring.

Fame is a fickle thing, and no one knows this better than LaBeouf. This is a man who once walked the red carpet with a paper bag over his head that read, “I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE,” a stunt that was largely met with derision in 2014. A few months later, the Transformers star was arrested for disorderly conduct (read: swearing and spitting at police officers) in New York City. A few months after that, he sought treatment for alcoholism. A few years later, he was arrested again, and this time there was bodycam footage of his vitriolic tirade aimed at the officers who arrested him.

Though some diehard fans stayed loyal, much of the public shook their heads and/or laughed at another child star who was a lost cause. Thankfully, LaBeouf didn’t give up on himself. Though therapy and rehabilitation, he was diagnosed with PTSD. That’s where Honey Boy comes in, a film in which LaBeouf plays his own father as a way to work through the trauma inflicted on him as a child, which he wrote as part of his rehabilitation program.

Lucas Hedges stars as LaBeouf as an adult, though in the film his name is Otis Lort. Lort is filming a big-budget action flick that looks a lot like Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and he’s also partying. A lot. That comes to a screeching halt when he gets in a car accident and is admitted to rehab, where a therapist diagnoses him with PTSD. “No I don’t,” he scoffs at his therapist. “From what?”

Enter actor Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place) as young Otis, and LaBeouf in wire-rimmed glasses and a hairpiece as Otis’s father, James. It’s 1995, and Otis and his dad live in a run-down motel in Los Angeles while Otis is working as a child actor on a TV show that looks a lot like Disney Channel’s Even Stevens. James, a recovering alcoholic, acts as Otis’s manager. But by all accounts, he makes his son’s life harder, not easier. His mood is wildly unpredictable—one minute he’s hitting on a female crew member and the next he’s screaming at directors about child labor laws.

He’s no better at home: When Otis reluctantly agrees to let his dad meet his Big Brother Tom (played by Clifton Collins Jr.), his dad pushes Tom into a pool and threatens to kill him in a fit of jealousy. He yells at his son. He mocks his son’s dick size. Eventually, he hits his son. It’s very clear that this is not just bad parenting: It’s child abuse.

And yet LaBeouf embodies his father with tenderness and empathy. He is not forgiving of James’s behavior, but he is understanding. In a scene in which James confesses to Alcoholics Anonymous that he is a sex offender, the sincere notes of shame and regret in his voice are unmistakable. LaBeouf makes clear that this a man who is trying to be better—he’s just not trying hard enough. James confesses to his son that he’s jealous of him for making it in Hollywood when he, a former rodeo clown, never could. “How do you think it feels to have my son paying me?” he asks.

“You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t pay,” Otis responds, and it’s devastating.

The performances across the board are stellar, but Jupe, who is now 14, especially knocks it out of the park. His face crumples in pain when his father berates him, but he also nails the smug, mischievous expressions of Louis Stevens. (You will never be able to watch Even Stevens in the same way after this movie.) Har’el, previously best known for her documentary Bombay Beach, lights his face with soft blues and purples for maximum effect. Matching this young, scared boy with the angry adult who lashed out at police officers a decade later is all too easy.

Honey Boy, which holds a 93 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, has already won over critics. It will surely worm its way into the hearts of many more now that it’s streaming on Prime. On top of that, LaBeouf starred in another indie film last year, The Peanut Butter Falcon—a significantly less personal narrative in which he played a fisherman—that was equally critically acclaimed. The LaBeouf comeback is in full swing, and I’m prepared to fight anyone who claims it hasn’t been earned. Like his father, LaBeouf is trying to be better, and this time, it feels like more than enough.

Watch Honey Boy on Amazon Prime