Top 100 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #26. Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy

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Honey Boy

Not unlike Kitty Green, Alma Har’el moves from a pair of free flowing in form docu features in Bombay Beach and LoveTrue into a narrative third project that also blurs the fiction lines. A meta project fresh out of the oven project that creative collaborator Shia Labeouf brought to the filmmaker, filming took place in Los Angeles back in May of 2018 with Noah Jupe, Lucas Hedges and Labeouf exorcizing demons. We expect this to be tonally colorful and emotionally loaded text.

Gist: This is the story of a child star attempting to mend his relationship with his law-breaking, alcohol-abusing father over the course of a decade, it’s loosely based on LaBeouf’s life. “Honey Boy” was LaBeouf’s childhood nickname.

Release Date/Prediction: This was selected for the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Dramatic Competition. Look for this to hit the film festival circuit – possibly Cannes before a theatrical release.

Eric Lavallée
Eric Lavalléehttps://www.ericlavallee.com
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson’s "This Teacher" (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). He is a Golden Globes Voter, member of the ICS (International Cinephile Society), FIPRESCI and AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma).

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