Beautiful Boy (2011)

Simply Perfect

Sadly Over-hyped

Pretty Good

Absolutely Fantastic

Another fantastic film starring Michael Sheen. As well as Maria Bello, and Kyle Gallner, both recognizable, and well-known faces in the film industry, who both also did a fantastic job.Centering around a family, who've lost touch, Beautiful Boy hits incredibly close to home for late-teen-to-mid-twenties males, as well as parents. Kyle Gallner plays a depressed College student, dorming out-of- state, away from his family, who eventually breaks down, then plans, and executes a mass shooting at his school. The film revolves around the shock, and aftershock of the event, mainly how they effect his parents, who were already on rocky roads in their marriage.A fantastic, hard hitting, dark drama, which received a miniscule 6.5 here on IMDb, when it should be at least an 8.5/10.9.0/10, for Sheen's outstanding acting, as well as Bello, and Gallner's fantastic portrayals.

An unsettling account of what might happen if your son became a mass murderer, it paints a picture of a family torn up over their child's actions and the new perception the rest of the world sees them in. I don't think I could cope with the endless barrage of Press at the door, nor the loss of friends or stares in the street from total strangers. Then there's the questions: Could I have done anything to stop it? Was his state of mind caused by my own inattention? Did I show him enough love?This is an impossible situation for the parents to deal with, especially as they were on the edge of divorce even before these tragic events transpired. But all they have left is each other, and the film demonstrates their new found alliance against a hostile public. The performances couldn't be bettered, and the remorse you feel for this couple is palpable as everyone seems, in the absence of their dead offspring, to make them the scapegoats. It's not their fault. They loved their son. Sometimes, children just go bad. After all, I don't think Hitler's parents had any idea of the monster they were raising, did they?At first, I hated the last scene. Too many unresolved plot threads, not enough resolution. But the more I think about it, it makes sense. Connect your own dots. Imagine your own follow-up. I would like to say they'll be fine, but I have my doubts... 7/10

American choreographer and film director Shawn Ku's feature film debut which he co-wrote with screenwriter Michael Armbruster, is inspired by his family's personal connection to the Virginia High Tech massacre, the deadliest shooting incident by a single gunman in U.S history, which took place on 16. April 2007 in Blacksburg, Virginia and the unexpected death of a visiting friend. It premiered in the Zabaltegi-New Directors section at the 58th San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2010, was screened in the Discovery section at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 and is an American production which was shot on location in Los Angeles and Santa Clarita, California in USA and produced by producers Lee Clay and Eric Gozlan. It tells the story about business man Bill Carroll and proof-reader Kate Caroll, a conflicted married couple who is on the verge of separating when they learn that their 18-year-old son Sam has shoot numerous students at his university, including himself. To get away from the media Bill and Kate move in with Kate's brother Eric and his wife Trish, but as time goes by they begin to question themselves as parents and is tormented by questions of why and how their son could have ended up doing what he did and if they could have done anything to prevent it.Finely and acutely directed by American filmmaker Shawn Ku, this quietly paced fictional tale which is narrated from the two main character's point of view, draws a compassionate and intimate portrayal of a married couple's struggle to recuperate and find their way back to each other after being left in shock and devastation by their young son. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, low-keyed production design by Hungarian production designer and art director Gabor Norman and realism, this dialog-driven indie and psychological drama depicts two dense and interrelated studies of character and contains a good score by Canadian composer Trevor Morris.This at times heartrending, at times romantic, at times humorous and at times afflicting love-story which examines themes like grief, guilt, marriage and love, is impelled and reinforced by it's subtle character development and the heartfelt and empathic acting performances by English actor Michael Sheen and American actress and singer Maria Bello. An authentic and humane character piece which gained, among other awards, the FIPRESCI Prize at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival in 2010.

wow...i have been wanting to see this movie for a long time, and after seeing it last night, i don't know why i wanted to see it. brutal. NOTHING HAPPENS. a kid commits suicide and kills a bunch of people...that's basically it. honestly, i think that it was an UNREALISTIC account of how something like that would actually happen, especially the aftermath. there were no threats, no fights, no phone calls...the writer that the wife was seeing never wrote the book. for the crime that the boy committed, there was almost no follow up- which is unrealistic. i just don't understand how this can be seen as anything other than the WORST movie ever. i think there should of been more scenes with the writer, i think that would of added some spice to a very dull movie. i think there should of been more scenes with the media, with random people in public. there should of been more "searching for answers"- because an incident like the one in this movie doesn't just develop overnight...there had to of been more evidence that the movie should of unfolded. there also should of been more flashbacks to when the boy was much younger...other than the very first scene, this movie is more about the parents grieving than it is the actually shooting, which i thought was terrible in terms of the plot. i think that the general idea was good, but the plot was absolutely abysmal...NOTHING happened.