From a screenplay by Shia LaBeouf and based on his own experiences, award-winning filmmaker Alma Har'el brings to life a young actor's stormy childhood and early adult years as he struggles to reconcile with his father through cinema and dreams. Fictionalizing Shia’s childhood ascent to stardom and subsequent adult crash-landing into rehab and recovery, Har'el casts Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges as Otis Lort, navigating different stages in a frenetic career. LaBeouf takes on the daring and therapeutic challenge of playing a version of his own father, an ex-rodeo clown and a felon. Artist and musician 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.
“The empathetic and curious way that award-winning documentarian and music video director Alma Har’el has always handled her real-life subjects translates very well to their crafted counterparts in her fictional feature debut. Instead of tabloid fodder, we get tenderness.” —Sarah Kurchak, Consequence of Sound
“An impressive, vividly realized piece of work… After a few years of LaBeouf's public persona almost totally eclipsing his talent, it's nice to be reminded just how vital that talent is.” —Jon Frosch, Hollywood Reporter
“LaBeouf’s performance is almost breathtaking if you pause for a moment to think about what’s happening… In playing [his father] James, LaBeouf is literally embodying the definition of empathy.” —Alissa Wilkinson, Vox
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