Ben Is Back Review: A Mother and Son Face the Horrors of Addiction, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/05/movies/ben-is-back-review.html. Regardless, Hedges plants all kinds of details that are meant to pay off later but fail to deliver any real impact. And Ben has a secret. The elder Hedges needs to make amends. Back to the Future (1985) Universal Pictures. The constant push-pull between Hedges and Roberts, the see-saw of the power dynamic as each tries to navigate this thorny situation, is the most compelling element of Ben Is Back. All the demons are still there, all the memories and the things Ben cant remember. Release date: Dec 07, 2018. The movie takes place over one day and a long night, so there's more discussed about Ben's history of drug use than actually seen. Lucas as Ben has this rich inner life at the beginning of the scene. What's coming to your cinema in 2023, For your consideration the potential 2023 Oscar winners, We spent a day streaming bad Christmas movies and this is what it did to our brain, Here's when people will get the next cost of living payment in 2023, 'My elderly mother was in an ambulance for 18 hours. and Ben's already shaky confidence takes a major hit. But shes not paying full attention. Furious, she takes him to the cemetery, asking him where he would like to be buried. Read our parents guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.. Ben is Back: Teaser Trailer 1 0:55 Added: August 24, 2018. Spencer shows up and, after a tussle, he confirms that Clayton, a drug dealer he used to work for, took Ponce. I thought you were dead, one guy at the mall says off-handedly. From Spider, Dolly knows about the hideout in exchange for the drugs Dolly retrieved from Ben at the shopping mall. Over a turbulent 24 hours, new truths are revealed, and a mother's undying love for her son is. The MPAA rating has been assigned for language throughout and some drug use. The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a physical altercation that ends with a punch in the face, references to sex in exchange for drugs, opioid addiction and its effects on family and loved ones, discussions of the death of people addicted to opioids and rehab, and over 30 F-words. After pressure from her husband, she insists she will stick to Ben for the next 24 hours. However, Ben returns to life at the movies end with a jolt. Did you know you can now filter searches by any combination of ratings? Dec 21, 2018. [6] In November, Kathryn Newton was cast as the titular Ben's sister Ivy,[7] and Alexandra Park joined as an addict Ben meets during an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- More than 10 months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine. [9] Filming took place in Yonkers, New City, Sloatsburg, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Garnerville, and Haverstraw, New York. Reports suggested that a few sequences in the film may have been lensed along Beach Avenue and Linden Avenue as well. Ben Is Back: Trailer 1 2:25 Added: October 11, 2018. While Beths suspicion conditions the audience, Dolly gives saving Ben one last shot. Her son tries to start it but is unsuccessful. And it works, mostly. He exploited his wifes prescriptions to become a drug dealer, and Ben perhaps owes him some money. But their journey is neither as harrowing nor as emotionally draining as the filmmaker thinks it is. Stepdad Neal (Courtney B Vance), whos paying for the rehab, is stony faced. But hes also apprehensive about going into certain rooms in the houselike the attic, where he used to stash his drugsfor fear of the memories theyll conjure. And the later scenes reveal that Ben has taken the drug nonetheless. Her anger at Ben dragging her (and her family) into his mess comes and goes. The Fabelmans, Babylon, Empire of Light: Why the spate of love letters to cinema? Since Mr. Richmonds wife had cancer, he could get all the prescription drugs. They start in very different places from where they end up. But once again, Roberts gives a gripping performance as a mother coming to new realizations about the child she thought she finally understood. Symmetry opens the film. Story of 19-year-old Ben Burns (Lucas Hedges), a young man with substance abuse issues who unexpectedly returns to his family's suburban home on Christmas Eve morning. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Hollywood films about addiction tend to be tasteful, well-meaning awardsy dramas. I dont think Ben is Back hangs together perfectly but there were times I forgot to breathe for a second or three. Newton is quite good, too, as the familys voice of reason. Ben Is Back Pits a Dazzling Julia Roberts Against the Opioid Scourge Alan Scherstuhl December 18, 2018 9:00AM In Ben Is Back, Julia Roberts (left) stars as Holly Burns, an ordinary. View Cart . Not added . And then watching how she can, on a dime, flip from the happy mom to panicked mom and fierce mom Where did you get this? Ben has been in rehab for quite a few months, struggling with an Oxycotin addiction. Look how his skin glows. A man slams a passenger car window and pounds on the hood of the car as a woman and her son speed away. There is also an ominous image of a character who will figure heavily in the story later, especially as mother and son go to some disturbing places seeking catharsis. The disease of addiction can afflict anyone, anywhere, Hedges reminds us, just as Beautiful Boy did earlier this year. Holly has two kids with her second husband ( Courtney B. Vance) in addition to Ben and his younger sister, Ivy ( Kathryn Newton ), from her first. But thats what Holly (and Hedges) does. Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges are pictured filming a Scene for 'Ben is Back' at a shopping mall in White Plains, New York 03.01.2018 A drug addicted teenage boy shows up unexpectedly at his family's home on Christmas Eve. Suburban shopping mall parking lots are magical places. [10], In July 2018, LD Entertainment, Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate acquired distribution rights to the film, which they released on December 7, 2018. It enlivens a moralizing tough-love scene, as when Holly takes her son to a cemetery and asks him to pick out a burial site because he will soon be dead if he doesnt change. "One of the 50 Coolest Websitesthey simply tell it like it is" - TIME, The current economic climate has reduced our revenues. (3,433) 6.7 1 h 43 min 2018 X-Ray HDR UHD R. Julia Roberts delivers a riveting performance as a mother swept into a race against time after her troubled 19-year-old son (Lucas Hedges) returns home for Christmasand suddenly disappears. She even takes a tour of the river, where they all end up at the dead of the night. Over a turbulent 24 hours, new truths are revealed, and a mother's undying love for her son is tested as she does everything in her power to keep him safe. When Neal calls Dolly, Ben is still out of sight. How much more damage will he do, to them and to himself? His disease is acting through him, as if he were possessed by a demon that is also his double. Nevertheless, she hides the pills and jewelry, because they are triggers and temptations. Its been a long time. Ben is jumpy, shaky, perhaps not ready for this yet. The filmmaker previously made the enjoyable and piquant holiday-themed comedy-drama, Pieces of April, about a dysfunctional family at Thanksgiving. The film eventually goes off in thriller-like direction with Ben and Holly searching for the family dog, which has been stolen by one of Bens former associates to whom he owes a debt. the Oscars deepest and most dynamic race. Ben's mother, Holly, is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean. A young man seems nervous when he sees another young man in a shopping mall. Acclaimed director Peter Hedges ('Dan In Real Life') reared the 2018 familial micro-drama movie 'Ben Is Back' starring his son Lucas Hedges (' Manchester by the Sea '). While Dolly finds the cell phone, there is no whereabouts of Ben. But A&E was worse': This is the desperate state of the NHS, Rishi Sunak wants a drone army of data entering robots: Simon Peggs furious attack on PMs maths plan. When the title character shows up early in Ben Is Back just before Christmas, at his familys big house in a suburban town north of New York City the mood tilts from domestic drama toward domestic horror. A family returns home form a performance and finds their house has been broken into; their Christmas tree is tipped over, the glass of a door is broken and their dog is missing. Even after the menacing, hooded figure skulking around near the driveway is recognized as a son and brother (played by Lucas Hedges), the queasy feeling of terror doesnt quite abate. The plot follows a mother who tries to help her addict son after he returns home from rehab. One of the cruelties of addiction is the way it strips away individuality, making all addicts stories the same. [14], Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society Awards, "Making of 'Ben Is Back': How Director Peter Hedges Convinced His Reluctant Son Lucas to Star", "Julia Roberts And Lucas Hedges Team For Black Bear & 30WEST-Backed 'Ben Is Back', "Courtney B. Vance Joins Julia Roberts & Lucas Hedges In 'Ben Is Back', Julia Roberts project, filmed in Rockland, gets positive reviews, "Julia Roberts Drama 'Ben Is Back' Acquired By LD Entertainment, Lionsgate & Roadside", "Toronto: Timothee Chalamet Starrer 'Beautiful Boy,' Dan Fogelman's 'Life Itself' Among Festival Lineup", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ben_Is_Back&oldid=1132753122, Best Performance by an Actor 23 and Under, David Zaldivar as Spencer "Spider" Webbs, a drug addict and one of Ben's old friends, Jack Davidson as Dr. Crane, husband of Alzheimer female, Mia Fowler as Lacey Burns-Beeby, Holly and Neal's 10-year-old daughter and Ben and Ivy's little half-sister, Jakari Fraser as Liam Burns-Beeby, Holly and Neal's 6-year-old son and Ben and Ivy's little half-brother, This page was last edited on 10 January 2023, at 11:23. Realizing it is to do with him, Ben leaves the house to find him. 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