If you hear me sniffling at my desk it isn't because I have a summer cold. It's because I am watching the trailer for Boy Erased, and then quickly rewatching the trailer for Beautiful Boy, in a shot-chaser heartbreak combo.
Yes, two of the year's most promising and emotional dramas are starring my two beautiful boys, Lucas Hedges and Timothée Chalamet, and I'm not sure I am emotionally-equipped to handle both of them. Stan Twitter definitely isn't.
The two coming-of-age movies each star an Oscar-nominated actor under the age of 25 (Hedges for best supporting actor in Manchester by the Sea and Chalamet for best actor in Call Me By Your Name), each feature the word "boy," and each center around life-changing experiences hinged on an intense father-son relationship. In the Boy Erased trailer, which was released today and stars Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe as Hedges' parents, an athletic, bright, and cheerful high schooler (Hedges) who tells his ultra-Christian parents that he has feelings towards boys. In response, they send him to gay conversion camp, where he is driven to choose between his happiness and his parents' approval. In Beautiful Boy, Chalamet stars opposite Steve Carrell as his rebellious, intelligent, and complicated son who finds meth and quickly becomes addicted.
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Different stories, different boys, same big fat tears!
Here's Boy Erased, out this November.
And here's Beautiful Boy, out October 16.
And since we're talking about boys...here's To All The Boy I've Loved Before, out August 17, just to end on a happier note.