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? He leaves Ponce in the car with a note asking whoever finds it to call his mom. Ben's mom, Holly (Julia Roberts), is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son staying clean. 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. Ben Is Back shifts into gear once mom and son leave the house for a trip to the mall. A young man speeds away from a gas station leaving his mother inside alone and with no ride. They are the main couple of the film series.They first meet each other at the beginning of Descendants and they later started dating and became a couple. While Beths suspicion conditions the audience, Dolly gives saving Ben one last shot. Ive been with you the whole time. Excuse me! The girl at the meeting. And Ben going from cocky and confident to reduced and regressing in age and fearful and apologetic You think Im an idiot. All right. Following Claytons order, Ben agrees to do the job, sticking several belts of drugs onto his body. But Ben leaves with Dollys car, which gets Dolly worried. 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. Ben concocts that he took the drug from the girl at the meeting, but he later comes clean that he found the bit in the attic room. Bens way of being in the world, as he swings from anger to panic to heartfelt promise-making to abject remorse, looks like a familiar performance. People and institutions doctors, police officers and pharmacists, as well as her kids are supposed to listen, and to accede to her wishes. Her best moments have Holly making some questionable decisions, thoughher heart is in the right place. Read More: Ben Is Back Ending, Explained: Is Ben Dead or Alive? All of which leaves Bens mother, Holly (Julia Roberts), in an agonizing position. He is entirely credible as an almost-grown man whose credibility has virtually collapsed, who is in a constant state of war with himself. Im Peter Hedges, writer and director of Ben Is Back. Ben Burns, played by Lucas Hedges, comes home unexpectedly on Christmas Eve Day. I n its early scenes, Ben Is Back is more unpredictable and slyly entertaining than its earnest-sounding premise might suggest. The Bottom Line Nerve-racking but not bleak or without humor. - About 31 F-words and its derivatives, 22 scatological terms (1 mild), 3 anatomical terms, 2 mild obscenities, name-calling (liar, phony, stupid, junkie, drug addict), exclamations (shut-up, freaking out), 4 religious profanities, 19 religious exclamations (e.g. A young man seems nervous when he sees another young man in a shopping mall. (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. Yesterday I watched "Ben is Back" a recently released feature film about a heroin-addicted young man (Lucas Hedges) and his heroic and tenacious mother (Julia Roberts) who tries her best to keep him "clean.". Symmetry opens the film. The film opens as he returns from his stint at rehab on Christmas Eve. A woman walks alone in a dark alley and finds her son's phone in a garbage dumpster. 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. All rights reserved. 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. A measure of privilege is baked into this assumption, and Ben Is Back is partly about the way the current scourge of opioid and heroin addiction has contributed to the demoralization of the American middle class. [9] Filming took place in Yonkers, New City, Sloatsburg, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Garnerville, and Haverstraw, New York. He has a secret. Pockets. This is humiliating. No, this is love. Hollys oblivious. Free to go. You didnt check my shoes. Then Holly becomes concerned. When Ben heads out on foot to locate Ponce, Dolly thinks it is good to go with Ben. Nevertheless, she hides the pills and jewelry, because they are triggers and temptations. A woman hands her son a cup and tells him to provide a urine sample for drug testing; she looks away and tells him that she wont look at his privates (we see him from the back with nothing seen or heard). But from Spencer, Ben gets a lead about the home invasion incident. Nevertheless, the scene falls flat and feels preachy. Was Ben Is Back, about an addicts unexpected return home, meant to be a holiday hate-watch? Admittedly, you may feel like youve had your fill of troubled rich white guys with all their second chances and five-star rehab opportunities. Ben soon makes eye contact with a man who is presumably linked to his drug-dealing. Therefore, the chances are that the guy who read the note called Dolly to inform Ponces location. business Retail. "Ben Is Back" hands down is the most emotional movie of the year. A young man says, "You're still scared of me," to his family. The conflict is not his alone. He slips meaningful little asides into out-of-the-way places. 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. But other scenes are directed with the pure suspense of a thriller. Support our vendors to earn as much as they can and give them a fighting chance this Winter. From Spider, Dolly knows about the hideout in exchange for the drugs Dolly retrieved from Ben at the shopping mall. You can learn to parallel park there, you can make out with your high school boyfriend . Ben Is Back (2018) - Filming & Production - IMDb Ben Is Back (2018) Filming & Production Showing all 3 items Jump to: Filming Locations (3) Filming Locations Edit Sloatsburg, New York, USA (Hayward's Market, Super Seven store) 14 of 15 found this interesting New York, USA 6 of 6 found this interesting USA Is this interesting? In addition, the team toured Mamaroneck, lensing a few enticing sequences on location. He tells Holly he needs to go to a support group meeting, where he later shares the story of how he almost overdosed, but was saved by his mom and the family dog, Ponce. And then he reminds her, no, she didnt check everything. Dolly seeks to accept Ben, but Ben has ways to mess things up. A young man talks about his history teacher having an unlimited supply of "oxy" and other opioids. It is all calculated emotional button-pushing. That evening, the family returns home from church to find that someone has broken into their home and taken Ponce. He wisely lets his actors act, giving them space to indicate so much in just a meaningful look. We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. Let us know what you think in the comments below. Buy Tickets to Ben Is Back: https://www.fandango.com/ben-is-back-213738/movie-overview?cmp=CSYT_YouTube_DescWant to be notified of all the latest clips and behind the scenes footage? [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. If anyone can solve Bens problems can bring Ben back to the sweet, smart, decent boy he used to be its surely his mom. Your local vendor is at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis this Winter. Stuart Dryburgh of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty fame came on board as the director of photography. And then she checks him because she has concerns. We see a photo of a woman wearing a camisole that reveals cleavage. A young man says that his mother found him upside down on the stairs with a needle in his arm and that his dog was trying to keep him awake. The Fabelmans, Babylon, Empire of Light: Why the spate of love letters to cinema? A drug addicted teenage boy shows up unexpectedly at his family's home on Christmas Eve. This movie chronicles 24 hours in the life of a family after the oldest son comes home from rehab one Christmas eve. 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. Ben is Back. It was a crucial junction in the filming schedule. Back to the Future (1985) Universal Pictures. Like her, I found myself constantly scanning Bens face: is he using again? On the other hand, Ford Wheeler, the set decorator of Stranger Than Fiction fame, took up the role of production designer in the movie. 10. Add to Cart . "One of the 50 Coolest Websitesthey simply tell it like it is" - TIME, The current economic climate has reduced our revenues. He uses the same outline here: theres a screw-up title character (Lucas Hedges, the directors son) with a suffering/domineering mother named Holly (Julia Roberts), an insufferably perfect sister named Ivy (Katherine Newton) as well as a benign-ish father (Courtney B. Vance) all hoping Ben doesnt spoil everything as he always does. Let us get to the ending. However, Mr. Richmond did not abduct Ponce, making Holly and Ben move on to the next house. It sure feels like it. The film is actually most interesting to watch Hollys moral compass shift in any direction to help her son especially when she justifies his bad behavior to help him process his past actions. As she follows Ben through an increasingly harrowing day and night, Holly gets a tour of an underworld that exists in the shadows of her sunny, stable reality. Advertisement: "Ben Is Back" shifts into gear once mom and son leave the house for a trip to the. (The films town is never identified, so it represents any/everywhereas in: this is a cautionary tale that could happen in your very own neighborhood!) I dont think Ben is Back hangs together perfectly but there were times I forgot to breathe for a second or three. Bens sister Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is all eye-rolling cynicism at this latest outbreak of sobriety. Ben is in recovery from heroin addiction. Looks like shes gonna have you try on the whole store. I love what both actors are bringing to this scene. Gary M. Kramer is a writer and film critic based in Philadelphia. He has been to rehab a few times, and his return brings more menace than peace for the family of Dolly Burns (Julia Roberts), her second husband, Neal Beeby, and the family. She may be too deep in her own suffering, and the film may be too absorbed in her feelings, to grasp that fully. The plot follows a mother who tries to help her addict son after he returns home from rehab. It is almost laughable to watch Julia Roberts wandering around a site full of addicts on a dark winter night searching for her child. It is as if he has come home from prep school, not rehab. "Ben is Back," written and directed by Peter Hedges and starring his son, Lucas Hedges, is one of two recent films on teen addiction starring the most talented young actors of the moment (" Beautiful Boy " starred Timothee Chalamet.) So begins a long night of the soul as mother and son drive around Bens old stomping grounds. Shes going to get clothes for him. We see snippets of a sleepy town, zooming into a Christmas choir. However, Ben returns to life at the movies end with a jolt. After looking for Ben all night, Holly is overwrought and goes to a police station. The best thing that can be said about this film is that Hedges isnt going for warm and fuzzy feelings. The hamlet in the town of Haverstraw features in several scenes, a highlighted location being Sparkys Diner. While Neal and Ivy may be against it, Dolly will probably reattempt to integrate Ben into society. [Read our critics top 10 films of the year.]. Move sliders from 0-10 in any combination, check and uncheck MPAA ratings and use keywords to further filter results -- please let us know what you think. She seems like a woman accustomed to getting her way, not because she is complacent or overly entitled but because she expects the world to recognize the moral authority of motherhood. Ben is Back review - Julia Roberts can't save middling addiction drama Strong performances from the Oscar winner and Lucas Hedges enliven a patchy film about a mother dealing with the return of. She scolds him for getting her son hooked on painkillers after a snowboarding accident when Ben was younger. In a fast food joint she bumps into the familys old doctor, now retired, who first prescribed Ben painkilling pills aged 14 after a minor snowboarding accident. The crew filmed in North Little Tor Road and along the South Mountain Roads in the suburbs of New City. Now, you may wonder where the film was shot. The hometown is mundane and suburban, but the camera looks for an exit from nature, reinforcing the fostering image. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Leaving Holly stranded at a gas station, he goes to meet Clayton. Lucas as Ben has this rich inner life at the beginning of the scene. But what if she cant? This time will be different. His disease is acting through him, as if he were possessed by a demon that is also his double. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts. they are pretty mundane in a broken, contemporary world. FILTER by RATINGS One of the cruelties of addiction is the way it strips away individuality, making all addicts stories the same.

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