Ben is you isn't he ? ", Through his research, Peter Hedges said, he "kept running across instances where people who were doing well and had put together a period of recovery and [they slip and] no one saw it coming and you hear this repeated. Ben Is Back is Academy Award-nominated writer and director Peter Hedges’ most personal work yet. The plot follows a mother who tries to help her addict son after he returns home from rehab. Cast : Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance Release : December 5, 2018 Director : Peter Hedges Genre : Drama Country : USA Tim's Rating : Bang for your Buck : Addicts constantly lie, but this film does not: Ben is indeed back (he’s played by Lucas Hedges, the director’s son). But there must be alternatives to that. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2018, and was theatrically released on December 7, 2018, by LD Entertainment, Roadside Attractions, and Lionsgate. Sadly, it’s a dead end. Ben Is Back could have been intense and universal in someone else's hands, but as is, it lacks confidence in how to get to its ending, resulting in unintentional hilarity. Ben is able to trick Holly at a gas station convenience store, leaving her stranded there while he goes to meet Clayton. The film is a sequel to the film Willard (1971). So there's a culpability of big pharma and all of that, that becomes interesting.". Sometimes they got clean and they were prescribed a pain pill and that pain pill brought them back in. Ben's mom, Holly, is relieved and welcoming but wary of her son's drug addiction. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER is a registered trademark of The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. "Ben is Back," an LD Entertainment/Roadside Attractions release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America "for language throughout and some drug use." While Ben's fate is still not confirmed, one character did sadly die in the finale. People say, 'I didn't see it coming.' The showrunner added that the Ben we meet at the end of Season 2 isn't the same as the one we know. The Official Showtimes Destination brought to you by Amazon Content Services LLC The project was announced in October 2017, with Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts set to star. Ben's wary mother Holly Burns (Roberts) welcomes her beloved son's return, but soon learns he is still very much in harm's way. "Part of the reason it took so long for this to be diagnosed as an epidemic is because in obituaries, people were ashamed to say that their son or daughter or mother or brother or father had died of an overdose. “Ben Is Back” may lose its way early and often, but it is rarely in danger of losing hold of your attention. Parents need to know that Ben Is Back is a drama that centers on the United States' opioid epidemic. "[12] At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100 based on 39 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Ben completes the mission and gets his dog back, but Clayton also gives him some drugs as a thank you. Running time: 103 minutes. The film received generally favorable reviews from critics, who praised the performances of Hedges and Roberts, but grossed just $12 million against its $13 million budget. Holly finds drugs on Ben and he claims a girl at the meeting gave them to him. AdChoices Add in an abundance of foul language, and you’ve got a movie that’s difficult to welcome in with open arms. advertisement. "I don't know how you get off of it after you've been on it that long, and I don't know how much it's talked about, the dangers. The theme song, "Ben", is performed by singer Michael Jackson.It was also included on his 1972 album of the same title The day stops," Peter Hedges says of the film's intense ending. See the release date and trailer. She follows Ponce down a nearby path that leads to an old barn where she finds Ben unconscious, having taken the drugs from Clayton. This isn’t a matter of ego or showboating. As the news articles Ben has so carefully assembled indicate, It's hunger strikes again every few decades, so it's just a matter of time before It comes back to claim another slew of … And people would conceal the cause of death, and it wasn't until people started to come out of the shadows and share their stories that you could at least begin to see the magnitude of the problem. There's alternatives, and that's what needs to be discussed because this is epidemic.". I need to know if Ben is really dead or not." They slip and it made you wonder why, why is that happening. And after hearing Ben's various explanations for why he went home and seeing the journey he goes on over the night before Christmas, viewers may be wondering what the truth behind Ben's return is. Ben Is Back is a 2018 American drama film written and directed by Peter Hedges and starring Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges (son of the film's director), and Courtney B. Vance. He says that he lied to her telling her that the drugs were the best thing ever. During the 24 hours that may change their lives forever, Holly must do everything in her power to avoid the family's downfall. That’s the premise that fires up Ben Is Back, a drama from writer-director Peter Hedges (a.k.a. They're writing in obituaries now things that five years ago no one would say: 70,000 people are going to overdose in America this year and die. After wandering around all night, Holly finally goes to a police station. So hopefully this contributes to a greater openness about those conversations and a compassion for the families and the victims who struggle through it and the demand that we have to do something more, better, different than what we are.". I know the pain, people in a continued amount of pain. "I think what it is is he feels as though he's gotten on the right side of his recovery and has gotten so impatient and wants so desperately to have the love of his family again so he jumps the gun a bit and tries to speed the process up," Lucas Hedges told THR. "In my own life, what became interesting was just that I grew up in a family where I had to lie a lot. In the end, "Ben Is Back" still is worth checking out for the strong performances of Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges. "It’s a different character," he says. "It's hard to find a family in America that's not touched by this epidemic in one way or another," producer Nina Jacobson told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the New York premiere of Ben Is Back earlier this month. Hilary Lewis [9], In July 2018, LD Entertainment, Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate acquired distribution rights to the film, which they released on December 7, 2018. It's an epidemic. © 2021 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. And they're putting it in obituaries. [5] In November, Kathryn Newton was cast as the titular Ben's sister Ivy,[6] and Alexandra Park joined as an addict Ben meets during an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Holly is then shocked when she and the others return home to find Ben (Lucas Hedges), her 19-year … Ben is Back has a rather abrupt ending leaving some things to ponder as if for the climax the filmmakers wanted to end things on another personal note. So I know after four weeks I had the shakes. This isn’t a matter of ego or showboating. We all lied. [11], According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 216 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. Parents need to know that Ben Is Back is a drama that centers on the United States' opioid epidemic. He’s back in snowy Westchester, after a 77-day stint in rehab. Ben Is Back is a 2018 American drama film written and directed by Peter Hedges. It assumes we are still rooting for Ben, but if anything, the film has moved us further away from him. … ", He continued, "I was moved by the number of people saying that their child or their parent or their loved one struggled. But it doesn’t make it easy to sit through. Ben tries to buy his dog back but Clayton says Ben must handle a drug run for him. [8] Filming took place in Yonkers, New City, Sloatsburg, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Garnerville, and Haverstraw, New York. The elder Hedges grew up as the son of an alcoholic and lost friends, including Hoffman, to drug addiction. That’s the premise that fires up Ben Is Back, a drama from writer-director Peter Hedges (a.k.a. "I thought I was writing a different ending when I started to write, but when I got to that moment, I knew it. We pretended that we were better off and happier than we were," he told THR. My mother had ALS, and we saw that she was addicted to it, so we had to go to medicinal marijuana. With Ben is Back, the shift is remarkably sudden, like Wile E. Coyote speeding off the edge of a cliff, hovering for just a second, and then plummeting into the canyon below. Courtney B. Vance, who plays Ben's stepfather, also had a personal experience with opioids and hopes the film starts a dialogue about the dangers of such drugs. 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. [7] Filming began on December 5, with Courtney B. Vance joining the cast as Ben's stepfather. Ben Is Back clearly exclaims that addiction singes everything and everyone in an addict’s orbit. "Ben Is Back" premiered at this year's Toronto International Film Festival to … When his caregiver walks away Holly scolds him for getting her son hooked on painkillers after a snowboarding accident when he was younger. "And yet it's very hard to talk about it all at once and what you wanted was a story like what Peter wrote which was emotional and a page turner and an emotional thriller in a way that has a watchability about it and still has enormous compassion and complexity in how it looks at this struggle.". Realizing it has something to do with him, Ben runs off to retrieve the dog. “Ben Is Back” is really Holly’s story, and notwithstanding the all-around excellence of the cast, it’s very much Roberts’s movie. Additionally, a viewer posted, "Really hope Siren is renewed for a season 4. And after hearing Ben's various explanations for why he went home and seeing the … "Ben maybe deaddddd. | Do Not Sell My Personal Information And by the time we were in post, he had OD'd and passed away. Ben is Back also stars Courtney B. Vance (“The People V. O.J. Terms of Use | This young man worked with us and lived with us for a period of time. I came off of it, and I couldn't sleep. But let's be clear: "Beautiful Boy" is the better movie. TWITTER Holly tracks down Spencer, and gives him drugs she had confiscated from Ben earlier, in exchange for him telling her where Ben might be. The plot follows a mother who tries to help her addict son after he returns home from rehab. "On the one hand there's the kind of shared humanity, the fact that we are experiencing it collectively as a country and yet we're not solving it collectively as a country, and the hope that the movie engages conversations and helps people to come out of the shadows," Jacobson said about what she wants audiences to take away from the film. All rights reserved. "I had a double total knee surgery about a year and a half ago and I was four weeks on oxycodone or hydrocodone — I don't remember which one. "My eldest son's roommate and best friend, when we began the project, he was in recovery. It's a staggering number. "For me this was a really personal script," Jacobson said about getting involved with the project. Even when you think — I was sure. As the news articles Ben has so carefully assembled indicate, It's hunger strikes again every few decades, so it's just a matter of time before It comes back to claim another slew of victims. At the meeting Ben shares the story of how he almost overdosed but his mom and dog saved him. The website's critics consensus reads, "Refreshingly understated, Ben Is Back subverts family drama stereotypes - and provides a forum for terrific performances from Lucas Hedges and Julia Roberts. I can't imagine the people who were on this stuff for six months, a year and trying to get off of it," Vance told THR. Lucas Hedges plays the titular Ben, a recovering heroin addict, and Julia Roberts is Ben's loving mom. Download on Amazon - Ben Is Back Play on Apple Music - Ben Is Back Download on iTunes - Ben Is Back Play on Spotify - Ben Is Back Play on YouTube - Ben Is Back. Ben is a 1972 American horror film about a young boy and his pet rat, Ben. He leaves Ponce in the car with a note asking whoever finds it to call Holly. “Ben Is Back” ends on a note of vague hope, but it’s a reminder that Christmas Day is just one more opportunity to take it one day at a time. 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. If Charles Dickens had written a story about the opioid crisis, he might have come up with something like Ben is Back. Ben Is Back is Academy Award-nominated writer and director Peter Hedges’ most personal work yet. Well option two sounds ...a person with a terminal illness wants to end their pain they should be allowed to do so. Ben then tells Holly he needs to get to a support group meeting immediately. Meanwhile, Holly goes to Maggie's mom for help. 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