In Beautiful Boy, Nic Sheff (Chalamet) is an outgoing, adventurous, intellectual, and privileged boy — much like Jared (Hedges) in Boy Erased. But, at a young age, Nic experiments with drugs and finds that he's drawn to the mind-altering, addictive, and readily available methamphetamine. The film ebbs and flows with Nic’s highs and lows from the drug, and from the guilt he feels when facing his caring, but smothering, father, David Sheff (Steve Carell). Throughout the movie, Nic only experiences real freedom a handful of times: When he’s head-banging to Nirvana, biking up an impossible hill with his sponsor, and driving with one hand hanging out the window, feeling the salty California breeze. The driving scene is one of special liberty, because car privileges were few and far between for Nic once his parents found out about his drug use. One of the most heartbreaking scenes in the movie also involves a car, this one being driven by his step-mother Karen (Maura Tierney) in a desperate attempt to chase down the boy she once knew. But, with his hand stretched out the rolled-down window and the other gripping the wheel, Nic experiences a high that is, for once, not fuelled by chemicals.