Watch the First Trailer for Shia LaBeouf's 'Honey Boy'

Ever since it was screened at Sundance in January, critics have hailed the Shia LaBeouf-written Honey Boy for its "vulnerable, honest" look into the messy life of a child actor, based largely on LaBeouf's experiences with his father as he grew up in Hollywood. The first trailer for the Alma Har'el directed movie was finally released today, and it looks to mix the raw emotion of, say, Boyhood or Mid90s with that distinctly LaBeouf weirdness.

In one sequence, a child wearing a Hawaiian shirt—a young LaBeouf, basically—gets pied in the face in slow motion, a scene that definitely wouldn't be out of place in the classic Even Stevens. Instead of LaBeouf playing himself, however, he dons long hair with a receding hairline, a bandana, and glasses to play a character based on his father: an ex-rodeo clown and felon, per the Hollywood Reporter. Lucas Hedges, meanwhile, plays Otis, a version of LaBeouf who's grappling with alcohol and addiction.

Honey Boy will play it close to LaBeouf's own struggles. The script, the actor said earlier this year, was written as part of a rehabilitation program, during which LaBeouf added, "I never went into this thinking, 'Oh, I am going to fucking help people.' That wasn't my goal. I was falling apart." Honey Boy might just be a new look at an actor we've now known for so much of his life.

The Amazon Studios movie will also star FKA twigs, Natasha Lyonne, and Martin Starr, and it will hit theaters on November 8. Watch the trailer here: