Ben is Back (2018)

Lucas Hedges delivers another excellent performance is another underrated film from last year.
Ben (Hedges) somehow escapes from his sober house to come back and celebrate Christmas with his family, including his saint of a mother, Holly (the great Julia Roberts). Holly is thrilled to see him again while his sister, Ivy (Kathryn Newton) and step-father, Neal (Courtney B. Vance) are far more skeptical, but eventually Neal lets him stay. Holly sweeps the house for drugs, though she doesn't know where his secret stash is and they try to get through the day, Christmas Eve.
But he is manipulative, and convinces Holly to take him shopping so he can get his younger siblings a present that's actually from him and then Holly takes him to a meeting, which is where things start to fall apart. Holly finds some drugs in his shoes, after a simple joke and then after attending a Christmas pageant, they return to find the family dog (who saved his life) gone so Ben and Holly set off to find him and Holly learns many devastating truths about her son, how he got his friend hooked by telling her how great drugs were and that he still owes his dealer money which is why Ponce (the dog) was taken.
The night gets worse and worse, Holly learns that Ben's history teacher is a dealer (real great of him to sell to his students) and that one of his childhood friends is still high and even though Ben insists that Holly shouldn't trust him as you can never believe an addict, she still turns her back on him and he steals her car. The film ends with Holly finally giving up (which cannot be easy) and reporting him to the police before getting the call that Ponce's been found and then having to give Ben CPR in an abandoned barn, nearly dead, but he sucks in some air so the cycle can begin again, though Neal has already taken out a second mortgage on the house so I guess his next place is prison.
It is such a shame for Ben to have been in this position in the first place. The scene in the mall where Holly confronts the doctor who she holds responsible (as we all do) who is now suffering from Alzheimer's (and probably was starting to when Ben was fourteen). Ben had a minor snowboarding accident and was prescribed a painkiller and dosage kept increasing. The doctor told Holly that they weren't addicting, but that was obviously not the case. She should have done her own research so everyone knows you can't really trust doctors, which is such a crying shame.
Now, while the ending ticked me off, though he said several times throughout the film that he wasn't worth saving, it was super selfish to attempt suicide on Christmas as now that will ruin the holiday for his younger siblings, but then he lives, at least is breathing but the film get cuts off, which is a crying shame.
The film is not easy to watch but Roberts and Hedges deliver brilliant performances and Newton is also great in her smaller role and Rachel Bay Jones delivers a hell of a cameo. So watch the film and hold your kids tight and be vigilant, as the edge of the cliff is closer than you think. Grade: B+