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Scenes from Day 3 and 4 of the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival. From top left, “Beautiful Boy” star Timothee Chalamet joins fans for a selfie, Chalamet and co-star Steve Carell, “The Hate U Give” star Amandla Sternberg, “Boy Erased” director Joel Edgerton director and star with MVFF Founder Mark Fishkin, and Carell joining fans for photos and Sternberg again. Photos by Kirke Wrench.

After an Opening Night that showcased a pair of films that boasted both star power and rave reviews in A Private War star with Rosamund Pike and Green Book‘s Mahershala Ali, the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival built on that momentum with more of the same on days three and four.

They did so behind two of the most acclaimed young actors of the past few years. Timothée Chalamet, riding a wave of success on the heels of his powerful turn in Call Me by Your Name (2017 MVFF), was joined by co-star Steve Carell and director Felix van Groeningen for a screening of the much anticipated Beautiful Boy. The film tells the story of a Marin family coping with addiction, as frequent Rolling Stone contributor David (Carell) sees his teenage son Nic’s (Chalamet) marijuana use as harmless experimentation until he begins to spiral out of control on heroin and crystal meth. The screenplay was written by David and Nic Scheff, the real life father and son of the story, and both Scheffs also attended the screening and event at the Rafael Film Center.

One day later at the CineArts Sequoia, emerging star Amandla Stenberg and director George Tillman, Jr. appeared at a Spotlight event for The Hate U Give, which tells the the story of Starr (Stenberg), who is “the queen of code switching: living one version of herself in her black community and another at her predominantly white private high school.” When Starr becomes the sole witness to the shooting death of her friend by a white policeman, the two Starrs have no choice but to collide—often explosively.

Right next door at the Sequoia on Sunday, actor Joel Edgerton, co-star of the acclaimed Loving (2016 MVFF), showcased his film Boy Erased, an “elliptical coming-of-age tale” about the teenage son of a Baptist preacher who finds himself at a gay conversion camp after a fellow student maliciously outs him to his family. Nicole Kidman, Lucas Hedges, and Russell Crowe star in the film, in which Edgerton also plays the fiery camp director. 

Stay tuned for plenty more coverage of the 41st Mill Valley Film Festival.

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