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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 13 OctOber 2018
A timely story of addiction in ‘Beautiful Boy’

By LINDSEY BAHR ries, but for the viewer it can
Associated Press be trying at times. The edit-
Relapse is part of recovery. ing choices can make this
That’s what one doctor in film seem occasionally like
“Beautiful Boy “ tells David one extended montage or
Sheff (Steve Carell), the lovely-looking music video.
distraught father of a teen- Van Groeningen also tends
age son, Nic (Timothee to favor flashbacks to vari-
Chalamet), who has been ous stages of Nic’s pre-teen
dabbling in alcohol, weed, childhood as David looks
cocaine, heroin and crystal adoringly on his sweet, in-
meth, and has become an nocent son. It’s all well and
addict. good, but are we to be sur-
He disappears for nights on prised that an addict could
end from his father’s idyllic have once been a sweet
home in the woods outside and innocent child?
of San Francisco which he It is a frustrating diver-
shares with a stepmother, sion mainly because the
Karen (Maura Tierney), and best parts of “Beautiful
his two very young step- Boy” are when Carell and
siblings. He steals his little Chalamet are together. I
sister’s savings ($8). He lies. This image released by Amazon Studios shows Timothée Chalamet, left, and Steve Carell in a wonder whether there is a
He hurts everyone around scene from “Beautiful Boy.” version of this movie that
him. He goes to rehab. He Associated Press exists where the timeline is
seems to be turning over a on a pair of memoirs, one unconventional and often goofing around trying to straight, and it is just laser
new leaf. And then he starts by Nic Sheff and one by disorienting way, jumping speak Klingon to one an- focused on Nic’s ups and
the cycle all over again. David Sheff, and directed back and forward in time other. Others are just con- downs since he started us-
“Beautiful Boy” is an hon- by Belgian filmmaker Felix with abandon and not a fusing. Is Nic returning after ing drugs. Both actors ex-
est portrait of how addic- Van Groeningen in his Eng- lot of establishing context. a semester in college, you cel together, especially in
tion affects families and lish language debut. This Some jumps make sense, wonder? Did he graduate? gut-wrenching scenes like
how it’s not something that may be depicting a fam- like David, sitting in a cafe When, exactly, does he the aforementioned one
can be wrapped up and ily’s story in the recent past, and waiting for his grown smoke pot with his father? in the cafe, where David
packaged into a neat and but there is hardly a more son to meet him after a Before or after he confesses refuses this time to give Nic
tidy narrative. It’s ugly and timely subject matter to ex- bender, and remembering to trying meth? any money. You can see in
messy, with moments of plore. sitting at that same table Perhaps disorientation is Carell’s empathetic eyes
grace and hope, but most- Van Groeningen directs years ago with Nic as a the point, a commentary that the ultimatum is killing
ly despair. The film is based the melded stories in an much younger child and on life and jumbled memo- him inside.q

Lisa Unger’s ‘Under My Skin’

weaves baffling puzzle

By JEFF AYERS a strange man wearing a
Associated Press gray hoodie who seems to
“Under My Skin” (Park Row), be stalking her. Is this the
by Lisa Unger killer coming back for her,
A woman’s life spirals out of or is she imagining him?
control as she battles with Since she sometimes sees
the loss of her husband in her dead husband, she’s
Lisa Unger’s latest psycho- not sure if the stalker — or
logical thriller, “Under My anything else — is real.
Skin.” Can Poppy climb out of her
Poppy’s husband, Jack, grief to find the truth? If she
was murdered a year can, she will quickly discov-
ago while he was jogging er that sometimes the facts
through a city park in New are worse than manufac-
York. When she received tured reality.
the news, the pain was so Unger knows how to craft
intense, she blacked out a tale that not only incor-
and ended up having no porates characters that
memory of several days. In This cover image released by feel real, but also weaves
fact, her next memory has Park Row shows “Under My a baffling puzzle that keeps
her disoriented and wear- Skin,” a novel by Lisa Unger. readers guessing. For a story
ing clothes she doesn’t rec- Associated Press that is steeped in grief and
ognize. doesn’t help that the mur- darkness, Unger’s steady
She’s tried to move on, der was never solved. hand keeps hope shining
and has even tried dat- Poppy begins to see a ther- throughout, so it’s not diffi-
ing again, but no one apist, but the nightmares cult to enjoy this captivat-
comes close to Jack. It also grow and she starts seeing ing thriller.q