{"id":13300,"date":"2014-08-03T12:22:47","date_gmt":"2014-08-03T19:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=13300"},"modified":"2014-08-03T12:22:47","modified_gmt":"2014-08-03T19:22:47","slug":"boyhood-deserves-oscars-for-best-picture-and-directing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/boyhood-deserves-oscars-for-best-picture-and-directing\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Boyhood\u2019 deserves Oscars for best picture and directing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woody’s [rating: 5]<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ellar Coltrane (Mason Jr.) at age 6 in \u201cBoyhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ellar Coltrane (Mason Jr.) as a pre-collegian in \u201cBoyhood.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s way too early for me to crawl out on this particular limb, but I\u2019m impetuous enough to do it anyway.<\/p>\n

The best flicks of any year, the sure-fire Oscar contenders, typically are released in December, often a day or two before year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

That ensures eligibility.<\/p>\n

And, usually, a booming box-office.<\/p>\n

This year, a vibrant film I just saw breaks with the tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoyhood\u201d is Richard Linklater\u2019s cinematic masterwork, a groundbreaking work of scripted fiction that took 12 years to film. It feels real.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it\u2019s the most emotionally nourishing movie I\u2019ve seen in eons.<\/p>\n

I expect it to cop the Oscar as 2014\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

Forget the competition.<\/p>\n

For a dozen consecutive years, the director-writer\u2019s cameras filmed the various actors while they grew up, grew furrowed, grew chunkier.<\/p>\n

In three or four-day annual shoots.<\/p>\n

Ellar Coltrane stars as Mason Junior, a youngster who loses his baby fat and innocence while we watch.<\/p>\n

Lorelei Linklater, the director\u2019s daughter, realistically portrays the boy\u2019s officious cinema sister, Samantha. Olivia (Patricia Arquette) and Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke) come off as his blemished but loving parents.<\/p>\n

All four are understated.<\/p>\n

The veteran filmmaker overcame his gimmick by making the movie a non-formulaic exploration of human development \u2014 without the usual cinematic clich\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Except for an abusive husband-drunk.<\/p>\n

The characters seem transparent, even when internal mini-crises envelop them.<\/p>\n

Mostly, though, Linklater, 54, examines the impact ordinariness has on human beings.<\/p>\n

His novel-like study \u2014 based in Texas, where he was born and yet<\/strong>lives \u2014 meanders, but generally focuses on the less showy flashes that can influence life: sibling squabbling, routine schooling, cussing, parental guidance and lapses, Bible- and gun-toting, revolving haircuts and facial hair, juvenile bewilderment and sexuality.<\/p>\n

Linklater\u2019s finest scenes exude humor, including gutter bowling and blue fingernails.<\/p>\n

But his characters are genuine enough to have been my neighbors in Clearwater, Florida, or Willingboro, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

For some viewers, namely those who prefer high drama to watching inch-by-inch life changes, \u201cBoyhood\u201d may seem plot-less. Other moviegoers may suffer from a lack of zitzfleisch, the project\u2019s 165-minute length tough on their bony backsides.<\/p>\n

I had no such problems.<\/p>\n

Rather, I found the film to be epic \u2014 not in the sense of explosions or thousands of warriors and computer-graphic stunts, but epic in the sense of zooming in on people reacting to life\u2019s commonplaceness.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long been a Linklater fan \u2014 especially the documentary \u201cFast Food Nation,\u201d the fact-based black comedy \u201cBernie,\u201d and his fictional trilogy, \u201cBefore Sunrise,\u201d \u201cBefore Sunset\u201d and \u201cBefore Midnight,\u201d which tracks a loving but contentious couple.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s an antecedent to \u201cBoyhood,\u201d it\u2019s director Michael Apted\u2019s \u201c7-Up,\u201d a documentary series that took 14 seven-year-old British pupils from varied soci-economic backgrounds and revisited them every seven years for the next 49 so far.<\/p>\n

The fabricated \u201cBoyhood\u201d has vastly more impact, however.<\/p>\n

For me, it creates a time machine.<\/p>\n

Although my coming of age didn\u2019t resemble Mason\u2019s in the least, it lets me relive the warmth and angst and crossroads I faced while growing up.<\/p>\n

So, thanks, Mr. Visionary, for skipping a cinematic stone over the water\u2019s edge and letting the ripples of my past glisten in the sun. Thanks, too, for reminding me that a parent can be only as joyous as the least happy child.<\/p>\n

And thanks for verifying that there\u2019s always a little kid inside an older body.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoyhood\u201d will grab no prize for taking more than a decade to complete. Hitler propagandist Leni Riefenstahl started a script in 1934 but didn\u2019t release \u201cTiefland\u201d until 20 years later. The longevity winner, however, is an animated feature, \u201cThe Thief and the Cobbler,\u201d which took 28 years \u2014 mainly because writer-director-head animator Richard Williams ran out of money.<\/p>\n

No movie this year should be more prize-worthy than \u201cBoyhood,\u201d though.<\/p>\n

Linklater has planted the right cinematic seeds to merit his harvesting Academy Awards as best director and best film.<\/p>\n

I predict he will.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoyhood\u201d is playing at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, the California and Piedmont theaters in the East Bay, and the Embarcadero, Sundance Kabuki Cinema and UA Stonestown Twin in San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woody’s [rating: 5] It\u2019s way too early for me to crawl out on this particular limb, but I\u2019m impetuous enough to do it anyway. The best flicks of any year,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"