The International Online Film Critics’ Poll has announced the winners its 2013/14 survey. I was honored to have been asked to participate for the fourth edition of this poll (see previous surveys here). I was worried when I saw Scorsese’s messy, unchecked ego-trip of a movie, The Wolf of Wall Street among the nominees in one too many categories. Everyone knows my disdain for the film, which reeks of missteps in film-making from someone I consider a master movie maker, and my review of the film in 2013 still continues to attract like-minded film-goers who have made the comment section a sort of sanctuary for their equal disdain for the film (Film review: ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ is one nasty, vulgar film about nasty, vulgar people– for 3 hours!). It made the top 10, but nothing else. No, the big winner was not a huge surprise. Over a hundred on-line film critics from around the globe were polled, and they gave the major awards to Boyhood (Film review: ‘Boyhood’ is Linklater’s masterpiece on youth, existence and humanity), which should speak to its chances at the Oscars, as it rose above last year’s major Oscar winner, 12 Years a Slave.
Other big winners were Gravity (Film Review: ‘Gravity’ harnesses the power of uncut images to thrilling heights) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (Film Review: ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ may be cartoonish, but it’s also one of Wes Anderson’s most human films). As the headline for my Gravity review indicates, the film won the deserved prize for editing and other technical prizes: cinematography and special effects. When I got my ballot, I almost went down the row voting for The Grand Budapest Hotel, but at least it also won three prizes (ensemble cast, production design and score).
I’ll never protest Michael Keaton’s win for Birdman. He’s terrific in this intelligently subversive film (Film review: ‘Birdman’ lampoons Hollywood with humorous, hyper-real, hero-hating satire). But my fave will always be Ralph Fiennes for his work in Grand Budapest Hotel, even if I am biased for having had a chance to interview him for the film (Ralph Fiennes on Working With Wes Anderson: “A True Auteur in the Best Sense”). His thoughtful answers to my questions spoke to how deeply he connected to this character.
I have no real complaints about the results of the poll. All are deserving winners and include some favorites. I am particularly happy that many critics did not forget such great foreign language films as Ida (‘Ida’ comes to South Florida in 35mm; My review appears in ‘Reverse Shot’), The Great Beauty (Film Review: ‘The Great Beauty’ earns it’s title by looking beyond the superficial) and Blue is the Warmest Color (Film Review: ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’ and the pain of loving). But too bad Something in the Air (Film Review: ‘Something in the Air’ presents vibrant picture of youth in tumult) and Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’ presents complex, enthralling portrait of the jaded vampire) were both missing.
OK, enough links to our old reviews glowing with praise for most of these films. Below is the official press release. Winners are in bold and my picks have an asterisk next to them:
PRESS RELEASE – IOFCP WINNERS
The International Online Film Critics’ Poll is proud to announce its winners for the 4th biannual awards for excellence in film. Founded in 2007, the IOFCP is the only biannual poll of film critics from all around the world (over one hundred critics from USA, UK, Italy, Spain, Canada, France, Mexico, Australia, India, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, Serbia, Poland, Romania, Estonia, Pakistan, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden). The awards are biannual to allow the comparison of different film seasons.
The IOFCP voted the coming-of-age drama Boyhood as Best Film, according to the results of its biannual critics’ poll which was released on January 26. Director Richard Linklater was voted as Best Director and Patricia Arquette won Best Supporting Actress award.
Michael Keaton was voted Best Actor of the biennium for his performance in Birdman, and Cate Blanchett won Best Actress award for Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine.
Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel won Best Ensemble Cast, Best Production Design and Best Original Score. Another big winner was Gravity with three awards: Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Visual Effects.
For the screenplays, Spike Jonze’s romantic comedy-drama Her was chosen as Best Original Screenplay. Instead Best Adapted Screenplay went to Steve McQueen’s Academy Award winner 12 Years a Slave.
At last, for his performance in Whiplash, J.K. Simmons was awarded as Best Supporting Actor of the biennium.
Past IOFCP Awards winners include Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Inglourious Basterds and Slumdog Millionaire.
Complete list of winners (and nominations)
TOP TEN FILMS (alphabetical list)
12 Years a Slave
Blue is the Warmest Colour
Birdman
Boyhood
Her
Ida
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Great Beauty
The Imitation Game
The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST PICTURE
12 Years a Slave
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel*
The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel*
Paolo Sorrentino – The Great Beauty
Roman Polanski – Venus in Fur
BEST ACTOR
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel*
Mads Mikkelsen – The Hunt
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Adele Exarchopoulos – Blue is the Warmest Colour*
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Marion Cotillard – The Immigrant
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Edward Norton – Birdman*
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave*
Emma Stone – Birdman
Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
June Squibb – Nebraska
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
12 Years a Slave
Birdman
Boyhood*
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
BEST ORIGINAL SCEENPLAY
Birdman
Boyhood
Calvary
Her
The Grand Budapest Hotel*
BEST ADAPTED SCEENPLAY
12 Years a Slave*
Gone Girl
Snowpiercer
The Imitation Game
The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman
Gravity
Ida*
Nebraska
The Great Beauty
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Gravity
Her
Mr. Turner
The Grand Budapest Hotel*
The Imitation Game
BEST EDITING
Birdman
Boyhood
Gravity*
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Gravity
Her
Interstellar
The Grand Budapest Hotel*
The Imitation Game
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
Gravity*
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
* * *
The International Online Film Critics’ Poll has announced its nominations for its 2013/14 survey. I was honored to have been asked to participate for this fourth edition of this poll (see previous surveys here). I know at least one other local film critic asked to participate (Reuben Peira at Film Frontier). We were asked to provide five nominees for each category below. The organizer, George McCoy, informed me there are well over a hundred critics who participated. Eligible films had to be released in the U.S. in the years 2013 and 2014. I went out on many a limb with personal favorites (see my nomination ballot below the press release below). But hardly any of those long shots made it to the final ballot.
What I see in the list below is a lot of preciousness for the auteur. That terrible film by Martin Scorsese (‘Wolf of Wall Street’ is one nasty, vulgar film about nasty, vulgar people– for 3 hours!) has several nominations. Even Polanski makes an appearance for a film that really did not make as much as an impact as The Ghost Writer (2010). On the other hand, there’s Wes Anderson who did not disappoint last year (‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ may be cartoonish, but it’s also one of Wes Anderson’s most human films), and Alejandro González Iñárritu made a strong return with Birdman (‘Birdman’ lampoons Hollywood with humorous, hyper-real, hero-hating satire). But beyond those were clear Oscar winners or contenders like Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave and Patricia Arquette for Boyhood (‘Boyhood’ is Linklater’s masterpiece on youth, existence and humanity).
There are some surprises like Mads Mikkelsen for The Hunt (‘The Hunt’ examines influence of the crime on judgement) and The Great Beauty, which was one of he great surprises (‘The Great Beauty’ earns it’s title by looking beyond the superficial). There are some films I need to catch up on. Cavalry is up for screenplay, and Julianne Moore is the running for best actress in Still Alice. I may give Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Venus In Furs a chance, too.
The winners are scheduled to be announced January 25. Here are all the nominees:
PRESS RELEASE – IOFCP NOMINATIONS
The International Online Film Critics’ Poll is proud to announce its nominations for the 4th biannual awards for excellence in film.
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman leads with nine nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Then, with eight nominations, Wes Anderson’s comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel, and with seven nominations, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood. Among the films of 2013 with most nominations there are Gravity (five), 12 Years a Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street (both four, including Best Picture).
Founded in 2007, the IOFCP is the only biannual poll of film critics from all around the world. The awards are biannual to allow the comparison of different film seasons.
Past IOFCP Awards winners include Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Inglourious Basterds and Slumdog Millionaire.
BEST PICTURE
12 Years a Slave
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Paolo Sorrentino – The Great Beauty
Roman Polanski – Venus in Fur
BEST ACTOR
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Mads Mikkelsen – The Hunt
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
Adele Exarchopoulos – Blue is the Warmest Colour
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Marion Cotillard – The Immigrant
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Edward Norton – Birdman
Ethan Hawke – Boyhood
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
Emma Stone – Birdman
Sally Hawkins – Blue Jasmine
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
June Squibb – Nebraska
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
12 Years a Slave
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
BEST ORIGINAL SCEENPLAY
Birdman
Boyhood
Calvary
Her
The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST ADAPTED SCEENPLAY
12 Years a Slave
Gone Girl
Snowpiercer
The Imitation Game
The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman
Gravity
Ida
Nebraska
The Great Beauty
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Gravity
Her
Mr. Turner
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
BEST EDITING
Birdman
Boyhood
Gravity
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Gravity
Her
Interstellar
The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Imitation Game
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Interstellar
Gravity
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
* * *
Now, below you will find my nominations. Again, many long shots, but it’s more fun that way, and I do not feel as though I have sold out some genuine favorites that I might have naively believed had a chance of appearing on the list. After all, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy did win the last edition.
Click though the link before after January 25 to find who won this biennial poll :
Internationalonlinefilmcritics/home
The best movies of 2014, according to Hans Morgenstern — Part 2
December 31, 2014
Yesterday you had a chance to see the bottom half of my 20 favorite films and film experiences of 2014 (The best movies of 2014, according to Hans Morgenstern — Part 1). As you might have noticed, this year felt tricky for me and cinema, as it was hard to find movies, especially more popular ones, that satisfied this writer’s need for that transcendent moment in film. So I have added shorts and multimedia in the mix and, dare I say, visual art. Ultimately, I seek out experiences in movies that offer more than stories. It’s a personal choice, but if I didn’t have this personal choice I wouldn’t have the drive to write about moving images the way I do.
Without further ado, here are my top 10 movies of 2014. Like yesterday’s post, where available, all titles link to the item description page on Amazon. If you purchase via the specific link, you will be financially supporting this blog. If we reviewed it here, there will be a link to the review under the poster art. Finally if we haven’t reviewed it, I’ll share a few words about the film’s significance. Let’s begin with another short:
10. “Crème Caramel” by Canada
Commissioned by the art and culture blog Nowness for its hit and miss series “Defining Beauty,” this short is the series’ crowning achievement. It’s by a group of filmmakers from Spain called Canada. It’s shot in 35mm and beautifully composed featuring a great tune by French band La Femme. It’s hilarious in its objectification of a woman, but it has a great build up to a sly payoff at film’s end. It’s also NSFW.
9. Norte, The End of History
Completely contrary to the short film above is this four-hour-and-ten-minute film by the brilliant Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz. The pay-off also has great impact but asks the viewer for patient attentiveness. Norte, The End of History explores a law student’s descent into madness after getting away with murder and a parallel story of a man falsely imprisoned for the killing, as he comes to terms with his injustice. The film’s ironic twist is earned through both long, thoughtful conversation and quiet, deliberate pacing.
8. The Summer of Flying Fish
Read my review in the “Miami New Times”
7. Under the Skin
Read my review
6. Ida
Read my review in “Reverse Shot”
5. Love Song R. Buckminster Fuller
Here’s that multimedia experience alluded to in yesterday’s post. The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller is so much more than a slide show with film clips because documentary filmmaker Sam Green is such a grand storyteller. He doesn’t simply present weird facts about a man sometimes called the 20th century’s Leonardo DaVinci. He offers a poetic tribute to thinking outside the box and the rewards to the self as well as society. And it helps that the legendary New Jersey indie band Yo La Tengo are live, off to the side of the screen providing a sublimely atmospheric musical accompaniment. Thanks to MDC Live Arts for bringing this multimedia documentary to Miami.
4. Boyhood
Read my review
3. Goodbye To Language 3D
Read my review
2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Read my review and an interview with Ralph Fiennes
1. Only Lovers Left Alive
Read my review
And that’s it! We’re very busy for next year. Surprisingly, early January is quite active: I loved Winter Sleep, Ana has glowing words for Selma, and we have preview appointments with the Dardennes’ Two Days, One Night and Liv Ullman’s Miss Julie with a favorite actress, Jessica Chastain. Plus, once again, IndieEthos is invited to introduce a couple of key films at the upcoming Miami Jewish Film Festival (Jan. 15 – 29). I will host Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem and Ana will host Zero Motivation. We also plan to participate in Q&As after the screenings. You might want to get tickets for Zero Motivation now because ticket sales are brisk. Both screenings of Gett are already sold out.
Birdman named best film by Florida Film Critics Circle
December 19, 2014
Some may not realize this, but Independent Ethos has a seat on the Florida Film Critics Circle. This writer has been a member since 2012. In previous years that I have been a member (2012 and 2013) we ranked three choices in each category. But this year, we tried something different. Two rounds of voting. Each of the 25* voting members offered three choices in each category, no ranking. Once all ballots were turned in, our chairman and vice chair tabulated the results and gave us a new ballot of three choices in each category. Everyone would pick one name or film in each category, and then the ones with the majority votes were declared winners.
Also new this year were two new categories: score and ensemble cast, and we have four new members in the voting group! So there were lots of changes with this years vote. Were these changes for the better? Probably. I would have liked more personal favorites like Only Lovers Left Alive represented, and the fact that the Raid 2, an action flick of all things, won the Best Foreign Language category… (cringe… but, full disclosure, I haven’t seen it nor did I have an interest in seeing it). But then I’m pleased that we don’t appear like your typical New York-following group. I’m happy with Under the Skin‘s recognition for score and, yes, even Birdman beating Boyhood, as much as I like the latter, is refreshing.
Check out this link to see all the winners. Below you will find my ballot and nominees, which may hint at some of my favorite films of the year, but, as usual take it with a grain of salt. This is a political thing after all, and one should list and lobby for films that have a chance for recognition that at least define a certain aesthetic that I feel no shame in celebrating.
Below you will find the the nominees our group voted on. The winner is in bold and my choices have an asterisk* by them.
BEST PICTURE
Boyhood
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel*
BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel*
BEST ACTOR
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything*
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
BEST ACTRESS
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild
Julianne Moore – Still Alice*
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
Edward Norton – Birdman*
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood*
Jessica Chastain – The Most Violent Year
Emma Stone – Birdman
BEST ENSEMBLE
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Birdman
Boyhood
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel*
Boyhood
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Gone Girl
Inherent Vice*
The Theory of Everything
CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Grand Budapest Hotel*
Interstellar
Birdman
VISUAL EFFECTS
Guardians of the Galaxy*
Interstellar
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN
Interstellar
The Grand Budapest Hotel*
Into the Woods
BEST SCORE
Gone Girl
Under the Skin*
Insterstellar
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Life Itself
Citizenfour*
Jodorowsky’s Dune
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Ida*
Force Majeure
The Raid 2
ANIMATED FEATURE
The Lego Movie
Big Hero 6
How to Train Your Dragon 2*
BREAKOUT AWARD
Jennifer Kent – The Babadook*
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash
Gugu Mbatha-Raw – Belle/Beyond the Lights
GOLDEN ORANGE
Borscht Film Festival*
Oscar Isaac
My initial ballot of nominees is below. All choices are listed in no particular order:
BEST PICTURE
Inherent Vice
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST ACTOR
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything
Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jason Schwartzman – Listen Up Philip
BEST ACTRESS
Tilda Swinton – Only Lovers Left Alive
Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
Jonathan Pryce – Listen Up Philip
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mia Wasikowska – Only Lovers Left Alive
Naomi Watts – Birdman
Emma Stone – Birdman
BEST ENSEMBLE
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Boyhood
Only Lovers Left Alive
BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Birdman
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Jim Jarmusch – Only Lovers Left Alive
Alex Ross Perry – Listen Up Philip
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel (as its based on the writings of Stefan Zweig it could qualify here too, and I wanted to give this a good chance for script)
Paul Thomas Anderson – Inherent Vice
Anthony McCarten – The Theory of Everything
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki – Birdman
Nick Bentgen – Hide Your Smiling Faces
Robert Elswit – Inherent Vice
VISUAL EFFECTS
Fury
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Birdman
ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Only Lovers Left Alive
Big Eyes
BEST SCORE
Jim Jarmusch and Jozef van Wissem – Only Lovers Left Alive
Mica Levi – Under the Skin
Alexandre Desplat – The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Citizen Four
Life Itself
Jodorowsky’s Dune
BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Ida
Force Majeure
Norte: The End of History
ANIMATED FEATURE (I nominated only one)
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
BREAKOUT AWARD
Director Jennifer Kent – The Babadook
Ana Lily Amirpour – A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
Ellar Coltrane – Boyhood
GOLDEN ORANGE:
Oscar Isaac
Borscht Film Festival (It’s happening now! I lobbied hard for this one. Check out their trailer below)
I’ve actually covered Borscht a lot this year at the “Miami New Times.” Pick up today’s issue for My story in the film section. Also I wrote about the films “Papa Machete” and “Cool As Ice 2” on the publication’s art and culture blog Cultist. Click on the titles for the articles.
*There are two other members of the FFCC with emeritus status who sit on the sidelines, one of whom who likes to send out an email to all of us with his opinionated recap of what he has seen.
It could have just been written off as some gimmick. But in the hands of director Richard Linklater a film shot over 12 years becomes something much more profound. Boyhood is so much more than an honest chronicle of actors aging over the course of a film. Linklater knows something about developing a story in real-time to achieve a deeper existential snapshot of humanity while still engaging the audience. At one end of the spectrum there is the “Before” series (see my review here). And on the other there are experimental works like Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). Let’s also not forget Linklater has a terrific angle on youth, from little kids to high schoolers (Dazed and Confused [1993], School of Rock [2003] and Bad New Bears [2005]). All of his talents in those films blend together elegantly for Boyhood, a film bound to go down in his career as his masterpiece.
What sets this film apart from other family dramas is the liberty granted by time. Growth literally unfolds naturally, unencumbered by contrived obstacles or plot twists. When you consider the dictates of consistent character behavior over a period of years in most movies of such time spans, it demands the viewer suspend disbelief that it was actually shot over a period of a few months (usually a maximum of three). You can have makeup and effects, but a stagey quality, even on a subtle level, still hangs over the action.
Ironically, in Boyhood, what isn’t a special effect has a rather magical effect as real kids and adults grow up in front of our eyes. In Linklater’s sensibly crafted script, the characters are allowed room to be humanly fallible 
not in a sense that feels necessary to move a plot along but in a feeling honest to becoming a person, which is really what Boyhood is about. Just like growing up should change you, a sense of time passing has a great influence on not just the title character but those who make up his family. They hardly seem to act. It feels like nature or skimming through a family photo album that covers a period of years.
One will be hard-pressed to find a film more concerned with the mundane that can unfold over nearly three hours and remain consistently engaging. Part of it lies in the ever-curious sensation the viewer will feel about watching the actors age, but another part is in the film’s light-handed craft. The plot is easy to sum up: 6-year-old Mason (Ellar Coltrane) grows up over the course of 12 years in a broken home with his similarly-aged sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) and his mom (Patricia Arquette) while his dad (Ethan Hawke) pops in and out of his life. An imperfect life allows for the perfect drama for the boy at the center of the film. Add a few jerk stand-in father figures, the inevitable awkward transition from child to teenager and the friends and loves who pass through his life, and you have the film. Though Mason endures commonplace obstacles that are hardly the stuff of headlines, much less summer film spectacle, these are the events in life that stick through memory and shape us. Flipping through a lingerie catalog as a boy, breaking into a construction site with friends, finding your mother on the floor with your stepfather standing over her. Linklater treats these encounters with a respect that belies the impact of moments that shape persona. In a sense, Mason is riding the wave of growing up. That he does so with an often composed stoicism, speaks to the discovery of his power as a young man.
Over the course of the film, the inconsistency of the fleeting nature of persona comes unobtrusively into focus. The idea of innocence lost between the ages of 6 and 18 need not be punctuated with melodramatic events. From our first meeting of the mostly quiet Mason, it is apparent he is a pensive child. His eyes are focused on the sky. As an older teen, he muses aloud about his place in life, the world and the universe and how it all connects. It’s almost as if we are watching the boy learn the language he needed to express himself.
Of course, Linklater does not forget the adults. There are moments for the parents to grow and learn. There’s an undeniable fear of fatherhood coming from the nomadic father. Exactly where he goes to work and live (rumors of Alaska) while Mason and Samantha attend elementary school under the care of their single mom, remains a mystery. All we can see is that the children like him when he’s around and hate to see their parents argue. Mom gets the unromantic raw deal. She spends every moment she can with her children, unlike the spectral father, who the children can easily romanticize in absence. Her desperate attempt to have a father for the kids and a husband for herself leads to some terrible choices. Meanwhile, Dad has a lot of growing up left to do before he can come to any understanding of his role as a father.
None of this could be sold without the acting. From a face loaded with silent wonder to the laid back delivery of Linklater’s script, Coltrane delivers. He approaches his character with a naturalism that feels authentic and endearing. Arquette also deserves a special mention for the thankless role of a mother 
who cannot seem to get the men right in her life and dishes out unconditional love for her seldom appreciative children, as if it is instinct. She also fluctuates in weight (ed: as does Hawke), but never makes it an issue as she ages with grace as a woman who indeed sacrifices for her children in a heroic manner without any histrionics but with a mix of sympathetic love, fear and duty.
There are many things to consider in the film. The witty cultural reference points from pop songs to the Harry Potter series offer sly time stamps that feel real and genuine. The film’s low-key color palette creates an almost impressionistic effect, inviting the viewer to fill in the blanks with memories of his or her own childhood or memories of their own children they have seen grow up before their own eyes. It’s worth noting that though shot over 12 years, the quality of the image remains consistent. Technology in filmmaking would change so much and so fast over the years this film covers, and Linklater’s decision to shoot in 35mm proved wise. The digital image has grown by leaps and bounds when you consider how dull it looked in 2002.
There are many ways to approach this film, but my favorite is to think of it as the blossoming of a young person’s consciousness. From the silence in the gaze of Coltrane at the start of the film to his rambling musings, which are something out of Waking Life at the end, possibilities seem boundless. Experiences both external and internal have shaped our hero, but there is also a sense of self coming into development. The film is so consistently interesting throughout, from one subtle yet profound growth spurt to the next, that, by the end of it, it will be hard to let these characters go. You almost hope that maybe Linklater will keep following up with these characters with a film about Mason’s adulthood. He surprised us by turning Before Sunrise into a trilogy, after all.
Boyhood runs 165 minutes and is rated R (for growing up). IFC Films invited me to a preview screening for the purposes of this review.
South Florida screening update:
Boyhood is expanding at indie art houses soon. Here are the following venues with scheduled screenings:
- O Cinema Wynwood in Miami, Aug. 8, at 6:30 p.m. (see event page)
- Miami Beach Cinematheque, Aug. 29, at 8:30 p.m. (see calendar)
It opened at the following theaters in South Florida, Friday, July 25 (Note: the Coral Gables Art Cinema will have a live video-link Q&A with the star of the film, Ellar Coltrane, this Saturday, July 26, at the 6:15 pm screening of the film):
- Coral Gables Art Cinema
- Regal South Beach
- AMC Aventura
- Boca Carmike Palace 20
- Miami: AMC Sunset Place 24
- Fort Lauderdale: The Classic Gateway Theatre
- Hollywood: Regal Oakwood
- Pompano: Carmike Broward 18 (Formerly Muvico Pompano 18), Regal Cypress Creek
- Sunrise: Regal Sawgrass
- Boca: Living Room Cinemas, Shadowood 16
- West Palm: Carmike Parisian 20
- Royal Palm Beach: Regal Royal Palm
- Indian River: Indian River 24
(Copyright 2014 by Hans Morgenstern. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.)
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