Linklater's new film BOYHOOD

I loved Dazed and Confused, as did a lot of people obviously.

The boy he cast is all growed up now, and pings.

Boy Hood - the Trayvon Martin Story?

Linklater is the most underrated American auteur. I agree with OP he seems to be so modest and unHollywoody and gets ignored by the glitterati. He's like Truffaut. Love his work, particularly the Before series.

I guess the underwhelming response to this thread supports my theory that Linklater is an under-appreciated director.

I'm there.

School of Rock is absolutely fantastic.

Bernie's great too.

The pic only shows him as a little kid. How hot is he later?

Here's a video interview with Linklater and the cast.

Slacker absolutely floored me.

A true classic.

He was great on "Kids Say The Darndest Things".

It was presented yesterday in Berlin. The UK and French critics are supporting it for the Golden Bear which will be announced tomorrow. Hope it wins and influences the Oscar voters to vote for Before Midnight's screenplay.

"The film director sculpts in time, Tarkovsky said, and Linklater, with no guarantee about how his raw material would turn out, has sculpted this monumental study of a boy. Or maybe it is that he and time collaborated in the sculpting, or that time actually sculpted Linklater and Coltrane. It is a kind of Bildungsroman for modern American cinema, conducted at a superbly intelligent, low-key level."

[quote]Slacker absolutely floored me.

After I first saw it, I was left feeling "meh". But yet, everyday something about it, a line or a scene, kept popping into my head. After two weeks I watched it again. Fucking amazing picture. It's one of those films that manages to drill into your head and stays there a long, long, LONG time.

"A bullet lodged in my ponytail."

Or something like that.

It opens in NYC and LA today, next week in a wider release.

It is now classified on www.metacritic as ranking among the best films of all time. Incredible reviews, never read anything like them.

Anybody see it yet?

Linklater has always flown under the radar (not particularly keen on a Hollywood career like Mangold or Nolan maybe), but has consistently made interesting films. I am so glad for him and the success of Boyhood. He is one of the few original American filmmakers today.

The guy that plays the kid in this is oddly attractive.......

The kid looks quite a lot like Peter Dinklage but not a dwarf obviously.

The critics are all having orgasms about the film. On twitter, some big critics are re-tweeting and recommending the reviews of OTHER critics because they particularly like how that critic describes the film.

Everybody's screaming masterpiece. Be interesting to see if the Academy can continue to ignore Linklater. He is so low-key, modest and unHollywoody, they probably hate him.

Check out the Up Documentaries. Its been done. I'm surprised it hasn't been done more often. It sounds like nothing happens and the whole hoopla is about the technique.

And please, he was "keeping it a secret"? We're not talking about Stanley Kubrick rising from the dead and making a new movie - what's to keep a secret about.

EW gave it an A. I loves me some Ethan Hawke, and the kid looks like a young Ethan Hawke, so it should work for me.

I just bought tickets for a screening later tonight. Will report back after I see it. I didn't realize, though, that it's 2 hours and 45 minutes long. Yikes.

Slacker and Dazed and Confused are great films the rest meh. I hated Bernie the characters were too one-dimensional...

Oops. I forgot about the Before movies. Loved the first two wasn't impressed with the third

. You can't say Hollywood has totally ignored him he has gotten 2 Oscar nominations for screenplay...

There's a (more or less) editorial in Variety today saying that Linklater should receive the Best Director Oscar for Boyhood. That'll ruffle a lot of feathers. Variety is supposed to stay so neutral. Must be a sign that the film IS a masterpiece and its supremacy undeniable.

We'll pass on this.

Can't wait to see this one. The last time I felt that way is with Gravity.

I just got back from the theater. Linklater and the lead actor actually made a surprise appearance before the movie, which was kind of cool. As for the movie itself, I'm sort of torn. It doesn't really have much of a plot and really is more about just watching the characters slowly grow up and evolve over time. There were multiple times where the audience clearly thought something big was going to happen (violence, injury, etc.) but that never happened. Really, it's not a movie about big incidents or about big aha moments--it's just a movie about how all the small incidents and bumps along the way add up to a life. That's really the beauty of the movie. However, it also only worked, in my opinion, because it was filmed over 12 years and you actually felt like you were witnessing real people really evolving. Had it been made with different actors playing the characters at different ages or with aging makeup, I think the lack of plot and lack of climactic moments would be harder to ignore. Ultimately, I'm glad I saw it, but I'm not sure it's the type of movie that will stay with me for a long time or that I'd necessarily be compelled to rewatch in the future.

How is Patricia Arquette? Does she begin every scene whispering and end them screaming in tears?

[post redacted because independent.co.uk thinks that links to their ridiculous rag are a bad thing. Somebody might want to tell them how the internet works. Or not. We don't really care. They do suck though. Our advice is that you should not click on the link and whatever you do, don't read their truly terrible articles.]

Richard Linklater's Five Favorite Movies:

The movie sucked big time. There were no bright colors, no elaborate sets, no nipples!

I saw a screening of it last week in NYC.

I loved it. It's nothing like the "UP" movies, which I also admire, but which drop in on a select group of people every seven years and is, in fact, a documentary.

Which "Boyhood" is not.

And Linklater filmed every year for 12 years straight. So the result is you get to see this young man and his family age before your eyes, and not in a Hollywood fancy-fun makeup kind of way. And it's all so subtle that at first you just notice slight differences in haircuts and height.

But in that way it so perfectly mirrors life. Most lives don't have these grand, filmic moments of transformation and exciting action. Linklater captures the feelings of powerlessness that young children have, and how those feelings change as puberty and hormones kick in during the teenage years.

I was never bored. I didn't know how long the movie was before it started, but I can say it didn't feel long to me, which is always a great sign. (And having seen "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" two nights ago, I can appreciate that even more. "Apes" is decent but far, far too long.)

And surprisingly, I think Patricia Arquette is the real standout in the cast. She's superb.

This film's special. Really, really special. I expect Linklater to get his first director nod from AMPAS, and I hope the film gets a Best Pic nomination too. Hard to tell, cause the year is young and most Oscar-bait flicks are being held for late fall, but I imagine "Boyhood" will not be forgotten.

Go, go, go!

Thanks for the enthusiastic review, R33! I am definitely seeing this.

Not surprising that Patricia is good. She's a very good actress, but I think hamming it on that TV show made people think that she may not be.

[quote]There's a (more or less) editorial in Variety today saying that Linklater should receive the Best Director Oscar for Boyhood.

Why not best film? It seems they'd be willing to give him Best Director for having the discipline to shoot for 12 years. I wonder if the film itself will be as appreciated as it is in Europe.

I loved La vie d'Adele, so I have a feeling Boyhood will be something I'll love as well.

Patricia Arquette CAN be a good actress I loved her on Medium but she was terrible, but immensely watchable all the same. She has such a soft voice that she needs the perfect role to not come off like she is about to pass out/have a rage fit.

I was looking at a picture of Arquette, a still from early in the film because the kid is small. She has on a skin-tight, low-cut sweater and low-riding jeans that barely cover her lady parts. Goodness, she was hot. I hadn't realized. I know she married Cage and had a relationship with McBongo, who else sucked on those humongous tits?

Thomas Jane the lucky bitch...

Loved her in Medium. Remember she beat poor Glen once at The Emmys...

Now that he's an adult, I find the lead actor Ellar Coltrane pretty hot in a hipster kind of way. Is he gay? He's really fey in interviews.

Surprisingly good film (I'm not always a Linklater fan). Perfect casting. The kid has a lot of charisma, although not conventionally handsome as an adult. Really well edited--never boring despite its length. A lock for an oscar nom and very possibly a win, just because of its uniqueness in being filmed over 12 years.

I think they thought the boy they cast was going to turn out better-looking than he did.

Still at 100% on rottentomatoes with 100+ reviews and 99/100 on metacritic. Amazing.

I don't think the shooting was a secret. I remember Hawke and Linklater talking about it while doing press for the Before movies.

Probably my favorite film in years. R33 summed it up perfectly. This is a film about a boy, and a family really, torn, twisted, trying. And you see the repercussions of each mistake the parents make in the kids and you see the kids start to make the same mistakes. Their is no aha moments or surprise twists. It just killed me. It's very conversational, as Linklater tends to be, and that may turn some people off, but I loved it.

I also agree that if this film was done with makeup and lighting, it would be a boring flop. But that's sort of what make Linklater and auter filmmaker. He smart enough to know how to tell his sort of story so that it works brilliantly.

And the actor who played the alcoholic professor should get a supporting nod. I was tense every time he came on screen.

R41 There are now 120 reviews on RT, and only ONE is not a "fresh." The lone holdout, Matt Pais, MUST be a Datalounger!

Loved Slackers!

Yeah the dissenting opinion belongs to some asshole blogger from a website nobody has ever heard of. Only rottentomatoes would allow him to put up a review, metacritic won't as he's beyond insignificant.

The raves (from real reviewers not fucking bloggers) keep rolling in. Peter Travers has now gone on record about the Academy ignoring Linklater and he's fed up: they love his movies and then pass over him for whoever seems trendy to the antiques in the Academy. Linklater refuses to live and work in Hollywood, he stays in Austin which is obviously held against him. But by staying in Austin (setting of Slackers and Dazed&Confused), he stayed true to himself as an artist and the result is Boyhood.

R43, I don't think this film is about any making mistakes. It's about life. We see nearly a complete cycle of life from the parents in their mid-20s with two children and their children grow up to the age of their own independence.

It is a distinctly American film - America stripped of its superheroes, its aspirational Hollywood sheen, its bombast, its self-serving propaganda and mythology. It is stripped down to the kind of middle and/or working class life most Americans would recognise as their own. The characters aren't pretending to be anything they aren't - they are, in fact, refreshingly real - and Linklater isn't trying to sell us anything.

As moving as it is to watch these kids grow up - and I loved, loved, loved the daughter, Samantha - the real power, for me at least, was watching the parents grow up and approach their mid-life and beyond. When the original family members stepped into the frame together for a photo at the graduation party I was literally seized with emotion for what the parents had achieved. I had some sadness for the mother that she was never quite able to make the right choices in her personal life - but it was so realistic. It's how life is.

I was never bored. It's a film you to which you just surrender. And there's always a sense of the creative family, their fortitude and commitment to the project, and their absolute trust and devotion to Linklater. Boyhood is their shared reward, an American film unlike any other.

bump

I really want to see this, but I can't even afford the ten bucks to buy a ticket. I should open a fucking Kickstarter.

Ellar Coltrane the boy actor was cute as a kid, but so so now at age 19. Recent photos of him looks like he is a meth head.

Ellar Coltrane was on the View today, and he did not look like a methhead, but he did come off as kind of gay with his legs crossed like a woman. He's grown into a handsome man, but it wouldn't surprise me if he came out as gay.

As for the film goes, I thought it was terrific and scarey at the same time, but I cried a lot.

LOL, r49!

This is one of the few films that doesn't leave your mind, after leaving the theater. It's that powerful! That's why people are constantly talking about it.

The kid essentially said it was not secret, no one gave a shit about it.

R27-can't be serious?

Two boring movies, each without a plot, each with a meh cast.

You need someone who knows truly good films to educate you.

Jon Stewart just interviewed Linklater and Stewart (sans cold sore) had a total assgasm over the film.

Yeah Jon was crazy about the movie. He looked like he was going to cry, talking about it.

Richard Linklater comes off as such a nice guy.

Boyhood started well enough and has a good concept but I was quite disappointed at what a drip he ended up turning into. I'm not quite sure why it's received unanimous critical praise

This film changed my life for the better. I am a better, more loving person for having seen it.

I orgasmed twice during it, and was a puddle, an absolute puddle, of tears at the end.

BRAVO, Richard Linklater, BRAVO!!!

Would it have worked filmed the traditional way with different actors for different ages?

R57: Saw that interview. Linklater looks like he had some tightening done around his eyes.

r53, not me. The only thing I've been thinking since seeing it is why are people raving so much about such a mediocre film...?

And I say this as a very, very disappointed Linklater fan.

I found myself sobbing 2/3rds through the film, I had to go to the lobby to pull myself together. I missed part of the film, so I'm going back tonight to see it again.

That figures, R61. He looks really young.

R61 Linklater is a slob. He is notorious for being a slob, but a very nice one. He doesn't even necessarily wear clean clothes. I really don't see him having a face lift. He doesn't give a shit what he looks like.

He does if he wants that Oscar for Best Director, R65. He deserves it.

Gag. No, he doesn't deserve the Best Director Oscar. Alain Guiraudie (Stranger By the Lake), Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (The LEGO Movie), Jonathan Glazer (Under the Skin), and/or Joon-ho Bong (Snowpiercer) should be getting Oscar talk before Linklater for Dullhood.

went with lover, Mom and Grandma.

Lover: meh Me: meh Mom: zzzzzzz Grandma: LOVED IT!

I guess that tells you what its all about.

What I want to know, is someone involved with the film going nuts on DL, saying how wonderful it is?

Because it isn't.

Read the reviews people. All the critics have spoken.

[quote]Read the reviews people. All the critics have spoken.

So what. DLers bitch ALL THE TIME about films, music,television that get critical praise but are, according to them, unworthy.

I'm not saying Boyhood isn't great. It is. But, DLers willingness to lean on critical acclaim when they agree, but totally dismiss it when they don't agree, is really annoying.

I seriously thought it was excellent. But, I'm not to the point of "I was sobbing" or "it changed my life."

Did anyone else get the impression that the sister was a lesbian?

No, but I definitely got the impression that Ellar Coltrane is gay.

I think if Coltrane were gay, Linklater would have made the character gay as he modelled much of what the character said, did, felt to mirror Coltrane's own development.

Not necessarily, r72, but I'm convinced that the character of the stepbrother (son of the alcoholic prof) was supposed to be gay.

Speaking of gay people in Linklater films, anybody see Bernie? It's a scream and the guy it's about Berne Tiede is currently living in Linklater's garage apartment in Austin.

Bump.

Saw this over the holidays. I enjoyed it, but did spend much of the film waiting for a big event to occur. Not that I'm disappointed that there wasn't a big event, but it just shows how Hollywood has trained us to expect the big shocking moment.

I confess I also spent much of the film wondering how far in advance Linklater had scripted this. For example, how would the film have evolved if Ethan Hawke died of a heroin overdose in 2009?

I wonder how this soapy slog would be perceived w/o the gimmick of 'aging before your eyes'?

Pointless asking how 'Boyhood' would be without the cast as they age. If The Queen had bollocks she'd be The King.

The twelve-year shoot never feels remotely like a gimmick. It adds unique texture and depth to a memorable film. There's a special subtle authenticity in watching the actors as the years go by.

Moreover what Linklater does with his cast is absorbing and affecting. 'Boyhood' is a gem in a film culture largely of junk. Bravo.

Interesting movie. I do think so much of the interest just comes because you watch these characters grow realistically over a long time period.

It is true that nothing really happens.

The kid is complelling. I do agree that he comes off as gay now.

I saw BOYHOOD a couple of months ago. I was impressed and glad to have seen it. What has happened is that the characters keep coming to mind, moments of the film are vivid and the sweep of the family's changes moves me profoundly. Most films are much more dramatic and do not live with me afterwards. This family and their changes has added to my life.

I'm late to the party but finally got around to seeing this film, and I can't believe the critical acclaim it received. It was so boring and the characters were bland too. I was struggling to stay awake.

Film is good but bland. Glad it didn’t win Best Picture