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Boyhood (film)

TownieDeac

words are futile devices
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See it.
A monumental shift in the way movies are made. Sensational storytelling. The most accurate portrayal of time passing, perhaps in film history.
 
Really want to see this. Heard very good things.
 
100 on Metacritic and 99 on Rotten Tomatoes; basically universal praise, so don't take my #hottake word for it.

The film was shot over 12 years with the same cast. It's about a boy growing up, from elementary school through to college.
 
i already saw that movie and it ends with me arguing about climate science with Lectro on a message board
 
I was so super psyched from this and came away thinking that it was good but not great. Not really worthy of all the heaping praise.

Certainly I admire the ambition of the film, and RL's ability to finance it and pull it off as a coherent story is an immense success in and of itself.

However, I thought some of the acting from and writing surrounding the stepdad characters was pretty weak. Like I felt like I was in an after school special. Also, didn't think that Arquette really did a great job as the single mom. She brought it in some scenes, but felt sort of cardboard in others.

The scenes with Hawke and Coltrane were the best for me. Wish they had explored that a little more. The sister, Linklater's kid, was also pretty great. Sort of reminds me of a young Maggie Gyllenhaal. She has a bright future.

For me, the last half of the movie was way more interesting than the first half. I would much rather see age 10-22 than 6-18.


Also, dont really think it is a 'monumental shift in the way movies are made' since I dont think that in today's environment that it will be extremely difficult to fund projects like these. Linklater did an interview for grantland talking about his relationship with IFC and how lucky he was to keep funding for the movie over the years.
 
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Most predictable thread in the history of the Boards?

Can't wait to see this, I'm glad to hear everyone likes it.
 
So is Manhood in the works. Seems like the natural progression.
 
So is Manhood in the works. Seems like the natural progression.

RL is first gonna tackle his dream project, which is a "sequel" to Dazed and Confused. Basically following 4 guys in college trying to make the baseball team. So its a continuation of D&C, but not the same exact characters. CAN'T WAIT.
 
We really need a consolidated Pit film thread that is separate from the comic nerd thread.

We have a trailer thread, various weird UNCG Critic threads, single film threads, and threads deconstructing various posters' Gosling tug and chug fantasies, but we need a consolidated one that we can bump for people who keep up with and like to talk about current films. I probably dont post enough but maybe I'll start one.
 
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We really need a consolidated Pit film thread that is separate from the comic nerd thread.

We have a trailer thread, various weird UNCG Critic threads, single film threads, and threads deconstructing various posters' Gosling tug and chug fantasies, but we need a consolidated one that we can bump for people who keep up with and like to talk about current films. I probably dont post enough but maybe I'll start one.

this is your big chance to shine!
 
I was so super psyched from this and came away thinking that it was good but not great. Not really worthy of all the heaping praise.

Certainly I admire the ambition of the film, and RL's ability to finance it and pull it off as a coherent story is an immense success in and of itself.

However, I thought some of the acting from and writing surrounding the stepdad characters was pretty weak. Like I felt like I was in an after school special. Also, didn't think that Arquette really did a great job as the single mom. She brought it in some scenes, but felt sort of cardboard in others.

The scenes with Hawke and Coltrane were the best for me. Wish they had explored that a little more. The sister, Linklater's kid, was also pretty great. Sort of reminds me of a young Maggie Gyllenhaal. She has a bright future.

For me, the last half of the movie was way more interesting than the first half. I would much rather see age 10-22 than 6-18.


Also, dont really think it is a 'monumental shift in the way movies are made' since I dont think that in today's environment that it will be extremely difficult to fund projects like these. Linklater did an interview for grantland talking about his relationship with IFC and how lucky he was to keep funding for the movie over the years.

The film only had a $4mil budget, so I'm not sure what you're getting at as far as that goes. I'm sure insurance was expensive, and keeping a studio interested for 12 years was probably tough work for the runners/producers, but I don't think cost was the big concern here.

I worded my post wrong nonetheless, because there's no way people will start to try to emulate this in any way. I really only meant that it's unique to its own kind; I know of no other project like it. More likely, it will change the way we conceive time in film.

And I thought Arquette was pretty great. The stepdad writing was somewhat melodramatic, but the way she changed throughout the movie was incredible. There were times when she was clearly not taking care of herself, and then other times when she had her shit together. She also really nailed home some of the major themes; her soliloquy about time passing and not experiencing enough, as well as her quote "I was a daughter and then I was a mother" were really central to the ideas of the plot IMO. Agree that Linklater's kid was great.
 
Not sure how to do spoilers so read with caution.

There's a possibility of a follow-up too, which would be awesome.

zJgJZXD.jpg


Great movie. The Hawke and Coltrane scenes were hilarious and fun. I love the car rant when they're driving in downtown Houston. The stepdad writing is my only complaint. Coltrane said it best (paraphrase): "You could've saved me from the parade of drunken losers."

Also they didn't use the same Nicole actress from earlier so I don't think it's the same girl.

Mentally prep yourself for a 3hr movie. Walking out of the theater, everyone had the same comment: "Great movie but it was so long!"
 
The film only had a $4mil budget, so I'm not sure what you're getting at as far as that goes. I'm sure insurance was expensive, and keeping a studio interested for 12 years was probably tough work for the runners/producers, but I don't think cost was the big concern here.

In the podcast RL explains that IFC greenlighted the film and gave him around a $200,000.00 per year budget. He said that really the only thing that kept the film going was that the same producer that greenlit the film at IFC kept the same job for all 12 years and stood up in the budget meetings to defend the yearly 200K suck on on the bottom line with no results to show. There were other people at IFC that tried to scrap it multiple times.

Basically no one in the film industry (or really any industry) keeps the same job for 12 years anymore. That coupled with the changes we've had in the film and content industry since like 2002, made it a miracle the film ended up in its current form. IFC went through financial ups and downs and they really do not have any money to produce content anymore. If it werent for the one guy who kept their funding pipeline open and consistent, then it is very unlikely that the film would have made it to the public in its current state.
 
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So is Manhood in the works. Seems like the natural progression.

The producer already deemed it "not financially viable" because they lose the Catholic priest demographic entirely.
 
http://uproxx.com/filmdrunk/2014/08/you-farted-during-boyhood-our-new-favorite-craigslist-missed-connection/

This Craigslist Missed Connection post out of Los Angeles combines Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and a well-timed fart, so it might as well be engraved in stone set atop an obelisk in the center of the FilmDrunk wheelhouse. Take this with a grain of salt however, because Boyhood‘s soundtrack included Coldplay and it’s easy to get confused.

"You Farted During “Boyhood” – mw4m (Pasadena)
There we were, just enjoying a nice quiet Saturday night at the movies. A slow mover, Linklater’s “Boyhood.” Some popcorn. A few sodas. Nothing really happens in the film, we found. For about 90 minutes or so we stare listlessly at the screen. It’s a thinking man’s film, I say. Beautifully shot. It’s about life, and death and relationships and things of that nature. Just then, at a brief, carefully-timed cinematic pause in dialogue, an enormous fart from somewhere in the back pierces an otherwise silent movie theatre. It had the impact of a baseball bat hitting a leather couch, or George Foreman working the heavy bag. Whack. Loud, deep and masculine.The seat cushion heroically absorbed most of the blow, but not enough that each and every person in the movie theatre instantly burst into nervous laughter. The laughter continued for what felt like a good 5 minutes, until tears streamed down our faces. Even well after the blast, we quietly chuckled to ourselves with a ‘remember the time that guy farted in the movie theatre’ gleam in our eyes. And just like that, with a soft chuckle and a deep breath, we were back into the film. Things happened, people drove around Texas, relationships came and went, there was crying, there was hope. It was as if we had all forgotten about the fart that had brought us together that night. As the sun began to set on screen, the teenage boy, no longer a boy, transitions into an adult, before our very eyes, and looks, intently, lustfully into a young girls eyes, as if to lean in for a kiss, and braaaaaaap. Another fart from the back row, like two giant hands clapping together, and the screen goes dark, roll credits. We decided, after laughing our way out of the theatre, and all the way home, that this was the best movie that we had ever seen. I imagine the lone fartist sauntering off into the sunset. His work here done.
If only I could say thank you, kind sir. You are truly a master of your craft."

Pee yew! Get a stall, Richard Stinklater!

My buddy Joe once told me a story about how he went home with this girl, and they were hooking up and he got up to use the bathroom. When he came out she told him she was a size queen, and that she could tell by the sound of his stream hitting the toilet that he wasn’t sufficiently hung and she kicked him out. I always thought that was delightfully bizarre, and between that and the description of the “deep and masculine fart” here, I really like the idea that someone could fall in love based on the sound of a fart. “Please, anyone, have you heard this fart? It was a deep, loud thwack, with an intoxicating resonance. Have you heard it? I must find him.”

It’s true though, some farts do sound impressive. Heroic, even. I was standing in a bathroom the other day and watched an elderly Asian man enter a stall. He proceeded to cut a fart so brassy and bellicose that I considered applauding.
 
Great film. Not terribly uplifting, but very well done.

Not sure why the Arquette character had to end on such a downer.

Hawke was outstanding. Seemed like a character he's done over and over, but still excellent.
 
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