Circle of Life: Review of Boyhood

Boyhood

Director: Richard Linklater

By Alex Watson

There are some directions who have pet projects which can either make or break a career. For Michael Cimino it was his big budget disaster ‘Heavens Gate’ which failed to deliver either critically and commercially and effectively killed his career. Or the three years that Francis Ford Coppola invested making ‘Apocalypse Now’ which although legendary came at great cost to his finances. In 2014, Richard Linklater has outdone them all and delivered a picture 12 years in the making! Boyhood has been one of this years most anticipated, but will the long journey bring the desired result?

Mason (Eller Coltrane) is a six year old kid who lives in Texas with his mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette) and his sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater). Over the course of the next 12 years, Mason learns some of life’s hard lessons and gets moved around continuously in search of a better life. Through this reconnects with his father, Mason Sr (Ethan Hawke), falls in love and in the course of things learns to become a better person.

Boyhood is a wonderfully realized masterpiece by Richard Linklater and I am proud to inform you that his passion and commitment to his project has paid off magnificently. Linklater takes his time to tell Mason’s story, but his transformation from being a shy and quiet young man into a self assured and confident young adult feels very naturalistic and the tale flows excellently as a result. There are many clever clues to the passing of time such as haircuts, Obama signposts and changing of motor vehicles- but throughout this tale we are transfixed by Mason. But this isn’t just any ordinary story and in some senses this is a movie about learning to become human and overcoming what obstacles block your path.

Adults and their influence play a vital role in this movie, Mason’s parents are not perfect by any means. Olivia is a smart woman who repeatedly gets together with alcoholic men who always turn out the same way- where his father is a fun loving slacker who is still himself learning to grow up. But although they have their flaws are guilty of dropping the ball on more than one occasion, they are still loving and devoted- because of this Mason becomes a better man. But these segments bring about some the movies most hysterical and emotionally charged moments, such as an awkward father/daughter talk about sex! 

Perhaps the most charming element of Boyhood though, is the fact how just about any person who views this can relate to any number of the scenes of Mason growing up. As we view him flicking through a lingerie magazine with his friend, or see him wandering around the streets of Austin slowly but effortlessly in love with his then girlfriend or even goofing off in a nearly renovated house with his slacker friends, all of this rings true for the audience. The result here is one that is effortlessly charming and with an excellent soundtrack including The Hives, Arcade Fire and The Flaming Lips- our hearts glow.

Eller Coltrane emerges a real star of the screen and his progressive performance from the age of six onwards is a joy to behold. Watching him rise to becoming a charismatic and thoughtful adult on the verge of something great marks him out a future star. Undertaking this type of a role could have either flown or crashed the film, but Coltrane ensures that it flies higher than we could have imagined!

Ethan Hawke is equally mesmerizing as his well meaning but slightly confused father, but his performance is so engrossing that we quickly grow to love this mans presence and he is the kind of person you would have to hang out with. A Linklater regular, Hawke succeeds in delivering the goods and we quickly forgive any misgivings this character may bring. Patricia Arquette is also suitably excellent as Olivia and although we have not seen her regularly onscreen recently- this wonderful impassioned performance more than makes up for lost time.

Boyhood was a big gamble for Linklater to undertake, but the end result has been his finest and most mature movie of his career. This movie will serve as one of the finest and most moving of the year and we will make us think over the moments of our childhood far more carefully- because the moments we hate the most are always the ones that can shape us!

Family History: Review of Stories We Tell

Stories We Tell

Director: Sarah Polley

By Alex Watson

Families are always full of different tales; normally ones that make us cringe with embarrassment, particularly when my family gets together! But often there are some family tales that really takes us by surprise and through these deep secrets are often revealed and on occasions lives can change forever. Canadian director/actress Sarah Polley this year returns to our screen to give us a unique insight into her own past and the events that helped shape the person she is in her compelling documentary, Stories We Tell.

In this film Sarah Polley documents her family past through the assistance of her own family members and other treasured acquaintances from down the years. Along the way many shocking and surprising revelations are put into view as her family recalls their past and their feelings towards the mother and father who raised them.

To begin with I would like to say that we will not find a greater documentary this than Stories We Tell and Polley’s examination of her own family life is a tale that truly needs to be heard and it will both warm and devastate your heart at separate points. The recollections of her English father Michael provide us with some of the film’s most funny and poignant moments as he speaks with great fondness about her mother Diane Polley, other family members are initially hesitant at first, some joking about why people should care about this? But ultimately as the stories go on, we are enchanted by Sarah’s family and their live is one of the most interesting tales we will see in a while!

Her mother is a shadow that looms over the movie and people speak about her with such touching affection and her father’s stories of how they first met are the stuff that romantic comedies would die for- his confession that he lied about having a Mercedes to make her go home with him is guaranteed to make you chuckle!   But through the footage Polley has available, her mother Diane is a figure that Sarah is still getting to know (she died when Polley was 11) and she looks to her other family members to give us a better idea of the real person behind the wordless scenes.

Through her showing of old super 8 family movies, witness testimony and her reconstruction of old family events we feel like we are spying on private family moments, but Polley through her assured direction has nothing she want to hide and instinctively digs into one key in her past which begun with the smallest of rumours from one of her brothers. From here I will stop recalling the plot line because there is a jewel of a revelation here that you need to witness for yourself on screen and for this I would urge you to ignore all search engines until you step out from the film because the after effect is one that will stay with you for the coming days!

But in Stories We Tell, refreshingly Polley leaves it to her father to narrate proceedings and through his words we get a profound sense of love, loss, doubts to finally being able to embrace life. Here however there are no lengthy explanations about the various storytellers on show- they are all people who have played a significant part in her life and she relys them as key tools in her narrative and through this trust a fascinating tale is born.

For this movie I will leave you these words, I URGE YOU TO GO WATCH THIS-  Stories We Tell is one of the best discoveries you will make all year. Sarah Polley is one of the budding talents we have in the film world and after her excellent film Take This Waltz last year we have yet more proof that not only she is not only capable of producing some the most emotionally real work but she is fast becoming a favourite on Closer to the Edge. When this is over, look into your own past because you may be amazed by what you find there!

We Are Family: Review of Ordinary People

Classic from the Vault

Ordinary People (1980)

Director: Robert Redford

By Alex Watson

 

Family dramas are a type of movie that is always emotionally stirring and always seem to find a way to stick our minds afterwards. In the midst of the problems unfolding we yearn for them to find a solution to their issues and live together harmoniously- but in real life so problems cannot be fixed so easily and 1980 screen legend Robert Redford brought us a prominent example of a family drowning in the aftermath of a horrible tragedy in his Oscar winning, Ordinary People.

Parents Calvin (Donald Sutherland) and Beth Jarrett (Mary Tyler Moore) are attempting to live a normal life after the drowning of their beloved son Buck in a boat accident, Conrad their youngest son has just been released for a mental health facility after attempting suicide due the guilt he felt having survived the accident! Beth is desperate for the family to appear normal, but is cold and distant towards Conrad due loving his brother more and Conrad struggles to integrate himself back into normal teenage life. With mother and son constantly at war, Calvin has trouble holding the family together!

Winner of four Oscars, though largely overshadowed for beating Scorsese’s Raging Bull, this movie is one of the most under-rated films of the 1980’s and is aided by some excellent direction by Redford who gives us a powerful example of a family striving to be regular but unable to shake the ghosts of the past. The spirit of Buck surrounds the Jarrett household, with differing effects on everyone and it is clear from the very beginning that Beth clearly favoured him (she had only wanted one child originally) and because of this she cannot give Conrad the love and support he needs to survive.

The family conflict takes centre stage in Ordinary People and this largely down to the excellent script by veteran writer Alvin Sargent. Conrad’s difficulty readjusting is the poignant example. This young man is haunted by not being able to save Buck and he knows his overtly repressed mother holds this against him, which leads to several heated arguments. This is best demonstrated when Beth refuses to take a picture with him at Christmas- cue voices raised and insults thrown!

Through his therapy sessions with Dr Burger (Judd Hirsch) we begin to see a window into the troubles he holds inside. But it takes a major breakthrough in the films third act when Conrad painfully recollects the tragic incident, tears will fall in buckets but it proves a vital moment as he is finally able to shed the past and learn to live again.

Beth’s story is one that would normal be off putting in any normal drama, but through her icy chill is a woman suffering great pain. She desires everything to appear as usual to the untrained eye, but her inability to love Conrad leads to many problematic issues, but in one angry outburst to Calvin we get a glimpse of just how deep her problems go when after he calls her out on her attitude to her only living son she yells “Why can’t you see it from my side… What kind of mother doesn’t love her son?”

As mother and son battle continuously, Calvin is caught in the middle and as the movie progresses he beings to crack under the strain from the fight. When mother and son do battle, Calvin seems to try and referee the bout due to his fear that one will get pushed over the edge! Eventually he able to bond with his son, but begins to question the love he has for his wife, or the love she is capable of having for others?

The performances in Ordinary People are straight from the top draw with Timothy Hutton’s excellent Oscar winning performance being the most impressive. Hutton is able to convey a man who is lost in self loathing because of the accident and has to learn to like himself again before it is all too late! Although Hutton has remained on the Hollywood scene these last years, his later roles haven’t matched Conrad in terms of depth and emotional prowess!

Mary Tyler Moore is also equally strong as Beth and is able to give a profound illustration of a woman whose heart is closed, normally the villain of the piece, Moore is able to give Beth a thinly veiled humanity and in one rare moment of feeling we sympathize with her struggle. Donald Sutherland has proven himself one of the most consistent actors of his generation and here he reminds what a good leading man he was back in the day and is able to make Calvin stand out as the voice of reason throughout!

Ordinary People is one of the films that people the Academy got wrong all those years ago, yes it was cruel to deny Marty & Bobby a deserve Oscar, but this movie is one that truly deserved its accolades and stands as one the most moving films ever made and a shows movie audiences that there aren’t always happy endings to family issues!