“The Charmer Of The Year. A Masterclass In Acting.
a&e | FILM REVIEWS
Douglas & Keaton Are Great. One Of Reiner’s Best!” Dean Richards, WGN-TV/CHICAGO
TIME-LAPSE PHOTOGRAPHY
Boyhood. Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, and Patricia Arquette star in a film written and directed by Richard Linklater. Reviewed by D.J. Palladino
C
haracters in Richard Linklater movies always talk, talk, talk about topics like life itself. It’s obviously the stuff of dramatic observations, but it isn’t much like typical American conversation. Maybe your Europeans will sip espresso and discuss comparative philosophies, but in this country — and particularly Texas, where Linklater famously resides — palaver is more about laconic grunts and snappy wisecracks. That’s why Linklater’s people are usually in the throes of life-changing experiences when we meet them; they’re falling in love, getting stoned, dying, or most often, just serving time in the prison of young adulthood. This film, which took Linklater 12 years to shoot, mixes bits from all of the above dramatic situations. And the folks in Boyhood do love them some talk. The film follows the remarkably sane Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from young boyhood — approximately 1992, when the actor was 7 — to his first day of college. Mason and his sister, Samantha (Lorelei Linklater), suffer and enjoy a series of family changes, including a parade of bad stepfathers, as their mom (Patricia Arquette) does her best to raise them solo after dumping their (boyish) irresponsible real father (the soft-voiced Ethan Hawke). He
THIS BOY’S LIFE: Filmed over 12 years, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood follows Mason — and the actor portraying him, Ellar Coltrane — from childhood to late teens.
isn’t a terrible dad, but just like everyone else in this movie, he’s radically unsure what life expects of him. Meanwhile, because the movie was shot over a decade of real time, we watch Mason and his sister pass through evolving bodies and increasingly complex emotional interactions. Three hours after it begins, we’ve literally watched them grow up onscreen. It isn’t a perfect film. Linklater stacks the deck against the flailing grown-ups, and it runs too long, though it would be very tough to cut. But Boyhood also stays with you for all the reasons listed above. We get to hear a sound not made in America enough: existence discussed with a reasoning skeptical voice. It’s moving but not melodramatic. You don’t want to part company with the kids. You want Mason to meet a nice girl and get a good job someday. And I want more U.S. movie directors to make crazy films like this, so film art here might grow up ■ someday, too.
“Douglas And Keaton Are In Fine Form, And Rob Reiner Delivers The Laughs, Both Behind And In Front Of The Camera.”
“Like Fine Wine, Keaton, Douglas And Reiner Just Get Better Over Time.”
Ken Johnson, KXPT-FM
Mike Sargent, ARISE.TV
“25 Years After He First Introduced Harry To Sally, Rob Reiner’s ‘AND SO IT GOES’ Proves That His Take On Grownup Love Has Only Gotten Richer With Age.” Bill Newcott, AARP MEDIA
THE DEADLY DOZEN The Purge: Anarchy. Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, and Zach Gilford star in a film written and directed by James DeMonaco. Reviewed by D.J. Palladino
I
t’s oddly bracing to see outright class warfare erupt into so much pop entertainment of late. Over the course of the past year, there have been blatant examples in apocalyptic kid movies like Hunger Games and Divergent, where the battle between the proletariat and oppressor rul- OPEN SEASON: Murderers are given free reign for 12 hours in the faring class is the whole focus of the film, not just a fetched but unnerving sequel The Purge: Anarchy. mere subtext. Then, in the more shaded world of action films for grown-ups, there is the Dawn of the Planet “purge” and those smart enough to lock themselves up in of the Apes species struggle. And the best movie of all suburban fortresses. Where the first film concentrated on summer, the brilliant Snowpiercer, is practically textbook the problems of one family, this one takes a tour through Marxist allegory, with the rich battling the ragged masses the city’s super-mean streets. In the midst of a lot of mayhem, a small miracle happens. The movie introduces on a train that’s derailing what’s left of our civilization. Then there’s this movie, which most people might a cadre of mostly African-American soldiers who take aim rightly consider a flimsy excuse to exploit wholesale at the affluent right-wingers who invented the Purge inside screen violence. It begins with a few predictable shootings a Purge Supper Club. Sadly, the uprising provides only brief retributions, and then suddenly takes a turn toward the illustration of late-phase capitalism’s predicted degenerations. Seriously. though one suspects (and hopes) this might become the The premise imagines the not-too-distant future in future of the franchise. But revolutionary fantasy isn’t America, when violent crime and unemployment have the best part of this movie. It’s good — ridiculous but virtually disappeared due to an annual ritual legalizing believable — and it gets under your skin, implying that we all crime (but mostly concentrating on murder) for 12 already know an America like this. It also serves to remind hours, dividing the populace into two groups: those who us that in our world, guns go off every day. ■
STARTS FRIDAY, JULY 25 AT THEATRES EVERYWHERE! CHECK DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES • NO PASSES ACCEPTED
Viva la Fiesta! Fiesta Costumes & Accessories
FOR MEN & WOMEN
SALES & RENTALS
4289 State Street • 967.4626 • facebook.com/victorianvogue July 24, 2014
THE INDEPENDENt
59