Just when it seemed like Boyhood’s Richard Linklater was done with the film that took twelve years to shoot, he’s recently announced the possibility that Boyhood may get an unlikely sequel. While the first film followed the story of a boy growing up into a young adult, Linklater has admitted that the story of this man’s foyer into adulthood during his 20’s could be an equally compelling project for the director.
87 years into the ceremony, the Oscars are still unabashedly about the movies. Host Neil Patrick Harris along with Anna Kendrick performed a whizzbang ode to “moving pictures” in perfect Broadway musical style. And despite the fresh songwriting that seemed to give a nod to last year’s winners for Frozen and “Let it Go”, …
If only sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs roam this Earth as Chris Kyle’s (Bradley Cooper) father informs him early on in American Sniper, then Clint Eastwood’s film represents the cross-breed of the hound and sheep – a creation perplexed as to who it is, its identity betwixt and between the protector that it wants to be and …
In an Oscar column in the New York Times several weeks back, A.O. Scott noticed that the Academy loves to champion three different types of narrative: those that affirm the industry’s political values and virtues, those that represent popular success, and those that feel like “auto-cinephilia”. “Three of the last five Best Picture winners were …
Though it feels as though Awards Season has already trudged on for months, the 72nd Annual Golden Globes from Sunday night showed the season has really only just begun. On their long road to the Oscars before nominations are announced this Thursday, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood and Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel struck a blow …
15. The Immigrant – If one were to rank the films of 2014 based solely on innovation, The Immigrant would probably end up near the bottom. Writer-director James Gray’s languid melodrama tells the tumultuous story of a resilient Polish woman looking to find a slice of the American Dream, without much in the way of …
40. Night Moves Since 2006, Kelly Reichardt has found a way to reach inside of the hearts of her audiences, plucking out strings one by one with desolate re-imaginations of the American Pacific Northwest, seen through the eyes of people not so different than ourselves. With Meek’s Cutoff, she departed from her typical genre and moved …
The 21st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards Nominations were revealed Wednesday morning, serving as yet another precursor on the long road to the Oscars. In the film categories, Birdman was the big winner, scoring four nominations, including for Michael Keaton, Edward Norton and Emma Stone, as well as the collective ensemble cast. Boyhood followed right …
This column is a few days late this week, but then this was a particularly busy few days. The first three of the actual awards precursors finally arrived this week, including the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review and the Gotham Independent Film Awards. What’s the verdict? This is still anyone’s …
It’s December 1, so that means its time for everyone to start publishing their lists of the Best of the Year. As though an entire year of list making and awards giving was not enough, December is that time of year when non-stop arguing over placement, snubs and things you still need to catch up …
It’s only just October and already the Oscar season has grown ugly. And it’s not even the contenders battling for rank. The heat is coming from the pundits themselves, who have already grown weary of some of their colleagues’ BS and perpetual trumpeting. In Mark Harris’s brilliant first post about the Oscar race so far, …
The Hype Cycle is News Editor Brian Welk’s roundup of industry news, reviews and predictions of everything Oscar, boiled down into weekly power rankings of the buzziest and most likely contenders in this year’s awards season. This article is Part 2 of this week’s Hype Cycle column. Read Part 1 from yesterday. 7. Foxcatcher and …
Richard Linklater, one of his generation’s best and most influential filmmakers, has chosen That’s What I’m Talking About as his next project. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, it looks like Linklater has chosen his next project after the highly successful Boyhood. Since 2011 the director has been attached to direct a remake of the …
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is an interesting exercise in whether or not artistic intent truly matters. The film is the story of a boy, his sister and his parents as they grow and meander through life over the course of twelve years. To watch it is to experience life unfolding before your eyes, while feeling the keen sensation that virtually nothing is happening.
Over the course of reviewing hundreds of movies a year, a critic over-hypes at least one movie; it happens more times than one would like, but it happens. The main culprit is often red-carpet festival premieres that lead to a dizzying high that positively impacts a film’s reception. A plethora of four star reviews that …
When a filmmaker perfectly aligns the technical and the artistic, we’re reminded of the transformative power of cinema. Lost amid the genre clichés and computer-generated extravaganzas lies an expansive battlefield called ‘the human condition’, where moments of great power co-mingle with insignificant monotony to shape our lives.
Boyhood Written and directed by Richard Linklater USA, 2014 During the discussion preceding the screening of his latest film, Boyhood, director Richard Linklater, recipient of this year’s Founder’s Directing Award, claimed that the concept of exploring a parent-child relationship in real time was one of the two great cinematic ideas he’s had in his almost …
While some of us are still playing catch-up with films we missed in 2013, there’s no shame in looking ahead to the seemingly marvelous lineup of films that await us cinephiles in 2014. The buzz will be fast and contagious with festivals like Sundance, Berlinale, Rotterdam, and Cannes just around the corner; below is my …