Director: Richard Linklater
Runtime: 166 minutes
The late Roger Ebert once remarked that "No good movie is too long, and no bad movie is short enough." Richard Linklater's long-gestating Boyhood is stunning evidence in favor of this idea. The story is limited (a boy and his family grow and change), yet Linklater's three hour opus is so vibrant that it could have gone on for much longer. Boyhood is epic in the time it covers, yet still incomplete in the best sense. Mr. Linklater isn't necessarily bringing anything new to the table in regards to what his latest film says. Instead, he has opted to capture it all with astounding thoroughness. Boyhood started as an experiment. Now, after over a decade, it has emerged as a triumph.
What's truly staggering is how much Linklater managed to accomplish. Though production ran on and off for 12 years, there were only 39 days of actual shooting. For all of the advances in filmmaking technology that took place, it's remarkable how cohesive the whole effort turned out. Rather than constantly call attention to the experimental nature of the production, Linklater masterfully refrains from showing off. As young Mason (Ellar Coltrane) ages from six to 18, the changes feel appropriately gradual. Jumps forward in time aren't handled as major events or shifts. They exist side by side with other moments, just as life outside of the silver screen does.
And, despite the title's emphasis on a young boy, Boyhood gives stunning attention to all of its major characters. Mason's mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette), father Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke) and sister Samantha (Lorelai Linklater), are all as richly realized. Though the film concludes with its emphasis firmly on Mason Jr.'s path, the various ups and downs of those around him remain equally vivid. This is Mason's story, but it's also the story of an American family living a messy and modern American life. There are marriages and divorces, first loves and first heartbreaks, and they're all masterfully woven together as part of a wild, ever-expanding tapestry, and scenes as ordinary as brothers and sisters bickering absolutely crackle with life.
Even when characters are at their lowest points, Linklater maintains a distant, almost academic sort of optimism about the progression of life. Boyhood is ultimately a study of time, which makes the unusual production schedule such an inspired gamble. Small moments stir up feelings of happiness or regret, yet they aren't meant to knock one over with their intensity. Boyhood doesn't build to grand moments. It lets the lives of its characters unfold with a beautiful command of time - cinematic and real - to capture childhood as a simultaneously mundane and epic series of experiences.
When a movie spends over a decade in production, it's hard not to keep that in mind while watching. And even though Linklater doesn't ram the conceit in the viewer's face, he deserves praise for not trying to completely separate narrative and technique. Each has informed the other, and Linklater's gifts as a writer and director are what enable them to feel so seamless. And, in turn, it's what enables Boyhood to function as such an effortlessly compelling merger of art and life. The visual simplicity is wholly deceptive. This is an epic of both the biggest and smallest nature, one that is both a fully realized journey as well as but the first section of the complexity of life as a whole. Boyhood contains multitudes, and yet in Linklater's hands, feels like it's also just the first chapter in a masterful novel just waiting to be written.
Grade: A
Director: Richard Linklater
Runtime: 108 minutes
When one thinks of memorable film trilogies, the default answers are often of the epic variety. From The Godfather to The Lord of the Rings, the cinematic trilogy is often reserved for stories that aim for a sense of grandeur. Occasionally smaller films will merit a lone sequel, but you'd be hard pressed to find many noteworthy examples. However, with the release of Before Midnight, Richard Linklater's trilogy of conversation-led romances has cemented itself as one of the all-time greats, up there with those sprawling sagas about gangsters and hobbits.
Once again, Linklater turns his attention on Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jessie (Ethan Hawke). Yet where Before Sunrise and Before Sunset dealt with the couple's initial courtship, Midnight takes them into less blissful territory. Traces of the carefree students from the first film still remain, but, as the opening sequence shows us, time catches up with everyone. Jessie struggles to accept his fractured relationship with his son from his first marriage. Celine, on the other hand, struggles with how Jessie's actions are upsetting the otherwise stable nature of their current union, which includes two young girls. Celine and Jessie first met on a train, where they both had flexibility in their destinations. This time, however, the couple has to drive with their daughters in tow, always with some purpose or obligation, even on their vacation in Greece.
Even the opening conversations, which still have their share of charm and humor, seem mundane. It can be a little off-putting, but it ultimately makes sense. There's little in the way of discovery for these characters, now in their forties. Every now and then one of them digs up a story they had previously withheld, but it's still in the context of a relationship that has long left the honeymoon phase. Yet, despite the mundane quality of some of the film's early stretches, Linklater (along with Delpy and Hawke as co-writers) still has the ability to capture the central duo's relationship with equal doses of charm and honesty.
Despite the familiarity that came with Before Sunset, one could plausibly criticize the film as being almost the exact same as its predecessor. Celine and Jessie only had one day with each other before they reunited for the first time, which hardly makes for a dense relationship. With Before Midnight, however, Linklater has finally given his duo a chance to exist on screen after years together. Small pleasures remain, but they lack the freshness that came before. The couple used to try and discover things about each other. Now they muse about how intimately they know each other, warts and all. Less romantic? Certainly, but it's also more grounded and mature, which is entirely appropriate.
And despite all of the time that has passed, it's still a pleasure to watch these two interact. The biggest challenge of the series is that it's grounded in the interactions of two people (though Midnight does include some other couples in the first half). Yet while Celine and Jessie are feeling strain in their relationship, their one-on-one interactions are as dynamic as ever, even as they come tinged with bittersweetness, and even outright hostility. For the first time, we have to experience them deal with more legitimate problems of love and family, the kind that can do legitimate damage to a couple's relationship. The usual issues are scattered throughout the film - work vs. family, wants vs. needs, etc... - yet in the hands of Linklater, Delpy, and Hawke, their banality feels fresh. Even as the film takes the couple to their lowest emotional points, there remains a liveliness to both performances, even with the added years and lines on both actors' faces.
Before Midnight is possibly (I'm still not entirely certain) the weakest of the three films, yet it affords the two leads the room for their best performances. Framed often in long tracking shots, whether in the car or amid ancient Greek ruins, watching these two bounce off of each other has lost none of its appeal. The thornier emotional territory may put a damper on the pure charm of Sunrise and Sunset, but it also provides its own ample dramatic dividends. The most rewarding aspect of this trait is to see how Celine has taken on some of Jessie's personality (and vice versa), while still staying true to the character from the first two films. It doesn't quite reach the level of the searing conflicts in Blue Valentine or A Separation, but it doesn't really need to. Linklater has found a level of emotional strife that is perfectly in sync with the feel of the previous two films, as well as Celine and Jessie's on-screen chemistry.
Linklater's knack for pacing remains intact as well, and, barring the scenes with other couples present, Before Midnight remains as sharp and tight as the other two films. Though it runs close to 108 minutes, by the time the conclusion arrives it feels as though it's barely been more than an hour or so. To get a little nit-picky, Before Midnight might segue into its lovely conclusion almost too quickly. Given the nature of what precedes said ending, it feels as though a longer denouement is in store (and even required). In a story so beautifully handled over the course of three films (each roughly a decade apart), the choice to rush so suddenly into a finale creates a sense of narrative whiplash in an otherwise smooth ride that is well worth taking.
Grade: A-
In one of the many talking head segments of Richard Linklater's (Before Sunrise/Sunset) Bernie, an old man delivers a hilarious summation of Texas by dividing into 5 separate states. Not only is the bit funny and laced with truth (calling Houston - my hometown - and the surrounding area the 'carcinogenic county), but it also perfectly captures everything that works in Linklater's latest (minor) gem. Based on a true story, the Carthage, TX-set film follows Bernie Tiede (Jack Black), a local assistant funeral director who, despite being nothing but charming, finally gets pushed too far by a nasty older woman (Shirley Maclaine).
Yet despite the presence of Black, who last worked with Linklater in 2003's wonderful School of Rock, and his two major co-stars (the other being Matthew Maconaughey), the film seems to have more than just Bernie on its mind. Though not quite done as a faux-documentary, the film is built around a series of questions, and spends a surprising amount of time capturing the essence of the film's setting, as well as its people. It may hold back the performances - Black is good, but never has any moments to truly shine other than the pitch-perfect opening - but it doesn't keep the film from being enjoyable. In fact, some of the stretches filled with back-to-back interviews are among the best parts of the film. The people on screen (some of whom are actors, some of whom are not) all seem so comfortable on camera, that it only adds to the film's tone and charm, when it could have come off as a lame way to spoon feed exposition. Yet as enjoyable as Bernie is, there are times when the lack of focus on the title character leaves one wanting. There's little to no exploration of what makes him tick; we're simply told over and over again that he's disarmingly positive and nice, and that's virtually it. The scenes with Black and Maclaine are, however, very effective, and the two play off of each other very well, which does help make up for it. Black is, thankfully, actually playing a role with sincerity, and it works as a nice antidote to, well, basically anything else he's ever done on screen. Yet in choosing to place atmosphere and vibe above character development, though, Linklater's latest winds up as an amusing (and sometimes laugh out loud funny) venture, without anything to make it truly memorable. Still, some of the laughs really are worth it.
Grade: B/B-
