Boyhood

Telling the story of a child growing up, director Richard Linklater provides the audience a glimpse into the life Mason Evans, Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) as he grows from boyhood to adulthood. Beginning with Mason Jr. as a six-year old and continuing onward through the beginnings of college, Mason Jr. experiences all the joys, anxieties and letdowns each child experiences within their life. Does a film that provides you with a fly-on-the-wall type experience deserve best picture as it seems positioned to win? No.

That's not a knock on the film as it is well-acted (for the most part) and provides the viewer with a sense of realism by not adding in unwanted plot developments. Instead, Richard Linklater lets the story play out in an almost natural fashion as Mason Jr. continues to grow. The problem is, there really never seems to be any conflict at stake. Mason Jr.'s mom Olivia Evans (Patricia Arquette) is a single mom who has been raising Mason Jr. and his sister Samantha Evans (Lorelei Linklater) after divorcing their father, Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke).

Mason Sr. begins the story as a man who loves his toys and is not the father he should be to either child while Olivia seems to be getting her life in order. Olivia then begins to have relationships with stereotypical "bad fathers" while Mason Sr. begins to get his life in order. In the middle of this, Mason Jr. struggles with Olivia's choices for a male figure in the house while also dealing with struggling to conform within the boundaries of what life expects from him.

Shooting a film over a 12 year period is a Herculian task and Richard Linklater should be applauded for attempting such a difficult task and being able to keep all the same actors over the period of time. The male characters that Olivia attracts become your cliched trope of wrong choices: the alcoholic, abusing husband or the strict, military-type who disapproves that Mason Jr. does not want to follow in his shoes. These characters seem to be the only sense of conflict that Mason Jr. encounters, but are so stereotypical that it takes away from the naturalistic feel that Richard Linklater is trying to establish.

Along with that, the feeling that there really is no struggle for any of the characters leads (at least to me) a question of why I should watch. There really is no struggle and Mason Jr. is going to follow his own path no matter what gets in his way. The story moves along and may only glimpse some other conflict that Mason Jr. may be up against; then decides to skip ahead in time and we witness that Mason Jr. is continuing with his path in life. It feels like a "greatest hits" of someone's life instead of a full-length album. Yes, most of the beats are hit, but the film never made me feel fully-invested into Mason Jr's struggle with growing up.

There are plenty of things to enjoy about the film; Patricia Arquette and, especially, Ethan Hawke are really good in the film. I did appreciate the story line between these two characters and how they were handled. Ethan Hawke's character, for me, flowed most naturally and brought the film to life whenever his character appeared on screen. Patricia Arquette had a bit more a a typical Oscar-bait role as someone who tries her best, yet never seems to get what she wants. Multiple scenes of crying follow, yet her acting saves this character from being your typical "wife who chooses the wrong paths" type.

The last thing that should be mentioned is whether this film deserves Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Yes, the film was a daunting task and Richard Linklater deserves credit for that. The problem is, I think the people voting are confusing technical achievement with what film is best. Just because it took 12 years to complete this film, shouldn't automatically make the film a front runner for best picture. The film lacks conflict and at times just seems to meander. Yes, life is like that, but that doesn't make the film great. A film like Hoop Dreams did basically the same thing (only better), yet wasn't nominated for Best Picture.

If Boyhood wins Best Picture, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but I hope "best" and "technical achievement" aren't being confused when voting by the Academy happens.

7.6/10

Domestic Box Office Prediction - June 7-9 2013

Been a while since I last updated the site, and as usual, I do apologize. As movies for me have been hard to come by lately, I am going to offer my box office predictions each week. As I know nothing and am not, "in the know" as they say, odds are I will be way off. This is just something for me to blog about and see how far off I can be on box office predictions when I try.

Kicking off my first attempt at providing a box office prediction is a slow week in the middle of the Summer movie season. 2 new wide releases are opening and neither will make for a record weekend. Opening in 3,365 theaters, you have Google: The Movie The Internship. Directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Cheaper by the Dozen) the film stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as new hires within Google. The commercials have shown a film that appears to be tired and lazy and really only about promoting the true star of the film: Google.

Vince Vaughn has had a rough couple of years at the box office. The last 2 films that he has top-lined: The star-studded "comedy" The Watch and Ron Howard's misfire The Dilemma both tanked at the box office. Vince Vaughn has plenty of hits within his resume, but unfortunately, most of those films were early on his resume. The good news for Vince Vaughn is that his last hit was the PG-13 comedy Couples Retreat, which has the same rating as The Internship. The bad news is that Couples Retreat was four years ago.

Owen Wilson finds himself in the same boat as Vince Vaughn. Box office hits have been really hard to come by lately. Not even releasing a film in 2012, we have to go back to 2011 to see Owen Wilson's box office track record. Cars 2 was a hit, but with that film being a Pixar film, it would have made money with or without Owen Wilson as the star. Midnight in Paris was a moderate hit (especially for Woody Allen standards) but was not setting the box office on fire. The remaining 2 films from 2011: The Big Year and Hall Pass were quickly forgotten and disappeared from the box office as quickly as they arrived.

Both Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson need a hit, and I'm sure this looked like a can't miss idea. Re-team the duo from Wedding Crashers, direct them by a director who makes safe films with big returns, and this would be a slam dunk. Unfortunately, this film is not 2005 and The Internship will struggle to make it's $58 million dollar budget back domestically.

The other wide release is the small-budgeted, but high-concept; The Purge. With only a budget of $3 million dollars and starring Ethan Hawke, The Purge tells the story of a futuristic America, where one day of the year, all crime is legal for a 12 hour period. Ethan Hawke plays a family man who must survive The Purge with his family as citizens try to attack them in their home.

Coming from hit producer Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes producing company, the small-budgeted film lacks the usual pizzazz of Summer fare, but offers the audience a different type of film as counter-programming. Ethan Hawke is coming off the similarly-produced Sinister, which became a solid hit over the Fall of 2012, and may help The Purge over perform even more than it already will. I would look for The Purge to contend for the box office lead against stale holdovers and the limp-looking The Internship.

Beyond the new releases, the remaining holdovers might hold better than past weeks due to the weak competition. Now You See Me might hold the best as the numbers during the week show the film doing solid business. Now You See Me will again contend with Fast and Furious 6 while After Earth will plummet after its disappointing opening weekend and bad word of mouth.

My prediction for this week's top 5 are:

The Purge - $19.7 million
Now You See Me - $17.7 million
Fast and Furious 6 - $17.3 million
The Internship - $16.2 million
Epic - $10.3 million

I know I will be way off, but this is just something fun. Hope you enjoy it.