By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

Upon reviewing my 15 years of columns for The Observer, I came to the realization that my column is older than actress Bailee Madison (who I have written about)! Fifteen years was more than enough time for Director/ Writer Richard Linklater to create Boyhood, the most critically-acclaimed motion picture of 2014.

The biggest gimmick about Boyhood was the ambition. For 12 years, Linklater contracted the same cast to meet for a few days and shoot his movie project. In 2 hours and 45 minutes, we watch 6-yearold Ellar Coltrane grow up to become a college freshman. The plot is that simple, yet it is the genuine moments in between that is giving Boyhood it’s Oscar buzz.

Mason Jr. (Coltrane) and his big sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater, the director’s daughter) live with their divorced mom (Patricia Arquette). Their Father (Ethan Hawke) works in Alaska. When financial times get tough in the summer of 2002, Mason’s family moves to Houston to stay with their grandmother.

As a struggling single parent, mom attends college and dates successful men. The father visits on the weekends, and shows Mason and Samantha a good time, and discusses his hatred of President George Bush and the meaning of life.

As Mason matures in the Texas environment, the cute little kid grows into a long haired teenager who is only interested in his art. At times, Mason is irresponsible, other times he is a dutiful son who is always in search of meaning.

Boyhood concludes with a-blink-and-you-miss-itmoment, but the final lines serve Richard Linklater’s philosophy found in his Before Sunrise, Sunset, Midnight trilogy about the importance of “carpe diem.” The sad thing about Mason is that he is under the influence of hash brownies as he comes to his big revelation.

Heavily influenced by cinema verite icons Francois Truffaut, Satyajit Ray and Vittorio De Sica, the beauty of Boyhood is that it is a film that is open to interpretation. Despite the use of profanity that is appropriate, Boyhood is a film to see with the family in the afternoon, if only for the family discussion afterward.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.

For the past 10 years, San Diego Comic-Con has become as much of a summer staple as the summer movie blockbuster season. While local businesses like CJ’s Comics, Tate’s Comics and Docking Bay plan local events, Hollywood studios will promote their agendas with Marvel Comics/Disney expected to announce their movie titles until 2019, featuring some of the final screen appearances of Captain America, Thor and Iron Man in their current incarnation.

Lacking the multimillion dollar promotional budget of comic books and cartoons, there are a series of independent films opening locally that could stand scrutiny. One such movie, Boyhood, is generating Oscar buzz for director Richard Linklater.

Filmed once every nine years, Linklater created three films (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight) about the maturation of a couple played by Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. Hawke returns in Boyhood, which has been filming for 11 years starting in 2002. The purpose of this project was to document the rites of passage of the film’s leading man, Ellar Coltrane as Mason Jr. (Hawke portrays Mason Sr.)

Given the current international crisis in Ukraine, A Most Wanted Man is a timely spy thriller about a half-Chechen, half-Russian fugitive who takes refuge in an Islamic community in Hamburg, Germany. This film is based on Jean Le Carre’s best-selling book of the same name.

This film also features Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s final performance in a leading role. This ensemble piece also features Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright and Willem Dafoe. What the film lacks in big budgeted explosions, this thriller will make up with suspenseful character motivation.

A Coffee in Berlin seems to combine two elements of A Most Wanted Man and Boyhood. The winner of six German Academy Awards, A Coffee in Berlin is about the rite of passage for a college dropout slacker.

While the countdown to Halloween does not start until August, A Wolf at the Door opens this weekend and features a parent’s worst nightmare, child abduction. This Miami International Film Festival winner opens this weekend at Cinema Paradiso (www.fliff.com).