101 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, so far. 100% liked it and averaging 9.4/10. On metacritic, it's score is currently 99.

To adequately demonstrate the impressiveness of those numbers

• Tokyo Story has a 9.7 average on Rotten Tomatoes. (Highest ever)
  
• Citizen Kane has a 9.4 average on Rotten Tomatoes.
  
• The Godfather: Part II has a 9.4 average on Rotten Tomatoes.
  
• The Godfather has a 9.2 average on Rotten Tomatoes.
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey has a 9.2 average on Rotten Tomatoes.
  
• Pulp Fiction has a 9.0 average on Rotten Tomatoes.

Linklater is my all-time favorite director. I consider his "Before" trilogy to be a masterpiece. I cannot wait to see this movie. Has anyone on here seen it yet?

Can't wait

Saw it yesterday afternoon at a sold-out showing, and there's really nothing I can say that those 101 reviews haven't already covered.

It's not a sad movie by any means, but grown men throughout the theater were crying, and there was actual applause DURING the movie at one point. Had never seen that happen before. It's definitely a slow burn, and maybe half an hour in I was still kind of wondering what all the fuss was about, but by the end I was just absolutely blown away. It perfectly captures so many poignant feelings and milestones of growing up, especially a lot of the junior high/high school stuff. And the fact that it all takes place in Texas (Houston and San Marcos, specifically) makes it hit home all the more. Overall, it's just so amazing, and unlike anything you've ever seen before.

Ethan Hawke did a Q&A after our screening, and I can't emphasize enough how cool and engaging he was. The guy was just utterly captivating, and completely opened up to the audience. He told such insightful stories from the production, and kept weaving the themes of the movie with experiences from his own life and family in really genuine, heartfelt ways. I've sat through dozens of these Q&As, and his was by far the best I've ever attended. It's kind of amazing how spending 20 minutes in person with someone like him can completely change your perspective. I've always enjoyed his work, but never really thought twice about him. After yesterday, he's now one of my favorite actors.

Here's the release schedule, and a picture of Hawke from the Q&A below. Looks like it's hitting Austin, Dallas, Plano, and Houston on Friday. Can't wait to discuss it more...

http://boyhoodmovie.tumblr.com/#find




[This message has been edited by TCTTS (edited 7/14/2014 12:59p).]

Want to check it out. Love the Before trilogy.

This film sounds phenomenal. I hope this nabs Linklater an Oscar. Thought Bernie was grossly overlooked by the Academy.

Everything I've read and seen indicate that Linklater will win Best Director in one of the most lopsided wins in history.

Nice. Looking forward to hopefully reading some reactions this weekend. Just a reminder, it's out in Austin, Dallas, Plano, and Houston this weekend.

Seeing it tonight in Dallas

Great to hear.

Saw it tonight and really enjoyed it. Agree that it feels like it's moving a little slow at times, but I guess if I captured that much footage over that many years, I'd have a hard time cutting stuff out, too. Overall, I was really impressed with it, particularly getting to see how all the characters change over time. Definitely brought back a lot of childhood/adolescent memories and made me realize that maybe I wasn't as smart or as cool as I thought I was at the time.

Also...potential Aggie-related Easter Egg: My wife thinks one of the people sitting behind them during the Astros game scene was wearing a red "Standing For America" shirt from the RWB Out. If anyone sees the movie after viewing this thread, can you confirm or deny?

Saw it tonight- very well done- thought it was a really accurate portrayal of childhood without out-of-left-field plot twists. My wife felt that the kid was a bit flat emotionally as he got older. She still enjoyed it too.

**POSSIBLE SPOILER**

As an aside, a very strange thing happened during our showing. Towards the end of the flick, the large group at the front of the theater suddenly cheered and applauded when they were in the kid's dorm room. Turns out, the girl that he makes a connection with at the very end of the movie and shares the final screen shot with him was sitting just two rows in front of us, and it seems that this was her first time for seeing the movie and had a bunch of friends and family there with her. Can't say I've ever seen that happen before

Saw it last night. It was very enjoyable and paced pretty well for a nearly 3 hour long movie.


SPOILER ALERT
He had some seriously eye rolling moments in his high school years, but everyone does at that time in their life. I know the movie is called "Boyhood" but I would have enjoyed seeing him evolve through college into getting into the real world. I guess with how much we all know Linklater enjoys sequels, maybe we will get a "Manhood" in 12 years.


Great movie that is deserving of its high praise.

Haven't seen it yet, but happened to be at the Astros game the night they were filming it. We were two rows in front of Ethan Hawke.
Jason Lane hit a homer and we all went crazy. Saw myself on the preview a few nights ago while watching tv.
Looking forward to seeing it this weekend.

Hopefully you're there with a good/full audience. Clemens was pitching and the reaction to him when he was shown onscreen was hilarious when I watched it.

Here's the kicker - it was in '07 when they filmed it...Clemens wasn't even an Astro then. We were told they were going to make it look like he was pitching, so to "go with it."

This movie looks fantastic, I plan to see it at the River Oaks Theater in Houston either tonight or tomorrow.

Just saw a showing in Dallas and WOW it was incredible

Will have to see it.

Dazed and Confused is one of my favorite movies off all time and I have to say that discovering the Before series 6 months ago was one of the most pleasant movie surprises I have had in a while.

Great movie. Will be front runner for best picture, if only for the diligence put into a film that took twelve years to make.

Some of my knuclehead friends are complaining about an overt political tone in the flick bashing conservatives. I suspect they are overreacting but wanted to get someone's perspective that has also seen the movie.

Linklater has always been somewhat left-leaning, but it didn't detract from the movie at all in my opinion.

Yeah, it's ONE scene. And it's actually one of the funnier scenes in the movie. If conservatives get bent out of shape over it, that's ridiculous.

Ticket purchased for tonight.

Only out in 2 theaters in Manhattan so I'm hoping for a packed house.

Great movie. Don't really have anything new to add to all the praise, except to say it does a fantastic job of making you feel like you're going through this kid's childhood and adolescence right along with him. Did a great job of marking important events without being too "obvious" or cliche about it.

*Some specific scenes described below*




I really liked the scene where they were drinking beer in the house, I think we all remember having experiences just like that one where you try to look cool in front of the older kids. Also really liked Ethan Hawke's character. Loved the dialogue between them in the bar near the end, about having no idea what life is all about and everyone's just winging it.

Linklater may be one of my favorite directors.

Aside: TCTTS, I'm just curious, what were the scenes that caused the crying and applause in your theater?

quote:

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Yeah, it's ONE scene. And it's actually one of the funnier scenes in the movie. If conservatives get bent out of shape over it, that's ridiculous.

---

Cool, I figured as much.

quote:

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Aside: TCTTS, I'm just curious, what were the scenes that caused the crying and applause in your theater?

---

The applause happened when [SPOILER] the maintenance worker Patricia Arquette said was smart and should go to school introduced himself at the restaurant [/SPOILER]. Kind of cheesy, I know, but the audience LOVED that bit.

As for the crying, there was no single moment. The guy next to me just kept sniffling and wiping tears away throughout, and one woman in the Q&A told Ethan Hawke that she noticed every grown male in her row had tears in their eyes when the lights came up.

Thought the movie was fantastic.

I thought the bit of dialogue when he was camping with his dad about Star Wars was pretty funny, considering it was filmed years ago.

Whoever was complaining about the political tone of the movie was reaching pretty far. They really need to get out and see the world.

Thought it was fantastically done considering the scope and time it took to film this movie. Just thought it was great to watch a family grow on the screen. The one on one dialogues with Hawke and his kids made the movie though. Almost every one of them was perfect.

Saw it in Austin at the Violet Crown and it was funny to walk by the parking garage where they filmed one of the scenes.

Great movie.

[This message has been edited by hudson2508 (edited 7/26/2014 10:00p).]

Am I the only one who didn't absolutely love this movie? I thought it was fairly good and was definitely very unique. But it was pretty slow and really didn't have much going on plot wise. For those of you who liked it, would you have still loved it if they didn't shoot it over 12 years? I think a lot more people would have negative reviews if it wasn't filmed over 12 years with the same actors because there really isn't much of a story/plot.

Don't get me wrong...I liked it (wife hated it) but I don't see what all the fuss is about. I definitely don't see how it is 99% on rotten tomatoes. Honestly, I've read the one vs review in rotten tomatoes and I generally agree with what that reviewer said. It's a very cool idea and a very unique way to film a movie, which makes it good. But there just isn't really much of a story to keep me interested for 3 hours.

The story is the evolution of the characters, their lives. Granted it's not like a typical plot in most movies, but that didn't make it any less interesting to me. You can't separate out the filming over 12 years either. That IS what made the movie, what made the characters. Take that away and you don't have the depth of the experiences of the characters in their lives for those 12 years