My Own Little World

One of the hardest things for any film to do is to be human. True humanity is extremely hard to capture in the pre-planned conversations of a script or in the often-visionary lens of a director’s camera. Even going to such lengths as filming the same cast over twelve years (looking at you, Boyhood ) does not guarantee that a movie can be a true slice of life. Somehow, some way, Greta Gerwig, in her first film in the director’s chair no less, has made one of the most genuinely human films I have ever seen. Lady Bird is an organic piece of cinematic art that doesn’t try to be terribly artistically original or innovative; it simply tells a human coming-of-age story, and it does it better than nearly any other film I have seen. As much as I’d love to claim that there is no one aspect of the film that helps this, ultimately the film rests on the shoulders of its cast. Without the amazing performances from Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Lucas Hedges, and everyone else involved, t...

Sometimes, I see a movie that is not like anything else I have ever seen. A list of these films for me would include Gravity , Inception , (believe it or not) Les Miserables , and Flight . I guess I'll be adding Boyhood  to that list as well. However, unlike the other films on this list, what makes Boyhood  unique is not its story, its characters, or its themes: it's the production.  As some of you may know, Boyhood was shot in less than fifty days over twelve years with the same cast and crew. Talk about a gamble. There was no telling what would happen if one of the principal actors just suddenly died or if the director's own daughter, playing Mason's sister, decided not to be in her dad's movie anymore. Thankfully, the entire cast and crew stayed together for all twelve years of production, making one of the most unique films of all time. Without this method of production, we wouldn't have the unique story, deep characters, or the rich themes present i...