Greetings and salutations movie fans! Last night I went to The Little to watch one of my most anticipated films of the year: “Boyhood”. Please everyone before I get started check this out in theaters. Support Linklater’s films; give this man more money so he can continue to create cinematic instant-classics.

Zugzwang (German for 'compulsion to move', pronounced ˈtsuːktsvaŋ) is a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move; in other words, the fact that the player is compelled to move means that their position will become significantly weaker. A player is said to be 'in zugzwang' when any possible. Oct 05, 2014 Directed by Stephon Stewart. With Paul Rae, Beatrice Rosen, Joanna Cassidy, Kaylee Bryant. A tragic murder intermixes strangers into a fatal reality. Graffiti videos, graffiti movies. Graffitifilms.tv is all about graffiti and street art. The site was started by brant smith, one of the filmmakers behind the underground graffiti hit quality of life.

I’ve seen damn near everything that Richard Linklater has made. When I first started writing, I believed that I had stumbled upon a “Linklater Universe” that Boyhood fit into. Unfortunately for me, and conspiracy theorists everywhere, it just doesn’t work. Unless you are willing to invent elaborate story lines not mentioned in either film. The characters in the film are super cagey about what Ethan Hawke has been doing the year and half that he is out of Texas. Perhaps I thought, he was in Europe meeting Julie Delpy! It all fits until I started looking back through the script. I had remembered one scene from Before Sunset that immediately caught my attention:

Jesse: Do you have kids?

Celine: Yes, two –

[gasps]

Celine: Shit!

Jesse: What?

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Celine: I left them in the car! With the windows rolled up! It was six months ago! Think they’re okay?

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[laughs]

You tend to see things the way you want to see them when you believe you are having some great epiphany. There are a great many similarities between Ethan Hawke’s character in Boyhood and Before Sunset. He plays guitar, he’s foolhardy, hopelessly romantic, AND he’s in a loveless marriage. Unfortunately, what I failed to remember was that it was Celine who is joking about her kids; not Jesse. Before that little joke, Celine asks Jesse about his kids. He tells her about his son “Hank”, without mentioning having a daughter. The true conspiracy theorist in my mind went through and said, “Okay well maybe he used a pseudonym from a book that he saw on the flight over. Perhaps he’s been lying to Celine the whole time. Maybe he invented this fake life for himself to escape his own miserable reality back in the US.” The problem with this whole scenario is that it’s just too implausible. He’d have to lie about too much; eventually we’d catch him, or she’d catch him or both. Alas, my Linklater universe theory has holes that even Lexington Steel couldn’t fill.

Boyhood lived up to every expectation I had. It was a raw unfiltered view of Texas life as we follow the family and observe their struggles. Ethan Hawke was magnificent and was able to capture all the magic (and more) that he had in Before Sunset 20 years ago. The young boy played by Ellar Coltrane was remarkably normal. We follow him going to school, being bullied, kissing girls, drinking and finally going off to college.

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Recently, I re-watched one of my favorite films, “Dead Poets Society”. Mr. Keating, played by Robin Williams encourages his students to “seize the day:”

The notion at the end of Boyhood was touching. A young girl, after a drug-fueled hike through the dessert, opines that, “Perhaps it should be the other way around.” Perhaps instead of seizing the moment, we should let the moment seize us. The greatest gift that Linklater gives us with this film is that he stops and takes a minute to look around. He impresses upon the audience the importance of just “looking around every once in a while:”

Linklater was able to draw on his vast body of work that made anyone familiar with his other films quite comfortable. Long gone are the days of vignettes; comprised of wild caricatures with zany existential ideas espousing Nietzsche on the streets of Austin:

Instead, Linklater demonstrates in the film that people can just be. He can create magic from those otherwise innocuous moments. This return to simplicity was refreshing. It was also nice to see him return to Austin with its copious amounts of weirdo’s (yes, you are all a bunch of goddamn weirdo’s; but that’s OKAY!).

Another feature of the film that I enjoyed was that it acted like a bit of a time capsule. I grew nostalgic at the sight of the iMac computer that Mason used because we had those in my schools growing up. I had fond memories of flip phones, and the first Halo game. Linklater’s use of technology as a springboard for Mason to establish some of his own philosophy was brilliant. Instead of using the one-dimensional diatribe we’ve seen in the past from Linklater; we witness dialogue. Mason and his girlfriend confabulate about what it means to be “off the grid”. The repartee between the two of them as they mock each other about their technology use was apropos.

I think what made this movie so incredible for me was Linklater’s ability to mold moments into lessons. We’re there for the cringe-worthy contraception talk in a bowling alley. We witness Mason break up with his high school girlfriend. We even witness the embarrassment that occurs when you’re staying with a friend and their roommate walks in. It’s just a series of moments, and milestones; beautiful moments, and pained milestones.

I wish that this movie had come out as I was about to start my journey to college. I could have garnered valuable information and life lessons from the characters in this film. At one point early in the film, Mason Jr. is complaining that they aren’t using bumpers when they are bowling. Mason Sr. replies that, “Life doesn’t give you bumpers!” Its little moments like these that the audience can “Suck the marrow out of life without choking on the bone”.

Like every movie, though this one did have a few flaws; some of the character development was spotty at times. At the end of the film at Mason’s high school graduation there was some person who kept making obnoxious comments. Someone in the theater vocalized what everyone was thinking, “Who the hell is this guy?” It turned out to be the brother of Mason Sr. I don’t believe his character was necessary. An introduction at the beginning of the party, or maybe if that kid with Mason had said, “Who’s that guy?” would have gone a long way. Additionally the woman playing the grandma was inconsistent throughout the film.

From what I’ve read, Linklater wanted to capture a small sliver of American life with this film. He does that magnificently, it’s as though he’s taken a slice of the great American pie, cut a small piece, and served it to the rest of us. Boyhood is a monumental achievement that I will be revisiting for years to come. Movies like this are a once in a decade event; missing this while it’s in theaters would be a sin of which I could not forgive myself.

As always here are some reviews that I enjoyed:

Studio: DragonGate Films
Director: Stephon Stewart
Writer: Stephon Stewart, Christopher Dean Elliott
Producer: Kate Atkinson, John Mancini, Stephon Stewart
Stars: Paul Rae, Stephon Stewart, Beatrice Rosen, Kaylee Bryant, Joanna Cassidy, James Martin Kelly

Review Score:

Summary:

A disgraced doctor is forced to make a series of resolve-testing decisions in order to save his family from an unstable madman.

Review:

Zugzwang is a situation in chess where a player is forced to make a move that puts him/her in a worse position than s/he was previously. “Zugzwang” is also a movie following the same definition, as it introduces one element after another in service of a story growing more unbelievable until a merciful checkmate puts a stop to it all.

David is a disgraced doctor whose extramarital affair and workplace blunder find him relocating his wife, daughter, mother, and dog for a fresh start in Los Angeles. Standing in the way of that plan is Maury, the father of a young patient who died on David’s operating table. Determined to see to it that David understands the torturous pain of a grieving father, Maury kidnaps David’s daughter Elizabeth, hijacks his television and technology, and forces David to make gut-wrenching decisions for a chance to save what is left of his family.

Madman with a plan of improbable proportions is a premise that has spawned a hugely successful torture-horror franchise as well as a slew of similarly themed revenge thrillers. Despite the obvious parallel to something like “Saw,” “Zugzwang” is not quite so far out there in terms of convoluted plotting. As a micro-budget indie, “Zugzwang” keeps its version of the twisted justice concept grounded with a close to home sentiment and a tight group of less than a half dozen characters.

A familiar plot and skeleton production are not what keeps “Zugzwang” from taking flight, however. The chief problem in play is a cast that has a hard time fitting snugly into the roles as written.

Co-writer and director Stephon Stewart also casts himself as David. Unconvincing would be the kindest adjective to describe Stewart’s performance. Fellow filmgoers seated to either side as well as behind me during the film’s Shriekfest premiere regularly snickered at horribly flat line delivery. Stewart whines in a monotone as if disappointed that his favorite television program scheduled a rerun when he is supposed to be reacting to a maniac threatening to wire-cut his daughter’s digits. Stewart plays David so confusedly that the seriousness of events onscreen is consistently undermined, never having a snowball’s chance at established truly nailbiting gravity.

As his nemesis Maury, Paul Rae is a terrific character actor who is more than capable of playing a darkly disturbed mind, but he is miscast as this particular disillusioned psycho. With the meticulous plotting, cable signal rerouting, cell phone jamming, and technological steps taken to put his plan into action, Maury is practically the Jason Bourne of sociopaths. Yet clad in a wife-beater and denim work shirt while speaking in a distinguished drawl, everything about Rae’s onscreen persona instead screams, “blue collar.”

I can buy Jigsaw going through this kind of trouble and then some because the “Saw” premises are so extreme and the setups so elaborate that they have no pretense of being anything other than revenge fantasy entertainment. “Zugzwang” doesn’t have the macabre-minded fun of “Saw.” Its feet are planted firmly in a world meant to be taken as reality, which means the ridiculous logistical scope of Maury’s plot is harder to overlook.

As seen on CNN when this sort of event occurs in reality, Maury is the kind of John Lunchpail vigilante who would simply pick up a pistol and shoot the doctor in his driveway during a fit of revenge-fueled rage. This calculated plan of complicated logistics, kidnapping, and moral conundrums suits a character different than the one Rae embodies. Listening to him soapbox in a voice that sounds like a NASCAR announcer mixed with a redneck auctioneer is more grating than it is menacing.

Joanna Cassidy as the grandmother and Kaylee Bryant as the daughter stand out as supporting stars, but there isn’t enough of them to keep the drama cooking at a high temperature. Paired together, Stewart and Rae just don’t work as protagonist and antagonist. And since they don’t work, neither does “Zugzwang.”

Falling in the same trap of both not working and being unconvincing is a script loaded with misaligned scenes and pedestrian dialogue. A first act dinner table sequence reads as follows:

Grandmother: “Your father is conscious about good health, honey. He’s a doctor.”

Daughter: “He used to be a doctor. Now he’s just a boring teacher.”

Mother: “Honey, we already talked about that. He wanted to spend a little more time with us.”

That exchange exists to give the audience three pieces of exposition. What it doesn’t provide is a realistic sense of how these people would relate to one another. Sit yourself at that table and imagine your own family having a normal conversation peppered with reminders of what everyone does for a living. Does it sound any less silly? Who talks like this?

SPOILERS

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The challenges presented to David are nerve-wracking. An assignment to drown his dog in the family pool received more of a reaction from the audience, multiple people walked out of the theater, than did the challenge to end his mother’s life in the following scene. At first, it appears as though “Zugzwang” might be on to razor-sharp suspense engineered specifically for tangible tension. Then poor plotting punctures the tires and strands the staging by the side of the road.

David and his wife shriek, run, and flail frantically throughout their house upon the first realization that their daughter is held by a potential killer. Maury has them tearing about the home and the yard, holding a thrashing animal down in the pool while everyone involved repeatedly shouts back and forth. Yet when the next assignment is to smother mother in her bed, grandma is miraculously sound asleep through it all, despite everyone making enough noise outside her bedroom door to rival Time’s Square on New Year’s Eve.

Even though none of the commotion rousts the sleeping woman, it does draw the attention of a concerned next-door neighbor, who is presumably much further from the fracas than grandma. Except when he comes over to say, “I heard (the dog) growl and scream,” he does so twenty minutes after the dog was actually drowned. Is the neighbor just now getting around to his armchair investigation, or is this merely the first available opening the script had to slip in his unnecessary aside?

END SPOILERS

Nothing against the Peanuts creator, but when a film opens on a Charles Schultz quote, you know it doesn’t have its sensibilities calibrated correctly for home invasion horror. “Zugzwang” might have been better off as a short. There isn’t enough content to comprise an engrossing feature, which is why the film runs just under 70 minutes to begin with. Besides a bleak, bare bones tale, the real issue with “Zugzwang” is that it takes on too much water from a premise that its casting can’t quite put over.

Review Score: 40