Richard Linklater's Boyhood was one of the most critically-beloved films of 2014, but it's been taken to task in the latest installment of Honest Trailers. Watch it below!
It's been kind of a rough month for Boyhood. Following the it's big win at the Golden Globes for Best Picture - Drama, the film looked like it was basically a lock for the top prize at the upcoming Oscars. Unfortunately, Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance has gone on a huge awards tear recently - winning big at the Screen Actors, Producers and Directors guilds - as has taken over front runner position previously held by Richard Linklater's film. Now, to add insult to injury there is this brand new Honest Trailer that points out all of the feature's serious flaws.
The main target that this video takes direct aim at is the same one that many Boyhood-haters have been using since the movie was released last year: that the film is more about its own gimmick than it is a interesting piece of storytelling. The ambitious project was filmed over the course of 12 years, following the same group of actors over that same time period, and while the Honest Trailers crew does admit that this was quite a substantial effort, it seems they were left wanting by the film's story of drunk asshole stepfathers and temporary teenage romance.
While I mostly disagree with Honest Trailers' assessment of Boyhood - as proven by the fact that the film was featured on my Top 10 list for 2014 - but I will give the video series a lot of credit for their presentation on this one. Instead of using the standard deep-voiced narrator to point out all of the movies faults, the crew went Weird Al Yankovic for this episode and wrote a full-on parody of Family of the Year's song "Hero," which was notable featured in Boyhood's trailer. Even better, this is actually the second one in a row with a musical component, as the crew also wrote their own version of "Everything Is Awesome" when they recorded their LEGO Movie episode last week.
Also, is anyone else happy they finally showed the voice over guy? I have to admit I was curious what he looked like.
Boyhood is currently up for six Academy Awards, and we'll find out how well it winds up doing when February 22nd a.k.a. Oscar Sunday rolls around.
