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A unique movie - and my newest celebrity crush!

Posted by Dissident on Sunday, December 14 2014 at 01:18:13AM

There is a cool and fairly ground-breaking new indie movie I would like to bring to the attention of the community here. I must say I'm rather startled that Markaba or Dante didn't review it first, because this is usually their thing. But since they haven't, I'll step in for them :-)

I'm especially glad to do that since this movie includes an amazing girl - and now young woman - who is my newest celebrity crush, the amazingly lovely Lorelei Linklater. In fact, she is the daughter of the writer and director of the film in question, Richard Linklater, and despite the act of nepotism behind her casting, she did a most remarkable job.

The film in question is the newly released Boyhood. This is not a movie whose central character is a girl; rather, it features actor Ellar Coltrane in the role of Mason, the boy who is the main featured character. It's also not about any theme related to intergenerational love. However, it's quite a remarkable accomplishment on its own merits for director/screenwriter Linklater, and his daughter Lorelei does have a rather major role throughout the film as Mason's slightly older sister. And what an impression she makes! This girl is a total gem to behold, and she is an awesome example of how truly amazing girls are!

First things first, though. What is so groundbreaking about this film is that auteur Richard Linklater filmed it over the course of 12 years - from 2002 to the present - using the same cast throughout. As a result, you get to see Mason and Samantha start from the point when Mason is six years of age and Samantha is about eight, and continue until the former is 18 and the latter about 20. You get to follow their lives through a 12 year span where they grow out of childhood and into late adolescence, following their good times and bad times throughout.

There is nothing sensationalistic or soap opera-ish about this film. Nothing particularly spectacular happens to Mason and the rest of his family. What does happen, however, is a study of his life - and the rest of his family and close friends - as he grows up and prepares to leave for college. We watch both the up and down periods of a boy and his sister as they deal with the various pangs of growing up, the fact that their parents are divorced and often at each others' throats, and what they have to deal with as their mother - who has main custody over the kids - marries and divorces two other men over the course of this 12 years. One of them turns out to be a bullying alcoholic, and that leads to really the only violence of the film. Their real father is quite cool despite his flaws, and the scenes of him interacting with his two kids as he strives to be a good parent despite not being able to live with his children are both moving and funny (see below for example clips).

The movie runs for almost three hours, and seeing the passage of time that occurs with the same cast members in the roles, particularly Mason and Samantha as they grow up, is truly impressive.

The sound track of this movie is also great, and Linklater is quite the director. The movie won't appeal to everyone for obvious reasons, but it's still an accomplishment worth noting, and it went over quite well at the Sundance Film Festival in the summer of 2014. It's now available on DVD, or for digital rental and purchase on Amazon.

Now I get to the point that is most relevant to this board: The truly amazing Lorelei Linklater. This girl is, without exaggeration, one of the most beautiful and talented girls I have ever had the privilege of seeing on camera. The nepotistic fact that she is David Linklater's daughter completely faded from my concern once I saw this lovely little goddess providing her acting chops. Her facial features are quite unique, and we get to see her from the time she is about eight years old to the the time she is about 20 throughout the movie, and at no point is she anything less than a beautiful sight for any sore eyes to behold. Yes, I do think she is most beautiful in the age range of 11-early teens, but she remains beautiful as a young adult of about 21 now, and my crush on her is as great as ever.

When we first see her at the age of around eight, Lorelei (as Samantha) totally steals every single scene she appears in! She is a brilliant and mischievous girl whose personality cannot help but dominate every single scene she is in, just by being herself, in a manner similar to the way that Joey King did in the interview clip with Selena Gomez that I linked here and was so awestruck by several months ago!

But again, please do not simply take my word for it! Check out this clip of then eight-year-old Samantha annoying the hell out of poor Mason by doing an extremely cute song and dance rendition of "Oops I did it again" in front of him when he's trying to go to sleep. Is this girl freakin' awesome or what?! :-)

Next, check out this clip of the still eight or nine-year-old Samantha aggravating her mom (played by Patricia Arquette) in the girl's own inimitable style as they prepare to move from their first house, which Samantha is not happy about. The things she says, and her way of saying it, are so adorably cute and hilarious that it provides a perfect example of why we GLer's find girls the most amazing group of people that this planet has ever been graced with :-) If you ever need to smile, you watch this clip!

Here we have a three minute black and white montage of clips from the film, played to the movie's main theme song, "Hero" by Family of the Year. Several clips of Lorelei as Samantha at the age of eight and nine can be seen, as well as a later clip of her at around age 19, with her still very beautiful smile in evidence.

Here we have a brief but very cute clip of now nine-year-old Mason and 11-year-old Samantha playing hide and seek with their dad (played by Ethan Hawke) during one of their excursions with him.

This clip shows us Samantha and Mason's dad flippantly admonishing his kids for not opening up to him more about their lives during their visits, and provides a good example of how funny and touching their interactions are. Here Lorelei is about 11 years old, and you get a very good look at her incredibly beautiful and unique-looking face. She looks sooooo adorable with braces, not to mention how beautiful her long and wavy brown hair happens to be. Her awesome personality is also on display here as she keeps her dad on his toes throughout their amusing convo.

And in this clip, where Samantha is now about 14, we have her dad making a hilariously awkward attempt to have "the talk" with her and Mason while dining out together. One can see here that the kids' dad Mason Sr. is a true progressive, and attempts to handle the situation in an open-minded and insightful manner now that he knows Sam has a boyfriend, despite how the awkwardness of the situation causes Sam and Mason to have to struggle not to cringe and burst out laughing, often both at the same time. Things get even more hilariously awkward when the woman Mason Sr. is then dating happens to notice them at the diner, and walks up to them to say hello. In this scene, btw, Lorelei couldn't possibly look more amazing, and I totally love, love, love how she is wearing her hair! She looks so incredible!!! She also has the most awesome smile and the cutest facial expressions to match her unique facial features, and her personality continues to glow with the intensity of a super-nova!

We have here a brief interview snippet with Richard Linklater talking about working with his daughter, and it includes a few recent pics of Lorelei at public appearances to promote the release of the movie, and it's quite evident how beautiful she remains despite "pushing" 21 :-) She can still pass for about 15, I think!

Finally, we have this a very brief recent snippet of Lorelei signing autographs at the NYC premiere of Boyhood early in the summer of '14, where you can again see how lovely and young-looking she is.




Dissident





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