Film Intros

Boyhood

To bring his biggest and boldest idea for a film to fruition the Texas-based auteur Richard Linklater committed himself, along with a stable of actors and production workers to a minimum twelve year-long project. Such is his self-belief and the confidence he inspires in others, the obsessive discipline to prepare for the annual shoots and the creative fluidity to make the most of them, that there never seems to have been much doubt about the outcome. Boyhood (2014) has achieved huge critical acclaim and recouped its budget ten times over. As Mason, initially six years old, progresses from 1st through to 12th grade the actor Ellar Coltrane is himself growing up, while Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as his mom and dad are gradually ageing, along with other relatives and friends. This natural transition heightens the realism of the joys and conflicts presented, including, as I remember it, the unfortunate installation of borderline psychopaths into the home. It’s no picnic for the child or adolescent in a family beset by familiar 21st century dysfunctions, but an engrossing two hour and forty minute journey for the viewer.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1065073

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/boyhood

Taxi

Introduced by Caroline

Taxi (aka Taxi Tehran) is an understated, seemingly innocuous yet eye-opening film, giving Western viewers an insight into daily life in Iran which they otherwise wouldn’t have, through the stories of passengers in a “share taxi” travelling through the city streets. It’s a kind of docufiction, made in defiance of a 20 year ban imposed in 2010. The taxi becomes a setting for debate and drama around social issues such as women having to wear the hijab. So much more has happened since Jafar Panahi wrote, directed and played the lead role of the good-humoured driver in this 2015 film which won the Golden Bear award. He was detained in Tehran’s Evin Prison in July 2022 for protesting against the arrest of fellow directors. After going on hunger strike, he was released in 2023. His next film, It Was Just an Accident (2025) won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. He returned to Iran from exile in France in April this year, determined to continue at whatever personal risk with his thought-provoking, serious yet playful brand of film-making focused on the realities of Iranian society.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4359416

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/taxi_2015