A small, huge film about the harsh realities of rehabilitation, and the shimmering possibility of redemption.
Comment
07/25/08
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Boy A (2008)
83 %
Reviews Counted: 24 Fresh: 20 Rotten:4 Average Rating: 7/10
Consensus:
Small in scale but large in impact, Boy A's career making performances (particularly that by star Andrew Garfield) and carefully crafted characters defy judgment and aggressively provoke debate.
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Theatrical Release: Jul 23, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Based on the award winning novel of the same name by Jonathan Trigell, Jack (Andrew Garfield) is released from prison at the age of 24, having been institutionalized for most of his life after he and another boy murdered a child, when they were themselves children. The film follows Jack's... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Shaun Evans, Siobhan Finneran, Katie Lyons
Director: John Crowley
Screenwriter: Mark O'Rowe
Producer: Nick Marston, Tally Garner, Lynn Horsford
Composer: Paddy Cunneen
Screenwriter: Mark O'Rowe
Producer: Nick Marston, Tally Garner, Lynn Horsford
Composer: Paddy Cunneen
Reviews
Top Critic
If Hitchcock had done a coming-of-age drama, it might have resembled this haunting, nervous, sad movie.
07/25/08
Top Critic Top Critic
Sensitive portrait of a young man's efforts to reintegrate into society after committing a horrible crime as a child.
07/25/08
In director John Crowley's wrenching drama, "moving on" proves to be an illusion.
07/25/08
Wisely, John Crowley embeds the mulling of social issues within a character study, albeit one that stylistically straddles Loachian realism and lad-movie flashiness.
07/24/08
Crowley, his cast and the script constantly reveal new layers to the characters, preventing simple labels like 'hero' or 'villain.' These people are all cringingly human.
07/24/08
Lovingly photographed, achingly romantic and memorably acted by Garfield in a breakout role, it's a small movie worthy of a large audience.
07/24/08
Carefully calibrated to explore the solitariness of a character who cannot let himself be known ... Turns Boy A's very particular story into a scary, universal and wrenching social statement.
07/24/08
Boy A may follow an all-too schematic flashback structure, but the film is too brilliantly acted for that to really matter much.
07/23/08
An ingenuous 24-year-old man-child is at the center of John Crowley's wrenching melodrama Boy A.
07/23/08
Top Critic
Top Critic
Even though the film is a narrative disappointment, it is possibly of interest for Garfield's performance.
07/23/08
Boy A is so excessively mannered that the story’s human element (misunderstood youth, society’s indifference) is lost.
07/23/08
The Manchester-set drama could be labeled as kitchen sink, but Crowley breaks free from that label.
07/22/08
This is another of those dead-kid dramas in which the terrible event is handled like a striptease -- tantalizing flashes until the climax.
07/21/08
Top Critic
...Garfield presents an indelible portrait of a young man trying to figure out how to continue his life in the face of haunting secrets and a world that doesn't want to let him forget it.
06/23/08
One of the most gripping, thought provoking dramas ever to ponder crime and punishment.
06/22/08
Related Forums
(Tribeca/2008 USA release)-John Crowley's BOY A opens in NYC & LA this week!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 7/20
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(Tribeca/2008 USA release)-John Crowley's BOY A opens in NYC & LA this week!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 7/20
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(Tribeca/2008 USA release)-John Crowley's BOY A opens in NYC & LA this week!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 7/20
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(Tribeca/2008 USA release)-John Crowley's BOY A opens in NYC & LA this week!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 7/20
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