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Boychoir
A troubled and angry 11-year-old orphan from a small Texas town, ends up at a Boy Choir school after the death of his single mother. Completely out of his element, he finds himself in a battle of wills with a demanding Choir Master who recognises a unique talent in this young boy as he pushes him to discover his creative heart and soul in music.
Release : | 2014 |
Rating : | 6.7 |
Studio : | Informant Media, Informant Films, |
Crew : | Art Department Coordinator, Art Direction, |
Cast : | Dustin Hoffman Kevin McHale Josh Lucas Debra Winger Kathy Bates |
Genre : | Drama Music |
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Just perfect...
i must have seen a different film!!
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
I Was thoroughly entertained and was not expecting it.
Boychoir (2014): Dir: Francois Girard / Cast: Garrett Wareing, Dustin Hoffman, Josh Lucas, Kathy Bates, Joe West: Impressive drama focusing on the voice of a troubled youth. Garrett Wareing plays Stet whose mother is a prostitute and this plays into his bad behaviour. When she is killed in a car accident, he is met with the father who hasn't seen him in ages. Josh Lucas plays him and he has distanced himself from his previous relationship despite still paying child support. He has since married with two daughters following as well as an upper class lifestyle. He buys his sheltered son into a music school where boy's singing talent can be explored. From there it becomes a back and forth battle between Stet and Carvelle, an accomplished and well received conductor of the school's boychoir. Wareing gives a great performance as a kid from a broken home and despite sparring against authority he still hopes to use his talent to elevate a purpose of living. Hoffman as the no-nonsense Carvelle voices his frustration with Stet's conductor / professor who, despite his reluctance, still sees a light of promising talent. Lucas as Stet's father is guilt ridden and uses payoffs to aid it. Kathy Bates provides comic relief as the school dean who desires to see the choir move pro. Finally there is Joe West as the rival kid whose voice everyone bets on until Stet steals the moment. West as Devon uses dirty tactics that work well in providing tension with Stet's placement in the choir as well as the school. The result is a crowd pleasing drama with a voice promising a better tomorrow for the underdog facing huge odds. Score: 9 / 10
This film has been unfairly bashed by a lot of critics because of it's lack of originality. My take on this is the subject matter cannot go in that many directions. You can find similarities in every films about choir boys. Heck even the hit cult French film "The Chorist is far from original and recycle story lines from films that came before it. In most of these films you will get a trouble boy or boys who gets his or their life changed by his or their new found love of singing. This film is no different and if you are aware of that before going into it you will see the good point of that film rather then the fact that it is a very familiar story. Young and troubled Stet (Garrett Wareing) is sent to a Choir school by his father he never met before (Stet is a secret son,the product of a one night stand) following the death of his junkie mother. Things start roughly as Stet is accepted via bribe by his father desperate to put his son somewhere so he can be back to his real family. This causes some students and teachers to only see Stet as a charity case with no real musical talent.However Stet determination pays off and the main teacher Mr Carvelle (Dustin Hoffman) finally start noticing that their might be more to the boy then meet the eye. So yes pretty straightforward story and yes it sound like a TV movie from lifetime but you know what it has a good heart and all the actors seems to really enjoy themselves. Kathy Bates as the overworked headmistress ,Eddy Izzard as a competitive teacher , Kevin McHale as the teacher who first notice Stet's talent along with Hoffman creates a very interesting dynamic and they breath life to the school. Garrett Wareing is easy to root for as Stet , he his misunderstood and a victim of his upbringing.The actor convey that sense of wanting to break free from the tag everybody has placed on him all his life and he convey a quiet sort of will power and maturity really well. The only thing that bothered me is Stet's relationship with his father felt rushed and underdeveloped and they wrapped this storyline conveniently.It is a shame as it was intriguing and it could have been explored a lot more. With that said , listen ! Yeah this films has received a lot of bad review for being too "Simple" but people who are interested in theses type of films should not be looking for "Interstellar" they should be looking for a sweet little heart warmer with excellent music and songs and this film do that! (The singing is AMAZING) !!! A perfect little film to watch on a rainy Sunday. I give it a 8 out of 10.
Anyone attending a graduation ceremony at the American Boychoir School, as I did a few hours before seeing this film in Princeton, would be impressed with its tremendous and infectious school spirit. It is a joyous group of young people who uphold one another and love being together. Their enthusiasm has been buoyed up, and deservedly so, by the choir's glowing work in this film. As others have already noted, the singing is glorious, and one hopes is an audience's most lasting takeaway.One's heart goes out to Stet, at first sight perhaps not the kind of boy one would expect to be smitten to the core within a moment of hearing such music. But he was! Given a chance to join, he is afraid to try at first, because failure and rejection would hurt so much. Time and again, it was the exquisite beauty of what he heard around him that drove him on, even when it seemed out of reach.Aside from that-- I very much wanted to love this movie more than I'm ultimately able to do. Especially given its every suggestion that it is a portrayal of life in the American Boychoir School (or any choral foundation for that matter), we must bear in mind, IT IS FICTION! For according to the movie, this is a grim life in a hostile place, in which a boy might find no friends, no teamwork, and even a faculty member or two implacably opposed to his very presence. We see only merciless competition and rivalry, sometimes descending to unscrupulous malice for which the guilty peer gets only a slap on the wrist. This is not the stuff of which a great ensemble, as the American Boychoir clearly is, can be made. Alas, in this respect I fear that the scriptwriter and director have done a disservice to the art and institution that they meant to promote.This is a serious matter at a time when plenty of choir school graduates go on to the most prestigious high schools in the country, and plenty of parents dream of exactly this outcome from the moment their child is born. To a large extent, it is the immersion in great music that does this. Yet the dots don't get connected: there is a shortage of applicants to choir schools, among other excellent boarding schools for children of this age, both here and abroad. Interested families understandably want to be assured that they will find a supportive, nurturing atmosphere in which every pupil is almost guaranteed to flourish happily. This is what such schools provide, as their students and alumni enthusiastically report. Reading music is patiently taught, not a prerequisite for admission. But you'd never guess it from the film.If others feel that this single reservation I have expressed is too harsh, nothing would please me more. Boy goes to choir school and becomes a success. "Predictable", people say, as if this were a criticism. But oh how right they are.