The Academy Awards are tomorrow night and Richard Linklater still has a very good shot at winning Best Director, or even Best Picture for “Boyhood,” an almost 3-hour indie that seemed like an unlikely Oscar candidate when it debuted at Sundance in January 2014.
Linklater’s obviously done an entire season of press, but just showed up recently on Jeff Goldsmith’s Q&A Podcast. It’s an insightful conversation worth listening to, one that perhaps inspires further admiration for Linklater because of his commitment, his wise choices and the craft behind the film. While some “brutally honest” Oscar voters have said the movie feels cobbled together and not written, the truth is none of the film is improvised. All of it is purposefully structured to feel like it’s naturalistic and easy-going, but behind the scenes is a carefully put-together screenplay that had the benefit of being tweaked each year before he shot.
What’s doubly impressive, as we discovered when we talked to him...
