Boulevard (2014) Reviews

• 'People leave, you know? But for some people, it just doesn't seem fair.'

  gradyharp2015-09-05

  BOULEVARD will always remain a remarkable film despite the fat that it did so poorly in the theaters. Written by Douglas Soesbe and directed with immense subtlety by Dito Montiel, this film is a fitting tribute to one of America's greatest comedians, the star Robert Williams who offers a performance that echoes the lives of many men who elect to lead their lives as gay men in the closet for whatever reason. Williams was 63 years old when he died of apparent suicide following a long struggle with depression and this, his last film, is dedicated to this memory. Nolan Mack (Robin Williams in a performance so understated that it makes us forget during the film that he was one of the funniest crazies in the comedian arena) is 60, quietly married to an independent Joy Mack (Kathy Baker), quietly working in the same desk in the same back for years, tending his dying father, up for promotion as a bank manager, who turns down a wrong boulevard one evening – a street for hustlers and prostitutes and almost inadvertently picks up a young hustler Leo (Roberto Acquire) and begins a 'relationship' with him, supporting him financially and with attempts to find work for him, but never having a physically consummated act – just being in the hustler's presence is enough. We discover that Nolan is gay and has known since he was twelve but elected to never acted out on it. He has a close friend Winston (an Excellent Bob Odenkirk) with whom he communicates but never admits to anyone except his barely conscious father that he is gay. How he deals with his new discovery of the life for which he has yearned is the manner in which the film plays out – his confession to Joy, the rejection by Leo who has his own interpersonal relationship issues and flaws (a very impressive bit of writing that shows the insecurities of a hustler's mindset), and the trauma that finally exposes his real identity makes for a deeply moving though very quiet story. The film, in retrospect, seems an homage to the other side of the comedy mask Robin Williams wore. In many ways it is his Ave Atque Vale. Sensitive, subtle, deep, and heart- wrenchingly real, it is a fine yet sad way to say goodbye to Robin Williams.

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• A heart wrenching story about being honest with oneself

  Lowbacca19772014-04-26

  Robin Williams takes on another serious role here as Nolan, and he does another good job in playing a serious role like this and handling a lot of raw emotions that really diverge from the image of Robin Williams in the role of comedy, although there's certainly some humour he brings to some scenes. Really though, the film tackles a very somber and difficult topic as Nolan, long since married, takes a sudden leap into trying to acknowledge his homosexuality when he picks up a young guy off the street, paying him just to spend time with him. The idea of someone in a marriage having an affair usually is linked with boredom or disinterest, or some sort of deficiency present. What makes this powerful is that there is no deficiency in the marriage, it's simply something that Nolan can't choose to be. There is love between him and his wife, but they seem to be different loves. To an extent, I found the film difficult to watch, particularly the scenes with Leo, the young man that Nolan develops an infatuation with, but part of the power of the film are those scenes, the awkwardness and uncertainty that Williams brings to Nolan, and the overpowering feeling that he's not sure how to accept what it is he wants. It's a very different sort of story than what I've seen of dealing with someone being gay, but it's strongly shown that it is a story that deserves telling. Most poignant about the film, for me, wasn't the film itself so much as what was discussed during the Q&A, and an unusual coincidence that happened during the shooting of the film. One of the filming locations belonged to a couple that had been married for decades, but where the husband came out only a few years prior to being contacted by a location scout. That just adds something powerful to it for me, perhaps just as it really added to the sincerity of the film to have someone stand up and say that the heart-wrenching and painful scenes in the film can be very real, but that the underlying love, even if not quite romantic, is also very real. I did find the film dragged, and there was a slow agony to it, somewhat like slowly removing a band-aid, so while I think the core of it is a very powerful set of emotions, as a film I was less impressed, and that as a film it was solid, but not stand out.

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• A Final Bow

  soncoman2015-07-09

  It's been nearly a year since we lost Robin Williams to a long-standing bout of depression that eventually led to his suicide. This led to an enormous outcry of grief all over the celebrity and social media world from those who had grown up on his movies, television and standup and caused many to reflect on this talent that we had perhaps taken for granted. No one can deny that his movies weren't always diamonds, but his work in them was almost always admirable and memorable. The fact that he spent the last couple of years of his life giving great performances in terrible little-seen direct to VOD films ("The Angriest Man In Brooklyn", "A Merry Friggin' Christmas"), with the occasional cameo in something truly awful ("The Big Wedding"), is a rather tragic thought. But fortunately, with Dito Montiel's newly released film Boulevard, Williams goes out strong, if not quite on top. Williams plays Nolan, a man who's stuck in your typical indie-film marriage, i.e. loveless. He's friendly and cordial with his wife, but is clearly missing something vital. One night he's driving home and spots a group of gay hookers on the sidewalk and after nearly accidentally running one over, he befriends him and starts to confront his closeted homosexuality. He gets advice from his friend Winston, played by Bob Odenkirk, who brings all the levity and spontaneity that you'd hope for from the guy who plays Saul Goodman in a role that could have felt a tad superfluous. He's clearly only in the movie to give Nolan a person off which to bounce his thoughts, but with an actor like Odenkirk in the role, it's hard to complain about such matters. If you feel like you've seen this film before, you probably have. We've seen this suburbia set-up many times over the last couple of decades, so when a film goes for this, you really have to count on strong performances and interesting surprises to make it worth your while. Thanks to Williams' tender, vulnerable, aching performance, the film always stays on the side of watchable, and often fascinating. An electronic synthesizer score often tends to call too much attention to itself and distract from the fine performances by not just Williams, but also Roberto Aguire as Leo, the young man whom Nolan befriends. Fortunately though, once the film firmly establishes what it's about, such distracting little director quirks either ceased altogether, or just stopped bothering me. Certainly for someone like me, a huge fan of his work, it's impossible to watch Williams play such a sad, morose character and not be reminded of what happened shortly after this film was finished. It's just unavoidable. But thankfully, that would just be me reading too much into the story. The man was an actor, and an excellent one at that. Remove all of the comedies from his resume, and you're still left with one of the most impressive collections of dramatic performances in recent memory. This film is no exception. Every time he smiles to avoid confronting the pain and confusion that Nolan feels so strongly, we don't question him in the slightest bit. When we see him look at Leo with his expression of sorrow and pity, it's impossible not to feel right there with him. It may not be best film of Williams' career, and it's a real shame that he never experienced the ultra renaissance that I'm sure was on the horizon for him, but as a film for an actor of this stature to go out on, he could have done much worse than "Boulevard". Grade: B

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• An Uneven Average Film That Is Most Notable For Being One of Robin Williams Last Performances

  comicman1172015-08-30

  Boulevard is not a particularly great movie, and suffers from its utter generic-ness and lack of ambition. The absolute best thing I can say about the film, however, is it contains one of Robin Williams's last acting performances, and in spite of such an average picture, he manages to turn in a fine, very restrained, dramatic performance. The kind we had come to expect from Williams. The set-up of the story is simple. A bank clerk, named Nolan (played by Robin Williams, lives a pretty standard life. He and his wife (played by Kathy Baker) have set-up their marriage as a way to distract themselves from the outside world. All of this changes one night while driving. Nolan encounters a troubled young man, named Leo (played by Roberto Aguire), and his entire life changes, as he comes to embrace who he really is, and even his own sexuality. Boulevard is a pretty atypical film. It's well directed by Dito Montiel (who also made Guide To Recognizing Your Saints) and the script is okay, even having some genuine laughs in it. The performances all around, not just Williams, are fine, including Kathy Baker as his wife, Roberto Acquire as the troubled youth he befriends and Bob Odenkirk in a small role as one of his accomplices and friend named Winston. It's really Robin Williams who shines through though. This may not be one of his absolute best performances, but for being one of his final roles, it isn't a bad role either. Williams isn't being manically over the top (overly dramatic) in this film. He's showing the level of restraint that he's usually showed in some of his best roles like Good Will Hunting and Dead Poets Society. For example, when he confronts his wife after missing dinner, instead of screaming and hollering, he tries to calm her down, and is very resourceful as playing it cool. Boulevard is a rather short film with less than 90 minutes. The director clearly has skill in making a competent picture, but aside from Williams's performance, I wasn't drawn into much of the story. For being one of Robin Williams's last performances, it does make me sad, but either way, it was a good role for him to go out on.

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• An incredibly gripping final performance in an average movie

  stephendaxter2015-08-20

  Boulevard stars the late Robin Williams and is the last on screen acting performance we will ever get to see of the man who changed so many peoples lives through his amazing performances in films. And this performance is no different, it is a different type of role, a very dramatic role and i have to say he has left us with one of the best performances of his long and incredible career. Boulevard may not be a fantastic movie but Robin Williams showed in every scene why he was one of the greatest of his generation. He manages to portray this character who is so kind and giving but at the same time conflicted with feelings that he holds to himself so amazingly that you cannot look away from the screen. And with such a small cast he shines as he carries the film from start to finish making you feel so many different emotions at the same time for this incredibly fascinating character. The small supporting cast were all great and all contributed to really understanding Robin's character and why he acts the way he does throughout the film. I speak a lot about Robin's performance when talking about this film because it really is the best thing about the movie and apart from a few other aspects the movie wasn't as fantastic as it could have been. Another thing i thought was so incredibly interesting about this movie is that it deals with many different themes and ideas that you don't see often in mainstream movies. It highlights certain topics in American society and although it isn't the most accurate representation of these topics it does it's best not to sugarcoat what is happening and that really helped staying engaged in the film. The movie also takes on a very, very slow pace and i understand that the movie needed to have this pace in order to properly share this mans story but without the performance mentioned above driving the film it would not have been nearly as good. The movie has plenty of very slow emotional moments that almost bring you to tears but it also get fairly dark and intense and although the two tones could have been balanced better throughout the film i found myself on the edge of my seat most of the time. The last 10-15 minutes of the movie seemed to fly by and some of what it showed i thought was very relevant to concluding the story but some other things i felt were unjustly concluded, i guess i wanted a little more in the end but it was an alright finale. In the end, Robin Williams is the reason to watch this movie because not only was it one of his last but it was one of his best and was a truly emotional performance. The film itself was somewhat engaging but a lot of what was wrong with the film was hidden behind Robin's great performance. - 6.5

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