Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 15 April

Boy A (Crowley, 2007)

I’ve had this tab open since I saw We Live in Time back in September last year as I knew that it would be a nice con­nec­tion between Andrew Garfield’s most recent col­lab­or­a­tion with dir­ect­or John Crowley and his first. It’s only now that Boy A has become avail­able, yet anoth­er example of how piti­able our online choices really are.

Boy A fea­tured in the New Zealand International Film Festival in 2008 but took a year to return to cinemas:

The great Peter Mullan (My Name is Joe, The Claim) plays a social work­er pre­par­ing a young man for the out­side world. “Jack Burridge” has been in deten­tion since he par­ti­cip­ated in the bru­tal murder of a young girl when he was a child. Given a new iden­tity in a new town, and coached by Mullan, he ven­tures out to see if redemp­tion is pos­sible – redemp­tion tak­ing the form of a nor­mal life with jobs, pubs and girl­friends. Beautifully acted by Mullan, Andrew Garfield (as Jack) and Katie Lyons as the woman who falls for him, Boy A is the best film in a very good week and it makes you won­der how the British film industry can put so much time, effort and lot­tery money into garbage like Sex Lives of the Potato Men when there’s tal­ent like this about.

I’ve also been think­ing – as I sup­pose has Prime Video – that Boy A might make a good com­pan­ion piece to the TV show of the moment, Adolescence on Netflix.

Also in that July 2009 Capital Times review: the ori­gin­al and best of The Hangover tri­logy (“… the Citizen Kane of all getting-fucked-up-in-Vegas movies – so supremely pre-eminent that (let us hope) we nev­er have to watch anoth­er of its kind ever again); Viggo Mortensen plays a reluct­ant Nazi in Good; Ben Kingsley and Penélope Cruz in a Philip Roth adapt­a­tion, Elegy; Will Ferrell reboot­ing Land of the Lost (“the adult tone makes it an unwise choice for any­one under 10 and the lack of good jokes make it a poor choice for any­one older than that”); and faith-based high school rugby redemp­tion story Forever Strong – “simply must be destroyed”.

Where to watch Boy A

Aotearoa, Australia & Canada: Streaming on Prime Video

Ireland: Not cur­rently avail­able online

India: Digital rental

USA: Streaming on Peacock or Kanopy (free from par­ti­cip­at­ing libraries)

UK: Not cur­rently avail­able online