Boys | |
---|---|
Directed by | Stacy Cochran |
Written by | Stacy Cochran |
Based on | "Twenty Minutes" by James Salter |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Robert Elswit |
Edited by | Camilla Toniolo |
Music by | Stewart Copeland |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures Distribution |
Release date | May 10, 1996 |
Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $516,350 |
Boys is a 1996 American film starring Winona Ryder and Lukas Haas. It is based very loosely on a short story called "Twenty Minutes" by James Salter.
The film is set in an East Coast boys boarding school, and was shot in Baltimore and on the campus of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.
John Baker Jr. is a boy bored with his life at an upper middle class boarding school, and the prospect of his future running the family grocery store chain. He no longer sees the point in school, stating what's the difference if he gets a zero attendance for being three minutes late or skipping the whole class so he might as well skip the class. Now close to graduating from boarding school, his life is turned upside down when he rescues Patty Vare, a young woman he finds lying unconscious in a field. Patty regains consciousness that evening in John's dormitory. She stays awake long enough to tell him she will not go to a doctor, and then passes out and does not awaken until the next morning. She seems to recover completely and to be grateful for John's assistance; the two begin a romantic voyage of self-discovery. This is not without its problems, as other boys in the dorm quickly find out she is being hidden in his room, leading up to a dramatic confrontation with Baker's close friends where his 'best friend' becomes enraged and punches a wall, breaking his hand, while the two continue to argue over the reason as to why Baker has hidden her in his room.
Throughout the film, there are continuous flashbacks of Vare's past, showing her with a famous baseball player with whom she steals a car, leading up to a drunken car crash and his death (for which authorities are searching for Vare for questioning). By the end, Vare has admitted all this to Baker and informed the authorities of the location of the body and the car (as they crashed into a river). At the police station, both Baker and Vare begin to say goodbye when they unexpectedly jump into an elevator to escape from Baker's controlling father, and drive off with a car he had earlier stolen from the school.
After "a dispute with her studio led to an extensive involuntary editing process," director Cochran commented that "much of the original intent and beauty of the film had been lost, due to studio interference." [1]
The film received negative reviews from critics. Terrence Rafferty of The New Yorker wrote, "Boys, subjected to self-fulfilling negative buzz, has received lukewarm-to-terrible reviews and has done no business. It deserves better. [...] Cochran is too eccentric to make a conventional comedy, yet unfortunately (in marketing terms), her style is too subtle and uninsistent to place her among the aggressively hip, genre-bending filmmakers of the Tarantino generation. The funny thing is, this young filmmaker may have a more deeply subversive sensibility than any of her celebrated peers." [2] Boys holds a rating of 15% on Rotten Tomatoes from 27 reviews. The site's consensus states "Winona Ryder's femme fatale proves to be a blank cipher in Boys, a mystery with an intriguing hook that quickly fizzles into teenage ennui." [3]
The soundtrack to the film was released on April 9, 1996.
Heathers is a 1989 American teen black comedy film written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, in both of their respective film debuts. The film stars Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and Penelope Milford. Its plot portrays four teenage girls—three of whom are named Heather—in a clique at an Ohio high school, one of whose lives is disrupted by the arrival of a misanthrope intent on murdering the popular students and staging their deaths as suicides.
Winona Laura Horowitz, known professionally as Winona Ryder, is an American actress. Originally playing quirky roles, she rose to prominence for her more diverse performances in various genres in the 1990s. She has received many accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for a Grammy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Academy Awards.
Mr. Deeds is a 2002 American comedy film directed by Steven Brill, written by Tim Herlihy, and starring Adam Sandler in the title role, Winona Ryder, Peter Gallagher, Jared Harris, Allen Covert, Erick Avari, and John Turturro. It was a remake of the 1936 Frank Capra film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, which itself was based on the 1935 short story Opera Hat by Clarence Budington Kelland as it tells the story of a pizzeria owner who learns that he is the heir of a late multi-billionaire as he also meets a television reporter wanting a story on him.
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael is a 1990 American comedy-drama film directed by Jim Abrahams and starring Winona Ryder and Jeff Daniels.
Celebrity is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, and features an ensemble cast. The screenplay describes the divergent paths a couple takes following their divorce.
Mermaids is a 1990 American family comedy-drama film directed by Richard Benjamin, and starring Cher, Bob Hoskins, Winona Ryder, Michael Schoeffling, and Christina Ricci in her film debut. Based on Patty Dann's 1986 novel of the same name, and set in the early 1960s, its plot follows a neurotic teenage girl who moves with her wayward mother and young sister to a small town in Massachusetts.
How to Make an American Quilt is a 1995 American drama film based on the 1991 novel of the same name by Whitney Otto. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, the film features Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Nelligan and Alfre Woodard. It also marked Jared Leto's film debut. Amblin Entertainment optioned Otto's novel in 1991, and were able to persuade Steven Spielberg to finance the screenplay's development. How to Make an American Quilt garnered mixed reviews from critics. It was a box-office success, grossing $41 million against a $10 million budget. The film received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
The Darwin Awards is a 2006 American adventure comedy film based on the website of the same name written and directed by Finn Taylor, the film premiered January 25, 2006, at the Sundance Film Festival. The film features Joseph Fiennes, Winona Ryder, David Arquette, Juliette Lewis, Wilmer Valderrama, Chris Penn, Julianna Margulies, Robin Tunney, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Brad Hunt, Adam Savage, Jamie Hyneman and Metallica. This was Chris Penn's last movie before his death on January 24, 2006, the day before the film's premiere. The film includes several full and partial re-enactments of "Darwin Awards", the earliest of which were fictitious, most notably the debunked JATO Rocket Car story.
Lost Souls is a 2000 American apocalyptic supernatural horror film directed by Janusz Kamiński, in his directorial debut, and starring Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin, Elias Koteas, and John Hurt. Its plot focuses on a devout Catholic woman who becomes convinced through the decoding of ciphers that a successful writer has been designated by Satan to become to antichrist.
The Age of Innocence is a 1993 American historical romantic drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. The screenplay, an adaptation of the 1920 novel of the same name by Edith Wharton, was written by Scorsese and Jay Cocks. The film stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder and Miriam Margolyes, and was released by Columbia Pictures. The film recounts the courtship and marriage of Newland Archer (Day-Lewis), a wealthy New York society attorney, to May Welland (Ryder); Archer then encounters and legally represents Countess Olenska (Pfeiffer) prior to unexpected romantic entanglements.
Sex and Death 101 is a 2007 dark comedy science fiction film written and directed by Daniel Waters, released in the United States on April 4, 2008. The film marks the reunion of writer/director Daniel Waters and Winona Ryder, who previously worked on the 1988 film Heathers, written by Waters.
The Ten is a 2007 anthology comedy film directed by David Wain, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ken Marino. It was released through ThinkFilm. The film was released on August 3, 2007. The DVD was released on January 15, 2008. It is an international co-production between the United States and Mexico. It received mixed reviews.
Autumn in New York is a 2000 American romantic drama film directed by Joan Chen and starring Richard Gere, Winona Ryder, and Anthony LaPaglia. Written by Allison Burnett, the film follows a successful middle-aged restaurateur and womanizer who falls in love with a sweet young woman who is terminally ill. United States distributor MGM took over the film from Chen and significantly re-edited the film, which also involved deleting a Winona Ryder nude scene. The film received generally negative reviews, but was a moderate commercial success, grossing $100 million on a $65 million budget.
While She Was Out is a 2008 American thriller film starring Kim Basinger and Lukas Haas. Basinger plays a suburban housewife who is forced to fend for herself when she becomes stranded in a desolate forest with four murderous thugs. It was written and directed by film producer Susan Montford based on a short story by Edward Bryant which was originally an episode of the TV series The Hidden Room in 1993. The film was produced by Mary Aloe and Don Murphy. Its executive producers included Guillermo del Toro and Basinger. The film was shot in 2006 and had a very limited release in 5 theaters in Texas during 2008.
Stay Cool is a 2009 American comedy film directed by Michael Polish, and written by Mark Polish. The film stars Winona Ryder, Mark Polish, Hilary Duff, Sean Astin, Josh Holloway, Jon Cryer, and Chevy Chase. The film premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival and released theatrically in 2011.
Her Twelve Men is a 1954 American comedy drama film starring Oscar-winning Greer Garson and Robert Ryan, directed by Robert Z. Leonard, and written by William Roberts and Laura Z. Hobson. This MGM production was based on the best-selling pseudo-autobiographical book written by Louise Maxwell Baker, Snips and Snails. Baker herself taught at an all-boys boarding school, as the only female teacher in the school. Subsequently, Louise recounts many of the funny stories from her time as a teacher in Snips and Snails, which then translates into the film, Her Twelve Men.
My New Gun is a 1992 American black comedy film written and directed by Stacy Cochran in her debut. It stars Diane Lane, James Le Gros, Stephen Collins, and Tess Harper, and also features an early minor role for Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Stacy Cochran is an American film director, screenwriter and producer based in New York City. She is best known for her films My New Gun (1992) and Boys (1996).
The Violent Heart is a 2020 American drama film written and directed by Kerem Sanga. It stars Jovan Adepo, Grace Van Patten, Lukas Haas, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Cress Williams, Jahi Di'Allo Winston, and Mary J. Blige.
Gone in the Night is an 2022 American thriller film, directed by Eli Horowitz, in his directorial debut from a screenplay by Horowitz and Matthew Derby. It stars Winona Ryder, Dermot Mulroney, John Gallagher Jr., Owen Teague and Brianne Tju.