The Boxtrolls (2014) — PASS
Boyhood (2014) — PICK
Return to Me (2000) — PICK

One of the most acclaimed films of 2014, Richard Linklater’s “Best Picture”-nominated Boyhood is an unprecedented cinematic achievement: a fictional drama shot over 12 years with the same cast of actors, including a protagonist who ages before viewers’ eyes from 6 to 18. A quasi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale inspired by Linklater’s own childhood in Texas, the story depicts a single mother (Patricia Arquette) struggling to provide for her two young children (Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater, the director’s daughter), while her absent husband (Ethan Hawke) drifts in and out of their lives. The reverberating effects of growing up in a broken home echo through the film, revealing the world as Graham Greene says film should: as it is and as it ought to be.

One disappointment of 2014 is the Oscar-nominated The Boxtrolls. Lacking in inspiration, it’s enamored of some of the more tired, most grating clichés of contemporary family entertainment.

New on Blu-ray in time for Valentine’s Day, Return to Me is one of my favorite romantic movies, a low-key rom-com starring a winsome Minnie Driver and an easygoing David Duchovny. Among the film’s virtues are positive Catholic culture and piety and Carroll O’Connor, Robert Loggia and their cronies debating the relative merits of Irish and Italian culture. Director Bonnie Hunt displays an admirable trust in the simple but powerful premise, and Hunt and James Belushi provide a hilarious but affectionate glimpse of large-family life, full of foibles and charms.