The great Jimmy Stewart was once asked what he thought made for a classic movie: "Thats a very tough question when you come right down to it. More than ever, its survivability." Trust him to pick the key defining point: a films ability to remain as fresh, relevant and compelling after the passage of decades, allowing the next generation of movie lovers as much pleasure and insight from it as those who saw it when it was first released. Beyond the broad idea of timelessness, a classic is often one which takes the technical and artistic aspects of filmmaking to the highest level, pushing the established conventions of the artform in new and original directions. In short, classic movies capture universal truths - or the essence of the genre to which they belong - with eloquence and flair above and beyond the competition. Labelling recent movies "classic" is always going to be tricky (the passage of time is, after all, the crucial element which solidifies this status), but some movies released this decade have the right stuff when it comes to being candidates.
15. Boyhood
Boyhood isn't going to be remembered for its aesthetic style - shooting over a twelve year period with a loose approach to the narrative meant that this is perhaps Richard Linklater's most lacklustre-looking film (which is saying something - his direction is often more associated with functionality rather than flair). What Boyhood will be remembered for is the way in which it captures the ebbs and flows of growing up; more specifically, growing up as a boy in America in the early twentieth century. Linklater's casual approach to dramatic beats - and pointed avoidance of moments of obvious melodrama - lends the film a feeling of familiarity, capturing petty disputes, boredom, hopes and disappointments with which we're all familiar. It's easy to see why some people found Boyhood slow and boring, but complaints about passages of inaction and a meandering pace miss the point. Life for the most part is only over intermittently exciting and rarely evolves with the predictability of a movie. In this sense, Boyhood fulfils its ambitious objective.
