“Boyhood’s alternate title might as well be Patricia Arquette’s Bad Choices. Mason’s life is shaped by her inability to stop herself from falling for abusive drunks, first a professor and then a soldier-turned-corrections officer. Neither man particularly cares for Mason, and Mason doesn’t particularly care for them.” — from a 1.30 essay by freebeacon.com’s Sonny Bunch.

“Boyhood‘s Patricia Arquette delivers a fine performance, although I didn’t care for her character subjecting her kids to not one but two abusive, alcoholic conservative assholes as stepdads. I’m a bigger fan of either Birdman‘s Emma Stone or A Most Violent Year‘s Jessica Chastain in this category. But the none-too-hip consensus gang decided on Arquette a long time ago.” — from 12.1.14 HE piece about the 2014 N.Y. Film Critics Circle winners.