''Best Boy'' is a 1979 American documentary made by

Ira Wohl Ira Wohl is an American documentary filmmaker. He is most noted for his 1979 film ''Best Boy'', which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 52nd Academy Awards.Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosoph ...

Summary

The film follows Philly Wohl, Ira's mentally handicapped cousin, who at that time was 52 years old and still living with his elderly parents. Ira forces his aunt and uncle to realize that they will not be around to care for Philly forever, and that they must start making preparations for when that time should come. Philly then begins to attend classes in New York City to learn how to take care of himself and become independent. Philly's father, Max Wohl, dies during the course of the film. His mother, Pearl, died in 1980. Philly, himself, died in late April, 2020, at the age of 92.

Zero Mostel Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in ''Fiddler on the Roof'', Pseudolus on stage and on ...

died in 1977, and the film was dedicated to his memory.

Release

''Best Boy'' premiered at the

1979 Toronto International Film Festival The 4th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 6 and September 15, 1979. Due to overcrowding in the prior year, the Gala presentations were moved from the 700-seat Towne Cinema to the 1,6 ...

, where it was one of two documentary films (alongside

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...

's ''

Roger & Me ''Roger & Me'' is a 1989 American documentary film written, produced, directed by, and starring Michael Moore, in his directorial debut. Moore portrays the regional economic impact of General Motors CEO Roger Smith's action of closing several a ...

'' ten years later) to win the festival's

People's Choice Award The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls until ...

before a separate People's Choice Award was instituted for the festival's documentary stream.

Reception

Writing in ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

'',

David Denby David Denby (born 1943) is an American journalist. He served as film critic for ''The New Yorker'' until December 2014. Early life and education Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B. A. from Columbia University in 1965, and a master' ...

called ''Best Boy'' "a remarkably powerful film" with "an undercurrent of humor". In ''Film News'', Jack Neher described ''Best Boy'' as "a beautifully detailed and very moving portrait of a family undergoing profound change". In ''

Commonweal Commonweal or common weal may refer to: * Common good, what is shared and beneficial for members of a given community * Common Weal, a Scottish think tank and advocacy group * ''Commonweal'' (magazine), an American lay-Catholic-oriented magazin ...

'',

Colin Westerbeck Colin Leslie Westerbeck Jr. is a curator, writer, and teacher of the history of photography. Before moving to Los Angeles, where he has taught at UCLA and USC, he was curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago. He is a regular contri ...

wrote "It's difficult to describe the documentary that Ira Wohl has made about his cousin Philly in terms that aren't cliches. Best Boy is a movie that's "heartwarming." It's that rare film which is able to remove the quotation marks from such terms and leave us, for once, unembarrassed to use them." In addition to the Academy Award, ''Best Boy'' won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Documentary.

Aftermath

A sequel titled ''Best Man: 'Best Boy' and All of Us, 20 Years Later'', was produced in 1997."The Documentary As Family Memoir: A Surprise Sequel"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', January 11, 1998. Following the sequel, Wohl released ''Best Sister'' in 2006, which rounded off the trilogy by looking at the effect Philly's sister had on his current life."Ira Wohl To Screen His Academy Award-winning Film “Best Boy” May 17th At The CoSA Theater"
''

Coronado Eagle and Journal The California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC) is a freely-available, archive of digitized California newspapers; it is accessible through the project's website. The collection contains over six million pages from over forty-two million art ...

'', April 27, 2015.

References

External links

* * *
''Best Boy'' on Rotten Tomatoes
{{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Best Boy'' , list1 = {{AcademyAwardBestDocumentaryFeature1961-1980 {{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Non-Fiction Film {{TIFF People's Choice Award 1979 films American documentary films Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners POV (TV series) films Documentary films about people with disability 1979 documentary films 1970s English-language films 1970s American films Films about disability Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award winners