Movie Review: Boyhood

Boyhood (2014): The life of a young man, Mason, from age 5 to age 18.

Wow. I don’t even know where to begin. Boyhood is not just the best movie I’ve seen in 2014, it’s one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Period. A masterpiece from Richard Linklater, the story of the filming of Boyhood is just as incredible as the movie itself. The film began production back in 2002, with the cast and crew meeting a few weeks every year to film the next segment of the movie. It is a marvel of a screenplay, and required a significant amount of risk-taking from Linklater, particularly with the casting of the brother and sister that we would watch grow up over the course of the flick. There were also several subtle pop culture references throughout the movie that, while you wouldn't think about it during the movie, were filmed as they were happening. I want you to take a minute to think about the difficulty that comes with trying to realize what would still be relevant 10 years later while it’s happening in the moment. Think you can do it? BS. You can't do it. These and many others are daunting tasks that are undertaken by Linklater in this very simple premise, and he nails it. Boyhood is this year’s Gravity. Except whereas Gravity was a masterpiece of visual achievement, Boyhood is a masterpiece of written achievement.

So, first off, the acting. Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke are casted as the parents, and they do a great job to help navigate our child-turned-teenager actors along whenever it’s needed. But, of course, the leads of the movie deserve just as much credit for creating a believable story with these characters, despite only having to use these characters a few weeks a year. Can you imagine how difficult it would be for an actor to only reprise a role a week or two a year? I mean sure TV actors will go 8 months without having to use a character, but then the filming of the next season will take place over the course of 4 months or something. They have plenty of time during that span to become refamiliarized with their characters. Not these guys. Anyway, Ellar Coltrane and the director’s own daughter, Lorelei Linklater, do an incredible job here. Coltrane plays Mason, who is kind of the main character of the movie, however Lorelei is just as important as the sister, Samantha, and is in the vast majority of the movie as well. Their chemistry is undeniable, and I honestly figured initially that these two actors were really brother and sister in real life. I mean wow. And some of the toughest moments of the movie from an acting standpoint are in the first few years from young Lorelei. Her father (the director) asked Lorelei to do some very difficult things, particularly with her mom (played by Patricia) when Lorelei was just 6 and 7 years old. A tall order for a kid, but she absolutely nails it. 

And then we get to the script. The script is quite possibly the best script I’ve ever seen. Almost guaranteed to win Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, director Linklater (who also wrote the movie) managed to successfully create a very abstract plot over the course of the 165-minute movie. There’s no single overarching storyline here. Rather, there’s a lot of little things that happen all throughout the movie that are set up in one year and then solved. Sometimes they are solved in the same year they are set up and other times they are set up and resolved a few years later. Then the movie moves on, as the events become just a memory, similar to what happens in our actual lives. They’re still there, but we learn to move on. There’s an element of grounded human emotion in this movie that is created because of how real this movie really is. And by the end I had a feeling that I’ve never really felt before in a movie because…well because I felt like I grew up with Mason and Samantha, too. Remember how you felt in Toy Story 3 when Andy goes off to college? That feeling multiplied by 10 is how you’ll feel at the end of this movie. A guaranteed tear-jerker. Sure it’s 165 minutes long, but it could’ve just as easily been 265 minutes long and I would not have cared. It’s so real. So human. So authentic. Even though the script is very rigid, it felt like it was entirely improv’d because it was so natural. The set design was also incredible. Linklater was always sure to include something in the set, whether it be a TV program our family was watching, or a baseball game the dad took the kids to in order to keep us, the audience, aware of exactly where we were in time. Because of this, I never felt lost, despite the movie frequently making jumps in time without warning. You’d worry that the transitions in a movie with this sort of undertaking would be very subtle, but they weren’t. The transitions were smooth and flawless. Everything about this movie was flawless, as I honestly do not have a single complaint about Boyhood.

In short, please go see this. It doesn’t have the sort of advertising campaign that Gravity had, but it is still a masterpiece of American cinema. A groundbreaking movie for sure. So go see it! And hopefully we’ll get a Boyhood 2 in 12 years following these characters even further. I would not be opposed to this in the slightest.

The Critique: A masterpiece of American cinema, Boyhood is easily one of the best movies of the year.

The Recommendation: If you don’t see this, you’re wrong. A must-see for every individual out there.

Rewatchability: High

The Verdict: 10/10 Perfect

Oscar Talk: Expect this movie to be nominated a lot. I also will basically guarantee wins for Original Screenplay and Directing. Calling it now.




Photo Credit
http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/i/2014/06/29/BOYHOOD.jpg