Boyhood

Boyhood (2014)

Producers: Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, John Sloss, et al.

Director: Richard Linklater

Rated: R for language including sexual references, and for teen drug and alcohol use

Runtime: 165 min

Genre: Drama

I haven't seen a lot of Richard Linklater's films. The one's I have seen have always evoked mixed reactions from me. Perhaps most surprisingly; the film he's directed most like this one, Dazed and Confused, is one of my least favorite. I didn't relate to the characters, didn't grow up in the 70s, and in general found the whole thing a little disappointing, especially after some of the glowing things I had heard about the movie. Maybe I was in a bad mood when I saw it, but everything seemed so superficial that I just couldn't get anything out of it. So, it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I dove into Linklater's latest offering.

First, a little background on the film for anyone that hasn't kept up with that kind of thing. Boyhood was filmed over the course of twelve years using the same actors for all of the roles. I can't imagine what an undertaking this was. They filmed for 45 days of that time, somehow finding holes in everyone's schedule and making it work as they went. Linklater's idea was to film short films depicting the important events in each year of a boy's life and then to edit them together into a feature length film. It's an ambitious project, one that seems to have had so many moving pieces that it couldn't possibly work, but it does and the results are impressive.

The audience joins Mason Jr. after a parent/teacher conference at school. What follows are a series of events that shape him into the man he'll eventually become. His parents are divorced, and both are doing what they can to be there for him, in their own way. There's the “parade of assholes,” as Mason so succinctly puts it, that come into his and his mother's lives, step siblings and friends that he's forced to leave behind as his mother tries to make a better life for him and his sister. One of the things that I most appreciated about Boyhood is the number of unanswered questions: most of the people that pop into Mason's life and are left behind are never seen again. It's a very un-Hollywood way to tell a story, we're used to happy coincidences reintroducing long lost friends, but in life we're often left never knowing what happened to childhood friends we left behind. Those relationships are often never wrapped up in a neat bow and it was a strangely satisfying, and unsatisfying, to have those questions never answered.

The serendipitous reappearance of a character (maybe two, I only see one Nicole in the movie's cast of characters) near the end of the movie serves to highlight the lack of closure people are so often subjected to. Even then it's not really closure, it's just one of those “small world” coincidences that pop up every so often. It doesn't feel false or forced when it happens, it's just a little awkward, as it many times is when you reveal to a person how much their passing kindness, all but forgotten to them, changed the course of your life.

The big events in one's life are easy to identify. Where Boyhood really excels is in the introspection that the little things cause in the viewer. The camping trips during which nothing happened, the uncertainties surrounding one's future, the parental decision to let you make your own choices, even when those choices aren't your best course of action, the insults and kind words said only in passing; sometimes those things shape the adult we become just as much as the first broken hearts and overheard shouting matches. Shining the light of importance on even those small things might be what Boyhood does best, and it's worth it to all of us to take a moment and do the same for ourselves.

Mason Jr. isn't the only character that grows during the movie. No one is the same person they were when the audience is first introduced to them. Seeing his parents trying to live their own lives while simultaneously attempting to guide him through his is a gratifying experience. There's a scene in which Mason's mother realizes that her entire life for nearly two decades has revolved around providing for her children, to her it's her identity and it's at that moment walking out the door. I have no children of my own as of yet, but the way in which Patricia Arquette expresses the rudderless feeling that her character is feeling is heart wrenching, even to myself.

Conclusion: There's a lot more I could say about Boyhood, but I think it's best if I don't. I get the feeling that it will affect different people in different ways upon viewing. I understand if someone complains about the lack of an actual plot beyond watching a kid grow up, but even that is a reminder that there isn't really a plot to life. Life is a series of moments, and every one of them impacts us in some way. It's not always grand, it just is.

Rating: 8.25/10