Boyhood (2014)
Boyhood (2014)
Written and Directed by Richard Linklater
Rated R
Does anyone even remember Boyhood? It was the 2014 award season darling and every critic under the sun that I’ve come across sure seemed to love it. It is a film that will very likely be on many critics best of the decade lists and it is even available on Blu-ray and DVD as part of The Criterion Collection (a rather prestigious film distribution company of which I own many movies distributed by them). To sum up the hype; it is a film that was literally 12 years in the making, using all the same actors during that time, shooting a certain amount of minutes per year according to how the narrative needs it and then editing it all together into a film.
Now do you remember it? No? Well, you are probably in good company because apart from those who went into the film that felt obligated to love it (be they critics or art house snobs), I doubt the general public even realized this came and went. It is not that I wanted the film to be bad or mediocre as I thought the concept was cool but I just didn’t like how the film was sold to the public as if this was the greatest film miracle to have ever been devised. So it is truly unfortunate that the final product was just meh.
Boyhood chronicles the story of Mason (played by Ellar Coltrane) who, along with his sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater), his mom (Patricia Arquette) and his dad (Ethan Hawke) all grow and change throughout the course of the story in seemingly real time. The children especially age right in front of you as you watch it and in particular you watch Mason go from a small boy at the beginning to a college freshman by the end.
The film is not exactly one that has a traditional narrative. It is a film that kind of plays out like life does for a lot of kids growing up nowadays. In this film, for instance, the mom and dad are divorced and the kids see the dad every now and then, the mom has some unsuccessful relationships and works her way through college and eventually becomes a teacher, the dad remarries, the kids make and lose friends due to moving and other ways, go to school, find what/who they are interested in and you get the idea. That is really the best way to sum it up. There are times when one may have some nostalgia at what happens to characters because in one way or another we have all been there and done that and had similar feelings about this thing or that.
The actors are ok (the adults were great but the kids were meh), the film looks fine, about half the time dialogue feels natural and the characters behave like how real people probably would. But the film runs for almost three hours and it eventually starts to become a bit tedious. You know…very much like how real life is tedious. It felt so much like the mundane real life that one wants to get away from by going to the movies. Ironic isn’t it? I liked the first hour of the film which deals with the childhood years but then you get to the teenage years that when it starts to be really dull. During my teen years it felt like nothing was really happening and you are just living life day by day waiting for something to happen. A very similar experience to this film only the minutes felt like days.
Watching this film is like being a guest living in someone’s home and watching their average dramas and personal struggles play out. It’s a non-event. What feels missing from this film is really taking a look at what it takes mentally for a boy like Mason to seek his own place in society and to get his own identity. What’s sad is that Mason doesn’t become anyone interesting by the end. For a project in the making for 12 years, Ellar Coltrane doesn’t seem to really make the charater his own and instead Mason turns into another overly philosophizing Richard Linklater character. Without the gimmick of it being 12 years in the making and such, it just feels like a standard family drama with all the gut wrenching melodrama and overwrought performances deleted.
Don’t misunderstand. It’s not like I can’t take dialogue driven films with long lengths, but I just want things to happen. I got very impatient on a number of occasions and kept wondering when it will end. Some of my favorite films are by Andrei Tarkovsky, Mamoru Oshii, Ingmar Bergman and others and this film’s pace was too slow even for me. Indeed, this movie feels a half an hour too long. I mentioned that the film looked fine. It does, but it really doesn’t feel like a theatrical feature a lot of the time. Due to the fact that most of the cinematography is flat and uninspired, this movie feels like it would be more appropriate as a TV miniseries or a Lifetime movie.
I understand what the film was trying to accomplish (or at least I think I do). It is trying to capture the experience of what it is for today’s kids to grow up when single parent families are prevalent, lots of moving, having step parents, etc. In essence, it is trying to show what growing up in modern America is like. Not a bad idea but it pulls it off so well that it’s boring. Also, I’m just not sure what the point is other than to give the audience a sense of time flowing past them. I don’t get it. Is this just a film about watching people change and get older? You could do that right this second and it doesn’t cost the price of admission.
This isn’t a terrible film but it’s not a good or great film either. It is just another one of those movies where its concept is more interesting than its overall execution. It is not Linklater’s best and it is downright banal a lot of the time. I certainly don’t think it’s up there with Linklater’s other films like Slacker, Dazed and Confused or the Before Trilogy (those I recommend). I’m just disappointed at how average (or dare I say bland) this film turned out to be given how loved it is. I guess a lot of critics that are lavished it with all kinds of praise and awards appreciated its gimmick as opposed to its filmmaking and overall results. I wonder if time will be kind to it but what I know for certain is you couldn’t pay me to watch it again.
