Patricia Arquette
Ellar Coltrane
Lorelei Linklater
Ethan Hawke

Richard Linklater

165 mins.
Drama
August 15, 2014

Rated R for language including sexual references, and for teen drug and alcohol use. (MPAA)

Writer-director Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” may have predisposed certain viewers to like or even love it because of its 12-year span of filming. As the film progresses, it builds because of the passage of time. We get information in the way that Ellar Coltrane’s Mason Evans, Jr. (the boy referenced in the title) would. He’s either present in the scene or the scene contains information that he would’ve been able to pickup somehow. There are snippets of information that mean a lot, but a child wouldn’t necessarily be able to interpret them fully; the child would know that something’s up, though. This film’s closer to a collection of memories in that way. It’s like flipping through a family photo album and being reminded of how you felt during the time when the photos were taken.

While Linklater doesn’t tell you what year it is, you can tell, especially by paying attention to how the kids look, how they sound (Mason Jr.’s voice change, for example), and what they play with, talk about, etc. (“Harry Potter” books, the Wii, Obama/Biden signs, “Twilight” books, and so on). Mason Jr.’s age is referenced here and there, as well. It’s like when you look up to find that a few years have passed and that things have changed somehow. At its end, one of the characters states that, instead of seizing the moment, the moment really seizes you. That’s nicely put and appropriate.

In regards to the acting, “Boyhood” features the improv style that Linklater likes best. The best example of that style is Marco Perella’s Bill Welbrock, the second husband of Patricia Arquette’s Olivia Evans. Perella nails it; he knows how to improv without ever seeming to be doing so. The rest of the actors are good at it, though not as good. I can see them thinking of what to say next, at times.

In comparison to Linklater’s “Before” films (“Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset,” and “Before Midnight”), which also star Ethan Hawke, I like “Boyhood” better. I still think that Linklater needs much sharper editing, though. Some scenes just don’t mean as much as others; they don’t contribute much to the furthering of the story, and a few of them last a bit too long.

If “Boyhood” were half as long, then it would’ve had a better chance at taking my breath away. As it is, it’s good and certainly interesting. I just wish that Linklater would stop meandering. Many praise him for that, claiming that it gives his films the ring of authenticity. I just see it as a bit sloppy.

Verdict: Good

About: (Source: boyhood)

Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason’s parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay’s Yellow to Arcade Fire’s Deep Blue. BOYHOOD is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting. It’s impossible to watch Mason and his family without thinking about our own journey.