Boyhood, a film written and directed by Richard Linklater who made amongst others the infamous ‘Slackers‘, and a favorite of mine ‘A Scanner Darkly’, has a 9 rating on IMDB; this is high praise on a site where the average is 7. It is early days yet so it might well dip but it is of little consequence as the beauty of this film will not age or dip.
Filmed over 12 years, Boyhood tells the story of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) growing up in several cities and towns all over Texas. His mother, played by Patricia Arquette, raises him and his sister alone after their father, played Ethan Hawke, decides he needs a break and runs away to Alaska.
Boyhood is a measured, funny and touching study of adulthood as much as it is of childhood. There are scenes in the film that had me covering my eyes and cringing remembering similar ones in my own life, some scenes are facile but I think this is done on purpose as real life is not as sophisticated as the movies make out.
Practically speaking this was quite a daring and risky undertaking; it’s impressive that the actors committed this time and it pays off. The adult characters imperceptibly growing older as much as Mason and Sam(Lorelei Linklater) markedly growing up gave Boyhood a real sense of time passing.
While the film has traces of ‘everything works out’ it is at pains to show that we are all, at times, lost and that even when things do work out, it’s not exactly how we thought they would. At the risk of sounding cliched I am going to say this film felt real.
I left the cinema with a full heart, feeling a great connection with the characters somewhat vindicated for my own 32 year old teenage maudlin tendencies.
