BOYHOOD

Boyhood
Grade: B+

Starring: Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke; and Featuring Marco Perella as Professor Bill Webrock, Jamie Howard as Mindy, Andrew Villarreal as Randy, Zoe Graham as Sheena, Brad Hawkins as Jim, Jenni Tooley as Annie, and Jessi Mechler as Nicole

Premise: The youngest of two in a broken family, Mason grows from age 5 to 18, enduring the highs of lows of growing up including constant moves and new schools, his mom’s multiple marriages, break-ups, drinking, and leaving the nest.

Rated R for constant profanity (including sexual references), intense emotional content, and drug and alcohol use

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“People always say ‘seize the moment’, but I think it’s more the other way around—it’s like the moment seizes us…”  -Nicole

Wow. Just wow.  Filmed with the same quartet of main actors in 39 days over the course of twelve years (2002-2013), Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is a sprawling, monumental film, for which the adjectives just keep coming. It’s a coming-of-age, slice-of-life drama that could be described as endearing, but could also be described as real, epic, intense, powerful, touching, and trippy. It’s day-in-the-life style can be aggravating in its depiction of small, uninteresting details (at 2 hours and 45 minutes, this is a massive movie that feels at least 30 minutes too long), but its matter-of-factness is also a huge asset—anything can happen, because it’s about real things that happen to real people, and it has no clearly telegraphed plot. The “Movie Moments” in the movie could probably be counted on one hand, but it casts an amazing, profound spell nonetheless.

Yeah, I could go on. On one hand, it was way too long. But on the other, I’m in awe, and, as you can tell, I can’t stop talking about it.

Plot

At age 6, Mason (Ellar Coltrane, who played the character from ages 6 to 18) is a thoughtful but observant little kid, part precocious and part bratty. He fights with his older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater, the director’s daughter), plays in the yard with his friends, peeks at pictures of women in bras in magazines, and doesn’t quite grasp the concept of moving, at least at first. His parents have split—Mom is a childish flake (Patricia Arquette) and Dad is a free-wheeling rascal (Ethan Hawke), and life can be turbulent. Mom has a succession of stinker marriages, with abrasive drunk Bill (Marco Perella) and sedate, colorless Jim (Brad Hawkins), Sam dyes her hair and has mood swings, Mason has trouble with bullies, and Dad struggles to maintain a meaningful presence in his kids’ lives. As Mason grows, he recognizes the good and the bad about his parents and his sister, he wonders about his place in the universe, he stands up to bullies, he experiences first love and first heartbreak, he graduates, and he goes to school looking to find his own life.

What Works?

Boyhood requires an attentive viewer, and a patient one, because its matter-of-fact air is at first so matter-of-fact it’s almost comical. The shifts in time aren’t laid out on the screen and important moments are left out (this has to be one of the only coming-of-age movies that doesn’t show the protagonist’s first kiss), and things become tense at a moment’s notice. After a while, a pattern begins to emerge, you begin to care, and you become invested—largely because Mason’s life contains a lot of things you, as the viewer, can relate to. The movie’s most riveting moments come when Mom’s second husband, Bill, her former college professor, shows his true colors. I realize the movie probably sounds boring and I’m not doing a great job of explaining it, but there’s not much more to it. It’s about a kid growing up, doing life. But when it ends, it doesn’t just feel “well, okay then, whatever”. It feels epic.

The cast is wonderful, with the four leads all tremendous. Hawke is the best as the charming, charismatic Dad; he brings a great burst of energy. The actor’s sincerity lends each of his moments—often matter-of-fact, just like the movie—significant weight and heft. As the boy who goes through adolescence and becomes a man, Ellar Coltrane—in one of the more unique movie roles and performances I can recall—is great, easily convincing yet never over-dramatic, never flashy (this is also the rare coming-of-age flick in which the protagonist never cries, or even has a big emotional moment). Mason is a normal teen, who becomes quiet and moody and monotone, but he keeps your attention because he’s real. He could be you. Lorelei, the director’s daughter, similarly, is convincing as a bratty teen girl (she never cries, either, in the film), but one who has her moments as a sister. And Patricia Arquette goes for the heartstrings as well-meaning but unreliable, self-centered Mom. The actress uses her natural, quiet manner to embody both the childish and childlike aspects of the character. Sometimes you hate her, and sometimes you want to hug her.

This quartet is ably supported by the likes of Marco Perella, who goes from likeable, charismatic new dad to monster in a matter of minutes, Brad Hawkins, who’s convincing as an attractive but ultimately bland, dead-end sort of guy, and the two main girls who share the screen with Coltrane, Zoe Graham, as his luminous first love Sheena, and Jessi Mechler, who gets to share the film’s last scene, an intimate sunset chat, capped off by the wonderful and fitting quote at the top of this review.

A lot of people will probably question why someone who take the trouble to make a movie just about life like this, but it feels really special. It won’t win over everyone, but if you watch it, I doubt you’ll think it was a waste of time.

What Doesn’t Work?

It didn’t bother me as much as you might think that the movie doesn’t really have a narrative outside the passing of time. The first few scenes were a little uncomfortable in their everyday-ness, with so little effort put into the writing and acting to make it seem natural, and, even though the movie picks up, one does wish it passed over a little less. Why not let us see one of the weddings, or Mason’s first kiss?

And, yeah, it’s really long. If two hours and forty-five minutes is long for an epic adventure through Middle Earth—it’s long for a movie about a random kid growing up and doing life. In retrospect, nearly every scene in the movie was there for a reason and had meaning, but I can’t imagine its impact would have been diminished had it been 30 minutes shorter.  

Content

For a coming-of-age flick about a boy growing into a man, Boyhood is surprisingly light on sexual content (no, there’s no walking in on the rebellious older sister making out with a boyfriend). There’s no nudity, the briefest of sex-related scenes, and only a little kissing. If the depiction of way-underage kids drinking and smoking upsets you, stay away from this movie, and, as is honestly pretty realistic, Boyhood is full of F-bombs.

Bottom Line

It’s difficult to describe. Four primary actors and a director filmed this movie in 39 days over the course of 12 years. I suppose that’s what makes Boyhood special. But it’s also special because, as was intended, the movie captures a slice of life—a big one—and makes it so normal and real it’s impossible not to relate, not to think about your own life. It’s a long movie, and not especially funny or sexy or romantic or dramatic, but it just is something.

Boyhood (2014)

Written and Directed by Richard Linklater
Rated R
Length: 165 minutes