Boyhood
Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke
Length: 165 mins
Country: USA
Boyhood is a remarkably singular achievement in film, and an uncommonly absorbing experience. Filmed over twelve years, we observe a boy growing up from five to his first day at college. What Linklater has done here has given the impression of an epic novel condensed into under three hours. Exiting the cinema, I felt wiser and more attuned to the world, as one would after finishing a seriously great novel. The idea is simple – spend a few days every year to film a boy as he grows up in Texas – but the effect is profoundly moving; and I had the feeling I was rewatching my own life being adapted by different actors, which is an intriguing thought as the actor playing Mason (Ellar Coltrane) was born only three days after me. Writing this review on a beautiful Sunday at the end of a pretty heavy weekend two days after seeing the film, I can’t stop thinking about it, analysing it, thinking about my own life, seriously wondering, what is life all about? I’ve spent most of the day today mildly hungover, listening to Arcade Fire, staring out of the window. What is life all about? This isn’t your average film. This is a unique life experience.
This film could have gone terribly wrong – a glib checklist of the components that make up an American boys life, such as the prom, the football game, and drinking for the first time – but here Richard Linklater has delivered a gem, managing to elide cliche and create a masterpiece of empathy and joy. When talking about the concept of Before Sunrise Linklater said he wanted to recreate a night in Austin, Texas where he and a girl he met stayed up all night walking and talking and in a way, Boyhood is the culmination of this aesthetic, the desire to portray real life as it is being lived in the moment. I can’t think of a single person I know who couldn’t relate to this movie, which in its locale and values is positively Texan (there’s one awesome scene where his grandparents buy him a gun) but universal in its themes.
It taps into something big about human experience, about being yourself, about the immensity of the future and the immutability of the past. The effect is huge, slowly accumulating over the brisk three hour run time of the movie, resulting in one of the best final shots I’ve ever seen. This is the reason we go to see films in the first place, to touch the innermost reaches of your soul.
Ethan Hawke is perfect as Mason’s father, as perfect as he has been in the Before series, flawed, witty, and deeply empathetic. He starts off as a caricature from other films- driving a muscle car, hardly there for his kids, but takes them out bowling when he sees them – yet rounds out by the end with unusual depth for a supporting character. Equally brilliant is Lorelei Linklater, who plays Mason’s sister. As a young girl she is a joy to watch as she steals the early scenes. Her strongest scene is when she wakes her brother up by singing Britney Spears, something so reminiscent of my own two sisters it was like looking back in time. Playing Mason’s mother is Patricia Arquette, who goes through a series of alcoholic husbands, leading the family to move all over as they grow up. Yet just like Ethan Hawke she resists easy categorisation as the victimised mother figure through the best acting performance of her career.
You can tell here the actors aren’t only doing this for a paycheck, but this is something they’ve really invested themselves in, creating a film not only about a boy growing up, but the whole family dynamic. The result is utterly enthralling. There are no pointless plot twists, no huge stakes, no dramatic deaths, only good people trying their best to be good to one another. It taps into something big about human experience, about being yourself, about the immensity of the future and the immutability of the past. The effect is huge, slowly accumulating over the brisk three hour run time of the movie, resulting in one of the best final shots I’ve ever seen. This is the reason we go to see films in the first place, to touch the innermost reaches of your soul.
In Before Sunrise, Julie Delpy says something I have never stopped thinking about, and never will stop thinking about: ‘I believe that if there’s any kind of God it wouldn’t be in any of us, not you or me but just this little space in between. If there’s any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. I know, it’s almost impossible to succeed but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt.’
Boyhood has beaten that impossibility, and is the best attempt at greatness I have seen all year.
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