Boyhood:
Made over the course of 12 years, the film follows the journey of a young boy from age six to age eighteen, and see his evolution from boy to man.
Despite dragging on a bit too long and being a bit too self-indulgent, Linklater's landmark effort is something I recommend most people see.
Ellar Coltrane does a satisfactory job as the lead character Mason. Linklater's daughter Lorelei does a fair job as Mason's sister Samantha. The stand-outs are Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as the parents, Olivia and Mason Sr., respectively.
The cinematography in the film is exceptional, and the soundtrack is pretty great as well. My main complaints are the sometimes clunky writing and rather annoying and pretentious main character. My other complaint is that there are key scenes in the film that feel like they're setting up for something (two key scenes are a scene where the main character and his friends are drinking and goofing around; and a scene where the character's on his phone while driving) and lead nowhere, which was very disappointing. There's also a running theme that Mason Sr. is very politically opinionated and that could have an affect on how his kids view the world, and I thought that would go somewhere, but it never did, it was just sort of there. In fact, certain segments of the film could have been scrapped entirely and would have benefited the film immensely, as it wouldn't feel so bloated. This isn't just me, many people I spoke to agreed they were expecting something catastrophic to happen in those sequences that would have actually made things more interesting.
There's also the issue that the title isn't actually that relevant. Sure, we do see the main kid grow up on screen, but there's not a lot of life lessons in this film, which I would expect from a movie claiming to be about a boy's developmental years. Overall, the "made over 12 years" thing is pretty amazing, but ultimately, at least to me, came off as a William Castle-esque gimmick more than anything, because the more I thought about it, the actual story isn't particularly impressive.
Overall, Boyhood (like a good portion of Linklater's work) is obscenely overrated, but it is something I would say is worth a watch. Modern classic? No. (Despite many critics disagreeing with me.) Entertaining? Yes. 3.5/5 stars.
Great review (SPOILERS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lampOM4AhAk
(Image: Wikipedia)
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