Directed by:
Richard LinklaterScreenplay:
Richard LinklaterCast:
Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Steven Chester Prince, Zoe Graham, Nick Krause, Evie Thompson, Tamara Jolaine (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Filmed over the course of 12 years with the same actors, the film chronicles the childhood and coming of age of Mason, as well as his evolving relationship with his divorced parents. His story is revealed via snapshots of adolescence, from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations. (Criterion)
Videos (10)
Reviews (15)
Filming something for 12 years and deciding 12 years ago that the movie would take 12 years to make – that takes some goddamn balls. And Richard Linklater evidently has those. Clean-shaven and ready for us to evaluate his latest project. And I can’t help it but give it a full, five-star review. I mean this is something else. The director doesn’t really show me how the boy grows, or rather shows it in a very natural manner and in the end I didn’t really mind at all. I totally grew to like the boy over the two hours and a half. He really lived his life with everything that takes. With happiness as well as with falls. On top of that, his divorced parents Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke put in incredibly amazing performances. Obviously, I shouldn’t forget about Mason either, who is portrayed by Ellar Colltrane. What’s important is that over those two and a half hours, the boy grew before my very eyes. From a boy who was afraid to say anything, into a boy who has his own opinions and who’s not afraid to develop them further. The final scene on the beach was really strong. Life is slipping through our fingers and we must not let those chances that make life worth living get away.
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I've seen a documentary filmed in a similar way, so the 12 years of filming wasn't particularly overwhelming for me, it's just that the documentary left a much bigger mark on me than this. I kind of watched it, these strangers' lives, and felt nothing at all, no closeness, no empathy, nothing. It's not bad, but it's just a bit too long of a blank. Sure, a beautiful example of the "from life" genre, but I've seen better ones like this. That's why it's nothing special or surprising to me, nothing that would knock me on my ass and nominate it for an Oscar.
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A truly family movie. Mandatory for all kids, so they can see what unavoidably awaits them and that nobody has it easy with adults, the same way as no adults have it easy with kids. But also mandatory for all adults as a reminder that they were no different and that kids don’t have it easy with adults, in the same way that they don’t have it easy with them. Simply a twenty-year long study of one family “as time goes by"; no big dramas, nothing forced. Quite the opposite: central to it is work with the atmosphere of down-to-earth everydayness without any stress on drama, without coming across too unremarkable, boring or routine at any point during the almost three hours that the movie runs. It’s about the joys and trials of a regular boy; nothing more, nothing less. But the truth is that the closing, high school phase is perhaps too ordinary, the same as due to the scope of the focus some themes/storylines remain loose ends and, yes, Mason didn’t have to be some a douche as an adolescent, but... But even so, I sincerely hope that, like he did with “Before This and Before That" Linklater will return to Mason’s fates strictly every twelve years.
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A film that defines growing up in the same way like, for instance, Eyes Wide Shut defines human sexuality. All the looks, the spoken and unspoken emotions, the relationships, the break-ups, the moves, the tears – this is the daily routine of most people in the world, and it's good that Linklater handled Boyhood the way he did. That is, 12 years in 150 minutes and with the same actors, this gives the whole a completely different charge that leaves a mark far beyond cinema.
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A life story without a single moment to make it worthy of being filmed. We have already seen all of those life fragments elsewhere, where they were part of a higher screenwriting goal. Or we live them at home, so they’re the last thing we want to see at the cinema. Can a person with such a banal life without highs and lows, who never knew the pain of losing a loved one or fell head over heels in love, even be happy? I had been waiting for Richard Linklater to play a little with his characters’ fates, as he had been making this ultimate “life film” for 12 years. But nothing happened. And I’m saying this as someone who loves his Before Sunrise/Before Sunset/Before Midnight trilogy, which consciously and playfully concentrates on a specific topic and shows some development in its delivery.
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