Boyhood (2014)

Credits: Director: Richard Linklater. Screenplay: Richard Linklater. Cinematography: Lee

Daniel, Shane F Kelly. Editor: Sandra Adair. Music: Meghan Currier; Art Director: Stephen
Daly. Sound: Wayne Bell. Costume designer: Kari Perkins. USA. Colour. 165 minutes.
Cast: Ellar Coltrane (Mason); Patricia Arquette (Olivia/Mom); Ethan Hawke (Mason
Sr/Dad); Lorelei Linklater (Samantha); Libby Villari (Grandma); Marco Perella (Prof Bill
Welbrock); Brad Hawkins (Jim); Jenny Tooley (Annie).
Boyhood is an ambitious project, spanning a period of 12 years, carried through to
completion. Richard Linklater is a unique, original talent, one who is not afraid of depicting
in his films the ordinariness of everyday lives. His films are the polar opposites of todays
big budget, action packed, star laden, special effects movies, temptations which even
independent film makers succumb to, a prime example being Wes Andersens recent de trop
extravaganza Grand Budapest Hotel.
Linklater showed ambition in his earlier Before
trilogy, when the two main characters, Jesse and Celine, played by Ethan Hawke and Julie
Delpy, met each other at widely separated intervals. In Boyhood he takes the ambition
further, using the same core cast of 4 characters, and filming them over 12 years.
The film follows Mason from boyhood, aged 6, to his graduation from high school and entry
into college. Mason goes from flaxen haired, pretty little boy to awkward, geeky teenager.
His path along the journey there does not run smooth, buffeted by changing circumstances at
home. When the film opens, his parents are divorced, mother has custody of the children
Mason and his sister - and his father, who has visiting rights has been away for a long time.
Patricia Arquette as mom, gives the films best performance, holding the family together and
somehow taking care of and bringing up the two children, despite making some bad choices
for husbands. Ethan Hawke turns in a reliable performance as a wayward husband and
unreliable father, managing to convey genuine love and affection for his kids. There is an
outstanding scene in a restaurant in which Ethan Hawke tries to have a serious talk with his
daughter about the need for a girl to take precautions to ensure that she does not get pregnant,
while Mason squirms, tries to escape to the bathroom and a pretty young woman, an
acquaintance of Mason Sr, interrupts unaware of the seriousness of the conversation. A
reminder that this is boyhood in America comes on a visit to Mason Srs second wifes
parents, god fearing, gun toting, homespun country folk. For Masons birthday grandma
gives him a bible and grandpa a gun as presents. Patricia Arquette gets the best line in the
film. Looking back on the years gone by as Mason prepares to leave home, reflecting on life,
she says I just thought there would be more.
Life rolls along for Mason, there a few nasty bumps along the way, but it turns out more or
less alright, as it does for most people, in the end. It is just that movies are not usually made
about the ordinariness of life. It takes a special kind of director to be imaginative enough and
brave enough to make a quiet film about ordinary people, the passing of the days and the
lives of ordinary people.
Vidya Borooah
2014